Darjeeling

This article is about the municipality in West Bengal, India. For its namesake district, see Darjeeling district. For the tea named after the region, see Darjeeling tea. For other uses, see Darjeeling (disambiguation).

Darjeeling
Town
Left to right from top: Darjeeling with Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, rising behind it 74.4 kilometres (46.2 mi) to the north; a Darjeeling Himalayan Railway train steaming slowly to the main train station; a tea garden, or tea plantation
Country	Republic of India
State	West Bengal
District	Darjeeling
Settled	Leased in 1835 from the Chogyal of the Kingdom of Sikkim and annexed in 1849. Municipality, 1 July 1850.
Founded by	British East India Company, during Company rule in India
Government
• Body	Darjeeling Municipality
Area
• Total	7.43 km2 (2.87 sq mi)
Elevation	2,045 m (6,709 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	118,805
• Density	15,990/km2 (41,400/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Bengali and Nepali
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)

Darjeeling (Bengali: [ˈdarˌdʒiliŋ], Nepali: [darˈd͡ziliŋ]) is a town and municipality in the Eastern Himalayas in India, lying at an average elevation of 2,045 metres (6,709 ft) in the northernmost region of the state of West Bengal. Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, rises to the north and is prominently visible on clear days. The economy is based on Darjeeling tea, grown on the slopes below the town, and tourism; the steam-powered Darjeeling Himalayan Railway attracts tourists for the experience of late 19th-century travel.

In the early 19th century, during East India Company rule in India, Darjeeling was spotted as a summer retreat for British officials, soldiers and their families. The narrow mountain ridge was leased from the Kingdom of Sikkim and eventually annexed to British India. Thousands of labourers were recruited from Nepal, from the local population, and from the other neighbouring Himalayan kingdoms, to clear the forests, build European-style cottages, and work in the tea plantations. Private schools were established in the region for the education of children of the domiciled British in India. After India's independence in 1947, as the British left Darjeeling, its cottages were purchased by wealthy Indians from the plains and its tea plantations by out-of-town Indian business owners and conglomerates. After 1959, refugees from Tibet poured into the Darjeeling area, establishing Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the region.

The Darjeeling hills were created by the same geological processes that created the Great Himalayas. The town's climate is temperate, but rainy from June to September during southwest monsoon. Darjeeling's population is constituted largely of the descendants of the indigenous and immigrant labourers that were employed in the original development of the town. Their common language, the Nepali language, was declared an official language at the state and federal levels. Darjeeling's population increased four-fold between 1951 and 2011, largely from immigration. Tourists flock to Darjeeling in numbers that are annually three to four times the town's population. Surrounded by tea gardens and forestry department land, the town has no room for expansion. Unregulated development, traffic congestion and water shortages are common. Darjeeling's culture is highly cosmopolitan the result of diverse ethnic and religious groups richly intermixing. Darjeeling's native cuisine is rich in fermented foods and beverages. The town is surrounded ty semi-evergreen forests. The red panda and Himalayan bear are natives of the region.

Darjeeling tea is among the world's most expensive and a source of large revenues. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has some of the few steam locomotives in service in India. Darjeeling's British-era schools attract children from India's upper classes, commonly from out of town. Many young educated locals, educated in government schools, have taken to migrating out for a lack of local employment. Like out-migrants from other regions of northeastern India, they have been subjected to discrimination and racism in some Indian cities. Darjeeling is the headquarters of the Darjeeling district, a semi-autonomous region governed by the Gorkhaland Territorial administration. The quest for statehood for the region, an original goal of the Gorkhaland movement, continues to prove elusive.

Toponymy

At the time of the first British arrival, Darjeeling was known among its Lepcha inhabitants as Dorje-ling, or the "Place of the Thunderbolt." According to the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place Names, Darjeeling is derived from the Tibetan Dorje ling or Dorje-glin, literally, "Land of Dorje," i.e. of the thunderbolt, the weapon of the Hindu god Indra.

History

Main article: History of Darjeeling

Early history: up to 1835

Darjeeling, part of the Gorkha Empire, 1805

Darjeeling, Nepal, Bengal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Tibet

The Darjeeling hills, which lie between the Mechi and Teesta rivers, are in a geopolitical boundary region that had stirred up ambitions and insecurities in several South Asian states of that period. During the greater part of the 18th century, the Chogyal-ruler of the northern Kingdom of Sikkim had asserted possession of this territory. In the last decades of the century, the Gurkhas of Nepal expanded eastwards to bring Darjeeling into their empire. They stopped short of the Teesta beyond which lay the Kingdom of Bhutan. The English East India Company began to show an interest in the Darjeeling hills in the early 19th century. Its interference in territorial matters began in the aftermath of the East India Company army's victory over the Gurkhas in the Anglo-Nepalese War. Fought between 1814 and 1816, the war concluded with two treaties, the Treaty of Sugauli and the Treaty of Titalia, under which Nepal was required to return the Darjeeling territory to Sikkim.

In 1829, two East India Company officials, Captain George Lloyd and J. W. Grant, on their way to resolving a boundary dispute between Nepal and Sikkim, passed a crescent-shaped mountain ridge which they considered appropriate for a sanatorium resort. Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, to whom Lloyd communicated his notion, concurred, adding that the location was ideal for British residents to periodically shelter and recuperate and for the military to have a small presence for monitoring the Himalayan frontier.

1835–1857: East India Company rule

Taking the ambition forward, the East India Company negotiated a lease of a 40 by 10 kilometres (24 mi × 6 mi) strip of land in a grant deed from the Chogyal in 1835. By the end of 1838, during the tenure of Bentinck's successor, Lord Auckland, grants of land were made, sappers from the army readied for clearing the woods, and construction planned in earnest after the monsoon rains. The following year, Archibald Campbell, a physician, was made "superintendent" of Darjeeling, and two public buildings, a hotel and a courthouse were raised. Soon, work had begun on bungalows that conformed to British tastes.

Turning Darjeeling into a resort required many more workers than could be availed of among the scattered local populations. The British attracted workers from Sikkim, Nepal, and Bhutan, by offering regular wages, lodgings, and exemption from the burdensome tax and forced labour regimens characteristic of work in these kingdoms at the time. Tens of thousands arrived in Darjeeling at first to work and eventually to settle, and to forever change the character of the population. In 1845, a hill cantonment for convalescing British soldiers was set up above Darjeeling at 2,100-metre (7,000 ft) feet, but it proved too rainy, cold, and psychologically unsuitable; after a large number of suicides were witnessed among the patients, it was moved to Lebong 610-metre (2,000 ft) below. During this time trunk roads were constructed in British India, including the Darjeeling Cart Road in Northern Bengal, connecting Siliguri at the base of the Himalayan foothills to Darjeeling.

Thutob Namgyal, the Chogyal of the Kingdom of Sikkim whose father Tsugphud Namgyal leased Darjeeling out to the East India Company in 1835

The Hill Stations and summer capitals Darjeeling, Nainital, Simla, Ooty, 1857, at the end of East India Company rule in India

The foundations of Darjeeling's future commercial fame were laid in these years. The East India Company, having lost its monopoly rights in the tea trade with China in 1833, was looking for alternative sources for tea. A plan had been prepared during the Bentinck administration for growing it in India. In 1840 Superintendent Campbell began an experimental plantation; others, who saw the results, joined in the experimentation. The tea plant flourished in Darjeeling. European planters and backers acquired large stretches of the surrounding hillside and converted them to what came to be called tea gardens.

More migrant labour arrived in Darjeeling. Existing tracks and paths in the hills were improved, renamed "roads", and connected to the Darjeeling Cart Road. The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who spent time in Darjeeling in the 1840s, noted that carts and pack animals on these roads were bringing "oranges and potatoes from Nepal, wool and salt from Tibet, as well as numerous groups of labouring newcomers" to Darjeeling. Although the labour migrations were necessary for the rapid transformation of Darjeeling, they created a dormant hostility between the East India Company and the neighbouring Himalayan kingdoms, which considered the burgeoning drain on their labour supply to be wrongful. By 1849 British relations with the kingdoms had worsened, leading to the alleged kidnapping of Campbell and Hooker. Despite the two being released without harm, the British exploited the incident to annex some 1,700 square kilometres (640 sq mi) of territory between the Mechi and the Teesta rivers from Sikkim. The town became a municipality in 1850.

Darjeeling had thus become a hill station, an official retreat for British administrators in a hilly, temperate, region of India; the "station" was a military term for an administrative unit. After the rule of the East India Company had spread to the greater part of Indian subcontinent, the British felt able to build these towns. Other hill stations such as Simla, Ooty, and Nainital were established between 1819 and the 1840s. The "hill" was somewhat of a misnomer, as the towns were built on high mountain ridges or valleys, their sites, like Darjeeling's, having been identified by Company officials for particular strategic or commercial benefit. Like Simla, which later became the summer capital of India, and Nainital, the summer capital of the North-Western Provinces, both in the Himalayan tracts, Darjeeling later became the summer capital of the Bengal presidency. Ooty, which lay in peninsular India became the summer capital of the Madras presidency.

1858–1947: British Raj

A group of Lepcha shingle cutters, 1870

Terai Tea Association plantation, 1860

Through the 1850s and 1860s the tea industry in Darjeeling grew to 56 tea gardens employing some 8,000 labourers. The tea gardens' security forces kept a close watch on the labourers and used coercion if necessary to maintain intensive production. The labourers' disparate cultural and ethnic backgrounds and the tea gardens' commonly remote locations ensured the absence of worker mobilization. By the turn of the 20th century, 100 tea gardens employed an estimated 64,000 workers, and more than five million pound sterling were invested in Darjeeling tea. The widespread deforestation caused by the tea industry drastically changed the lives of the region's forest dwellers, the Lepcha people, who were either forced to relocate to other forests or become employed in their former habitat in new colonial occupations. To the mix of the forest dwellers recruited, which included the local Limbu and Bhutia, and subjects from the surrounding kingdoms, more joined from across the Himalayas. Sharing a Himalayan heritage, they communicated with each other in the Nepali language. Later the languages, customs, and religious traditions would become constituents of the distinctive ethnicity of Darjeeling.

In the 1860s the Ganges-Darjeeling road was built to facilitate travel to Darjeeling. During 1856–1857, a provisional plan had been prepared for a road beginning at Caragola Ghat in the lower Ganges valley and ending at Titalya. near the Darjeeling Cart Road. Work on the 174-kilometre (108 mi) long metalled road began in 1860. Completed in six phases, the highway included 764-metre (2,505 ft) of bridges over waterways and 46-metre (150 ft) of culverts. An unmetalled communication road, 9.1-metre (30 ft) wide, raised well above the flood level, and bridged with masonry, ran alongside. The Darjeeling Cart Road, later the Darjeeling Hill Road, to which it joined was metalled between 1861 and 1866.

Darjeeling Hill Road, shown in 1865

Darjeeling Railway in a village, 1880

By the last decades of the 19th century, large numbers of administrative officials of the imperial and provincial governments were travelling to hill stations during the summers. Commerce in the stations had grown as had the trade with locations in the plains. A train service to Darjeeling was announced in 1872, and by 1878 the train could take summer residents to Siliguri. Thereafter Tonga horse-carriages on the Darjeeling Hill Road would cover the last stretch, ascending some 1,900-metre (6,300 ft), and requiring significant halting. In 1880, the East Indian Railway Company Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop began to build steam locomotives for the Siliguri–Darjeeling line. Later, miniature steam engines made by Sharp, Stewart and Company of Manchester, were employed for pulling the train on a narrow gauge of two feet. The service to Darjeeling was opened in July 1881. After cresting at the Ghoom railway station at 2,300-metre (7,500 ft) above sea level, the train made the final descent to Darjeeling. Darjeeling was now within a day's travel from Calcutta, the capital of the British Indian Empire. The number of British cottages in Darjeeling soon mushroomed. The cost of the journey was to decline from Rupees 176 in 1841 to Rupees 49 for "a first-class coach" by the early 20th century. For many years the train had a monopoly on the import and export trade of Darjeeling town.

Education became another aspect of Darjeeling's notability by the turn of the 20th century. Earlier after the Charter Act of 1833, which allowed unrestricted immigration, British women had begun to arrive in India in significantly more numbers than before. Hill stations were popular summer destinations for women and children as colonial physicians recommended them for improved maternal and infant health, contrasted with India's plains which—in the prevailing health ideology—were said to more commonly breed malaria and digestive-disorders. The British soon began to consider hill stations promising sites for primary and secondary education. The Societies Registration Act, 1860 offered state grants to Christian educational societies of all denominations for opening schools, but restricted enrollment in the hill station schools to European children. St Paul's, an Anglican boys' school in Calcutta, was moved to Darjeeling in 1864. The Catholic Church opened St Joseph's College for boys in Darjeeling in 1888. For girls, the Loreto Convent had already been established during Company rule; St. Helen's was established below Darjeeling in Kurseong in 1890; and the Calcutta Christian Schools Society established the Queen's Hill School in Darjeeling in 1895. Anglo-Indians (of mixed British and Indian ancestry) were discouraged from attending the better-known schools and Indians were just about prohibited until after the First World War. Some schools began to specialize in preparing children of the domiciled British of modest means for careers in provincial services, public works, surveys, and the police. St Joseph's, Darjeeling, took to placing students in the Thomason College of Civil Engineering in Roorkee, originally established to train canal engineers. As the needs of the less well-off children began to attract attention, the railway companies established schools for the children of their British and Anglo-Indian employees. Notable among these was the Victoria School in Kurseong established in 1879. Other schools for children of Europeans of modest means and Anglo-Indians were St Andrew's Colonial Homes established in 1900 in Kalimpong, another satellite town of Darjeeling, and Goethals Memorial School in Kurseong in 1907.

Quadrangle of St Joseph's College, Darjeeling, established in 1888

Mahatma Gandhi and C. R. Das (cane in hand) on the Hill Cart Road, Darjeeling, June 1925

By the turn of the 20th century, Darjeeling had become a popular vacation destination for the Bengali upper classes. Wealthy zamindars such as the Raja of Darbhanga and Raja of Burdwan had built mansions in Darjeeling. Famous barristers from Calcutta built summer homes in Darjeeling in the proximity of the British. The Indian nationalist C. R. Das came to Darjeeling to recuperate from an illness, staying at "Step Aside," the house of the lawyer Sir Nripendra Nath Sircar. Das was to die in June 1925, and his body was taken by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway train and thereafter other trains to Calcutta, where one of the largest funerals the city had witnessed was held. Shortly before Das's death, Mahatma Gandhi, who was on a nationwide tour, visited the ailing nationalist in Darjeeling.

During this same period, the Nepalese-speaking residents of Darjeeling, who formed the majority of the town's population, had not been granted rights as British Indian subjects. The British had been reluctant to displease the governments of Nepal and Sikkim whose feudal labour regimes many original migrants had sought to escape. Although a political and literary culture had matured in this group, their calls for autonomy were generally discounted at the outset by the authorities. In the 1941 census of India, the Nepalese in Darjeeling constituted 86% of the population. Many had arrived to join the Indian army or the labour force, especially in the tea gardens where they constituted 96% of the workers. Among other workers, Bhutia and Lepcha men worked as rickshaw pullers and dandy bearers, "Tibetans generally organized trans-Himalayan trade; middle-class Indian Marwaris, Biharis and Bengalis worked as merchants and in professional occupations; and immigrant Muslims worked as butchers." As the British Raj drew to a close, the Nepali-speaking population, had remained at the bottom of the economic ladder, their citizenship still uncertain, and their physical appearance now the occasional object of racism demonstrated by Indians from the plains.

1947 onwards: independent India

After the partition of India in 1947, Darjeeling became a part of the new province of West Bengal in the Dominion of India, and in 1950, of the state of West Bengal in the Republic of India. A British exodus from Darjeeling quickly followed. The Indian upper classes from the plains purchased the cottages in Darjeeling and enrolled their children in the town's many schools, exacerbating social and economic tensions with the area's dominant Nepali population and further marginalizing them. In the view of the Nepalese, the elite Bengalis who replaced the British, perpetrated ethnic prejudices by keeping the local wages low, unemployment high, and the region underdeveloped. They began to organise as the Indian Gorkha, symbolizing a shared ethnicity and petitioning for an autonomous Nepali-speaking region in West Bengal. As the proposals followed too soon after the partition of Bengal, the Government of India reacted cautiously but unfavourably, fearing further dismemberment of the state. The demands for political autonomy coalesced in the 1950s into the call for recognition of the Nepali language for official state business in Nepali-speaking regions of Bengal. This was accepted in the West Bengal Official Language Act, 1961; Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong were the only district sub-divisions in which an exception was recognised to the Bengali language.

File:Nehru visiting home of Tenzing Norgay, Darjeeling, 1954.jpg

Nehru and Everest-hero Tenzing, Darjeeling, Nov. 1954

Tibetan women knitting at the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre, Darjeeling, established 1959

Darjeeling had a sizeable community of Sherpas, an ethnic group, originally from eastern Tibet whose ancestors had moved to some villages in Nepal below Mount Everest. Sherpas had come to Darjeeling in the second half of the 19th century as seasonal labourers looking for work in road-building, surveying, and exploration during the British Raj, but enough had stayed on to register a population of 3,450 in the Darjeeling district census of 1901. As mountaineering in the Himalayas had gained popularity and Nepal was closed to foreigners, many Western mountaineers and enthusiasts came to Darjeeling to plan their Himalayan expeditions. The Sherpas stood out for their exceptional physical ability as porters, their fitness eliciting visits to Darjeeling by European research chemists in the early 1900s. Among the most famous Sherpas who moved to Darjeeling were Ang Tharkay and Tenzing Norgay. On 29 May 1953, Tenzing and Edmund Hillary became the first two humans to stand atop Mount Everest, vaulting both to instant stardom worldwide. The prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, took Tenzing under his wing. The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute was established in Darjeeling in November 1954, and Tenzing became its first field director.

Bimal Gurung, left, Mamata Banerjee, GTA swearing-in, 2012

Women supporting Gorkhaland marching with torchlights, Darjeeling, 2013

A trickle of immigrants from Tibet proper into Darjeeling had begun in the second half of the 19th century. Wealthy Tibetan aristocrats had sent their children to Darjeeling's schools, and some went on to settle in the Darjeeling area. After the annexation of Tibet by communist China in 1950–1951, many Tibetans emigrated to India, with some settling in the Darjeeling area, including the 14th Dalai Lama's older brother Gyalo Thondup. After the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama himself fled to exile in India, and tens of thousands of Tibetan refugees poured in after him, with many finding refuges in the Darjeeling–Kalimpong area. A Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre was established in Darjeeling in 1959. Local resources in the Himalayan southern rim countries were strained and international aid was sought, but it is thought that the wealthy Tibetan aristocrats and their children studying or working in Darjeeling did not help the incoming refugees. Among these were lama priests, some of whom were to establish monasteries in the Darjeeling area that attract both adherents and enthusiasts of many folds within Tibetan Buddhism.

The creation of the new Indian state of Sikkim in 1975, along with the reluctance of the Government of India to recognise Nepali as an official language under the Constitution of India, brought the Gorkhaland movement to the forefront. Agitation for a separate state continued through the 1980s and included violent protests, and fighting between different groups. The agitation ceased after an agreement between the government and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), resulting in the establishment of an elected body in 1988, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), which received some autonomy to govern the district. Though Darjeeling became peaceful, the issue of a separate state lingered, fuelled by the lack of comprehensive economic development in the region. Agitation for a new state again erupted in 2008 led by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). In July 2011, a pact was signed between GJM, the state and national governments which included an elected Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), with limited autonomy within the state of West Bengal, but it evoked little enthusiasm on the streets. In 2013, fresh agitation broke out in Darjeeling after Telangana, a region in southern India was granted statehood. Four years later, more agitation caused several months of violence, food shortages, and strikes in Darjeeling but resulted in the Morcha splitting into factions. In 2017, Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister, appointed a moderate Morcha politician to leadership in a reconstituted GTA, marginalizing and eventually ousting the founder of the movement, Bimal Gurung.

Geography and geology

Darjeeling municipality, showing the ridges on which the town was settled

Darjeeling Hills showing Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong, the headquarters of the three hill subdivisions.

The Darjeeling hills (formally Darjeeling Himalayan hill region) comprise parts of Darjeeling district and all of Kalimpong district; specifically, they contain: Darjeeling Sadar subdivision, Kalimpong subdivision and Kurseong subdivision. Darjeeling town lies in the Sadar subdivision. It is located at an average elevation of 2,045 m (6,709 ft) on the Darjeeling–Jalapahar range that originates in the south from Ghum. The range is Y-shaped with the base resting at Katapahar and Jalapahar and two arms diverging north of the Observatory Hill. The north-eastern arm dips suddenly and ends in the Lebong spur, while the north-western arm passes through North Point and ends in the valley near Tukver Tea Estate. Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak at 8,598 m (28,209 ft), which lies 74.4 kilometres (46.2 mi) to the north, is the most prominent mountain visible.

The Darjeeling hills have been formed by accumulations of folds, faults and tangential thrusts caused by a compression in the north–south direction as the Indian tectonic plate has subducted under the Eurasian plate. Their physical composition varies from unaltered sedimentary rocks in the southern regions to several types of metamorphic rock and some intrusive rocks in the middle and northern, suggesting upward intrusion of the earth's mantle. The collective process has sheared, folded, crushed together, fractured and jointed the rocks, reducing their strength and making them vulnerable to water percolating down their crevices and causing pore water pressure to build up. Phyllites and schists are found in the hills around Kalimpong, which lies to the east, and gneiss predominates the western regions in which Darjeeling lies.

Landslide, Darjeeling Siliguri Road, 1993

The Teesta, flowing south, meets the Rangeet on its right

In two studies in 1990 and 2019, landslides were recorded to be a serious concern in the area. Most are triggered by excessive rainfall, earthquakes, and quick erosion caused by torrents. They are accelerated by extensive deforestation, defective drainage, poorly built revetments and the presence of steep slopes that have been undercut to make shelves for paths, roads, and houses. Debris flows along existing gullies can sometimes bring along large boulders and cause damage to roads; in 1968, during a catastrophic rainstorm, the 56 kilometres (35 mi) Darjeeling–Siliguri road was cut in 92 places by debris flows.

The rivers of the region have high surface runoff from melting glaciers or monsoon rainfall. Teesta, the major river, rises at 6,300 metres (20,700 ft) from a glacier in Sikkim, and flows south, at first meeting the Rangpo river and then the Rangeet before exiting the hills and eventually joining the Brahmaputra river in Bangladesh. The flow rate of the Teesta varies from 10,000 cubic feet (280 m³) per second to 100,000 cubic feet (2,800 m³) per second; it has had major floods in 1950 and 1968. The total surface runoff of the rivers which drain the Darjeeling District is over 37×10⁹ cubic metres (1.3×10¹² cu ft) of which the Tista contributes 24.66×10⁹ cubic metres (8.71×10¹¹ cu ft).

The Darjeeling region is affected by continual tectonic activity caused by large active faults, or planar fractures in the substratum that are ever-present earthquake hazards. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, Darjeeling town falls under seismic zone-IV, (on a scale of I to V, in order of increasing proneness to earthquakes). Continuing tectonic activity can be seen in the landscape in such features as terraces that dip in their middle as a result of earlier horizontal pressure; eroded fault scarps, or steps, caused by vertical slips in the faults below; and alluvial fans at different heights signifying a succession of previous rivers that dried up and spread their silt outwards as their beds were raised by the uplift. The rivers that drain the Darjeeling hills today are antecedent drainage streams, their beds keeping their heights as the rivers flow from north to south above the main region of upward thrust; the Teesta, in particular, has cut out several narrow gorges at the sites of major uplift.

Climate and environment

Climate

Darjeeling has a temperate subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification: Cwb). The average annual precipitation in Darjeeling is approximately 3,100 mm (120 in). Eighty percent of the annual rainfall takes place between the months of June and September, due to the monsoon of South Asia. The "June–May ratio," or the percentage by which the rain increases from May to June, is 2.6 or 260%. In contrast, just 3% of the annual rainfall takes place between December and March. Darjeeling's altitude—which is greater than some other regions of the Eastern Himalayas at the same latitude (27° N), such as the Assam hills—and its rarified air causes its UV radiation levels to be correspondingly higher. Its mean monthly UV radiance is approximately 4500 microwave watts per square cm per day during the peak months of May, June, and July. It is 50% higher than the Assam hills to the east, whose altitude is 170 metres (560 ft).

Climate data for Darjeeling (1981–2010, extremes 1901–2012)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	19.0 (66.2)	19.2 (66.6)	24.0 (75.2)	27.0 (80.6)	25.7 (78.3)	27.7 (81.9)	28.0 (82.4)	28.5 (83.3)	27.5 (81.5)	26.0 (78.8)	24.5 (76.1)	20.0 (68.0)	28.5 (83.3)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	10.7 (51.3)	12.4 (54.3)	15.6 (60.1)	18.5 (65.3)	19.3 (66.7)	19.8 (67.6)	19.6 (67.3)	20.0 (68.0)	19.8 (67.6)	19.5 (67.1)	17.1 (62.8)	14.0 (57.2)	17.2 (63.0)
Daily mean °C (°F)	6.1 (43.0)	7.7 (45.9)	10.6 (51.1)	13.7 (56.7)	14.9 (58.8)	16.3 (61.3)	16.5 (61.7)	16.7 (62.1)	16.1 (61.0)	15.0 (59.0)	11.7 (53.1)	8.9 (48.0)	12.9 (55.1)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	1.5 (34.7)	2.9 (37.2)	5.7 (42.3)	8.8 (47.8)	10.6 (51.1)	12.8 (55.0)	13.4 (56.1)	13.4 (56.1)	12.4 (54.3)	10.5 (50.9)	6.3 (43.3)	3.8 (38.8)	8.5 (47.3)
Record low °C (°F)	−7.2 (19.0)	−6.4 (20.5)	−4.8 (23.4)	0.0 (32.0)	1.4 (34.5)	6.6 (43.9)	3.9 (39.0)	8.0 (46.4)	6.2 (43.2)	3.2 (37.8)	−4.4 (24.1)	−4.6 (23.7)	−7.2 (19.0)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	13.5 (0.53)	14.0 (0.55)	30.8 (1.21)	76.9 (3.03)	137.9 (5.43)	466.0 (18.35)	656.7 (25.85)	528.2 (20.80)	379.7 (14.95)	59.1 (2.33)	14.4 (0.57)	2.9 (0.11)	2,380 (93.70)
Average rainy days	1.1	1.5	2.8	6.8	10.5	18.8	22.9	21.7	14.9	2.9	0.6	0.7	105.3
Average relative humidity (%) (at 17:30 IST)	81	78	75	78	88	93	94	92	90	84	75	74	84
Mean daily sunshine hours	5.4	5.0	4.7	4.9	4.9	2.4	2.5	3.3	3.2	5.4	6.3	6.1	4.5
Average ultraviolet index	5	6	9	11	13	15	15	14	12	9	6	4	10
Source 1: India Meteorological Department UV Index
Source 2: Deutscher Wetterdienst (sun 1891–1990)

Environment

Change in annual average of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures in Darjeeling town from 1890 until 2010

Forests and pastures vs. agricultural land in and around Darjeeling, 1900 to 2000

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Darjeeling's average temperature has increased by 4 °C, which is twice the world's average, and the annual averages of its daily maximum and minimum temperatures have increased by greater margins. During the same period, relative humidity has decreased by 7%, and rainfall by 300 millimetres (0.98 ft) annually. For its water the Darjeeling municipality and the surrounding hills depend to a large extent on perennial or seasonal jhora springs (map), especially during the pre-monsoon months from February to May. The Senchal Lakes, two artificial reservoirs built in 1910 and 1932 in a forested high-altitude area to the southeast (map), which are filled with water from a surrounding catchment area during the monsoon months, have a greatly reduced supply, as of 2016. Darjeeling's explosive population growth since the 1970s, and extensive deforestation even within the protected catchment area for the lakes, have caused many springs to have vastly reduced yields during the dry months from February to May. Of the 26 springs that had once fed the lakes, 14 remain. Forests and pastures have shrunk from 78% in 1900 to 38% in 2000, and cultivated land, which contributes to soil erosion, has correspondingly increased during the same time from 20% to 44%. Land records in Darjeeling from 2006 show that the area of farmland that produces food grains has decreased proportionally, caused by high levels of urbanisation and by subsistence farming giving way to commercial cropping, especially tea. High levels of acid rain, which can be caused by air pollution and can in turn damage forests, have been observed in the Eastern Himalayas with the pH value in Darjeeling measured to be 4.2.

Flora and fauna

Darjeeling is a part of the Eastern Himalayan zoo-geographic zone. Flora around Darjeeling comprises sal, oak, semi-evergreen, temperate and alpine forests. Dense evergreen forests of sal and oak lie around the town, where a wide variety of rare orchids are found. The Lloyd's Botanical Garden preserves common and rare species of plants, while the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park specialises in conserving and breeding endangered Himalayan species. The town of Darjeeling and surrounding region face deforestation due to increasing demand for wood fuel and timber, as well as air pollution from increasing vehicular traffic.

The 40-acre Lloyd Botanic Garden, founded in 1878

A Red panda (Ailurus fulgens) in the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoo

Forests and wildlife in the district are managed and protected by the Divisional Forest Officer of the Territorial and Wildlife wing of the West Bengal Forest Department. The fauna found in Darjeeling includes several species of ducks, teals, plovers and gulls that pass Darjeeling while migrating to and from Tibet. Small mammals found in the region include civets (such as small and large Indian civets, masked palm civet, spotted linsang and binturong), mongooses (such as Indian grey mongoose and crab-eating mongoose) and badgers (such as Burmese ferret-badger and greater hog badger). Members of the bear family found in the area are Himalayan black bear and red panda. A conservation centre for red pandas opened at Darjeeling Zoo in 2014, building on a prior captive breeding program; this Species Survival Plan had about 25 red pandas by 2016. The Himalayan newt Tylotriton verrucosus, one of two salamander species occurring in India, is found in wetlands in the vicinity. The Himalayan relict dragonfly Epiophlebia laidlawi, one of just four species in the family Epiophlebiidae, was first described from the region.

Civic administration

Darjeeling Municipality building

Schematic map of Darjeeling Municipality wards

The Darjeeling Municipality is one of the oldest in India, established on 1 July 1850, with ten wards. It was governed by commissioners who were nominated until 1916, then elected until 1932, and nominated again until 1947. After India's independence that year, the first elections took place in 1964, but there was frequent interference by West Bengal's state government. The municipality is governed by a board of councillors headed by a chairperson and a vice chairperson. The number of wards in the municipality increased to 32 in 1988. Wards represent electoral subdivisions; in 2017, 32 councillors were elected, one from each ward. The wards were reorganized and bifurcated in 2011.

The area of the town (municipality) was reduced from 10.75 square kilometres (4.15 sq mi) to 7.43 square kilometres (2.87 sq mi) in 2011 after bifurcation. By 2016, the municipality was surrounded by tea gardens and forestry department land and had minimal room for expansion.

In 2021 the town had approximately 22,000 households and 350 hotels and restaurants. That same year the following statistics were collected: the municipality considered wards 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, and 25 to be the core areas; most businesses, hotels, restaurants, and educational institutions were located in these wards and they were better connected to municipal electricity and water; wards 10, 15, 20 and areas of ward 30 were the most developed, whereas wards 1, 2, 13, 14, 27, 31, and 32 were the most deprived; and the latter group of wards contained 37 slums in which 23% of the population of Darjeeling resided.

In 1988, the Gorkha-dominated hill areas of Darjeeling district were given an autonomous form of governance under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). In 2012, the DGHC was replaced by a similar body called the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). The elected members of GTA manage certain affairs of the hills, including education, industry and land revenue; they cannot legislate or levy taxes. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) held power in the municipality until March 2022, when it was defeated by the newly-formed Hamro Party.

Darjeeling town is within the Darjeeling Assembly constituency that elects one member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly in state legislative elections every five years. The town is part of the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency that elects one member for the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Darjeeling

The population of the Darjeeling municipal area in the Indian decennial census census of 2011 (the last for which there is processed data) was 118,805 individual; of those, 59,618 were females and 59,187 were males, yielding a gender ratio of 1007 females for every 1000 males. The population density of the Darjeeling municipality was 15,990 individuals per 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi). The literacy rate of Darjeeling town was 93.85%; the female literacy rate was 91.31% and the male was 96.41%. Among groups whose historical disadvantages have been recognized by the Constitution of India and designated for amelioration in subsequent commissions and programmes of the Government of India and state governments, the scheduled tribes of Darjeeling town constituted approximately 22.39% of the population, and the scheduled castes 7.68%. The work participation rate was 34.38%. The population that lived in slums was 25,026 individuals (21.06% of the population). The annual influx of domestic and foreign tourists into Darjeeling during the period 2005–2009 was several times the town's population; it was estimated to be, successively: 350,000 (2005–2006), 400,000 (2006–2007), 350,000 (2007–2008) and 450,000 (2008–2009).

Figure 2: Darjeeling 10-yearly census data from 1881 to 2011

Males with Gorkha hats shopping, Darjeeling, 2008

Women in traditional dress, 2014

Although Darjeeling had its origins in the colonial period as a summer resort, it began to acquire characteristics of an "administrative" town in independent India after being made the headquarters of Darjeeling district in 1947. During the period 1961–2011, the population of Darjeeling increased rapidly; there was accelerated growth of an "aspirational middle class" comprising families of professionals in the administration as well as those in retail and service industries.

Indian Gorkha is a term that denotes the Nepali-speaking people of northeastern India as distinct from the Nepali-speaking inhabitants of Nepal. As of 2016, the following statistics held for Darjeeling: the population of Darjeeling was predominantly Gorkha or Nepali speaking. There were also smaller numbers of Lepchas, Bhutias, Tibetans, Bengalis, Marwaris and Biharis. In the 2011 census, between them they practiced Hinduism (66.51%), Buddhism (23.91%), Christianity (5.13%) and Islam (3.94%). The Lepchas were considered the main indigenous community of the region, their original religion being a form of animism. The Nepali community was a complex mix of numerous castes and ethnic groups, with the roots of many in tribal and animist traditions. The accelerated growth of the town's population and the tightly packed living conditions in which different ethnicities mixed had created syncretic cultures in Darjeeling which had evolved away from their historical roots.

Many educated young people in Darjeeling have begun to migrate out because the growth of jobs in the area has not kept pace with the numbers of people with tertiary degrees. Although seasonal migration has long been a local feature, especially among the lower-income groups, substantial migration among middle-class youth is a 21st-century occurrence. Favoured destinations fall into three groups: neighbouring Gangtok in Sikkim, and Siliguri in North Bengal at the base of the Darjeeling hills; the large bustling cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Mumbai; and Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, where there is a linguistic culture in which they feel comfortable. The migrants are generally distinguishable by levels of education and access to economic privilege: those migrating to pursue higher education and professional careers, among which are engineering and journalism; and those looking for immediate employment, the common choices of which include call centres, beauty parlors, and dumpling stands. Both groups of migrants have experienced racism and economic and social discrimination in India's big cities, caused by their distinctive, more East Asian, physical appearance.

Civil utilities

Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary, during a downpour, July 2011

A water tanker delivering water in Darjeeling, May 2009

The chief catchment area for Darjeeling municipality's water is the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary, located approximately 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) to the southeast, covering an area of 37.97 square kilometres (14.66 sq mi) and lying between 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) and 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) in altitude. Natural springs in the sanctuary, not all perennial, are the main source of the water supply. The steep slopes of the surrounding ridges (at inclines of between 20° and 48°) can lead to high surface run-off, subsequent absorption, and collection of water in partially confined spaces. Upon reaching a critical volume, this groundwater can surge out as seasonal springs. Water collected from 26 perennial and seasonal springs is routed through stone conduits to the Senchal Lakes constructed in 1910 and 1932; it is thereafter piped to the town after purification at a filtration plant in Jorebungalow. There are a combined 35 kilometres (22 mi) of pipes transporting water from Senchal to Darjeeling, and a further 83 kilometres (52 mi) in the water distribution system within Darjeeling. In the months before the monsoon during which water in the Senchal lakes is reduced, it is augmented by pumping water electrically from another reservoir located near Khong Khola.

A 2012 report of the Darjeeling Municipality Waterworks Department stated that from the 1930s little or no maintenance had been undertaken of the water pipeline from Senchal. Engineers in the department suggested that there might be up to 35% transmission loss, and more within Darjeeling. Once in Darjeeling, the water is distributed along the colonial pattern, first serving more expensive and sought-after uphill neighbourhoods and then the low-income downhill ones, which have more restricted access to the supply. The system was designed to serve a population of up to 20,000 individuals. By 2011, the population of the municipality had increased six-fold, not including a large number of transients such as students, migrant workers, and tourists. (Figure 2) Increasing demand has led to a worsening shortfall in the water supply. As a result, many residents have to purchase water from private vendors who either supply it in water tankers or in hand-pushed carts and sometimes collected from local jhora or springs.(Figure 1) Larger private businesses are involved in supplying households but do so at a substantially higher cost.

Every day 30 metric tonnes of solid waste are generated in Darjeeling, and the amount goes up during the peak tourist season to 50 metric tonnes. Bulk waste, which is chiefly produced in residential areas, markets and hotels, is deposited in common dumping areas from which it is taken in tractor-trailers to dumping grounds. The residential areas comprise 21,782 households, as recorded in the 2011 census for the municipality.Open dumping, which is the disposal of waste in sites not designed for waste management, is commonly practiced, and has created economic and social tensions in Darjeeling.

In 1897 Darjeeling became the first town in India to be supplied by hydroelectricity, which was generated at the nearby Sidrapong Hydel Power Station; it was primarily for use in street lighting and private houses. Today, electricity is supplied by the West Bengal State Electricity Board from other locations.

Economy

Tea garden workers, some awaiting turning in their pickings, others having done so

Nehru Road, a pedestrian zone, has stalls on one side and more permanent shops on the other.

Tourism and Darjeeling tea are the main contributors to Darjeeling's economy.

Darjeeling produces one of the world's high-end teas. Its agro-climatic conditions give its tea a distinctive flavour which is recognised as a geographical indication. Women are preferentially employed for picking tea leaves, and constitute more than half of tea plantation workers. The Indian tea industry has been adversely affected by price drops after India's economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Darjeeling tea garden owners have invested their surpluses in more profitable industries elsewhere, causing a decline in productivity in the local tea industry. Since about 2020, the tea industry has faced competition from counterfeit "Darjeeling tea" produced in Nepal. Widespread concerns about labour disputes, worker layoffs and closing of estates have affected investment and production. Several tea estates are being run on a workers' cooperative model; some tea estates have been partially converted to tourist resorts. Production of Darjeeling tea has been shrinking, as of 2021, due to multiple factors including political agitation in the area, the COVID-19 pandemic, and need of re-plantation. According to an estimate by the Tea Board of India,7,010,000 kilograms (15,450,000 lb) of Darjeeling tea was produced in 2021; this constitutes about 0.005% of total 1,343,060,000 kilograms (2.96094×10⁹ lb) produced in India.

Darjeeling had become an important tourist destination as early as 1860. Tourist inflow into Darjeeling had been affected by the political instability in the region, and agitations in the 1980s and 2000s hit the tourism industry hard. Since 2012, Darjeeling has once again witnessed a steady inflow of both domestic and international tourists. As of 2015, around 50,000 foreign and 500,000 domestic tourists visit Darjeeling each year. Since India's economic liberalisation in 1991, tourism in Darjeeling has become cheaper, and Darjeeling, once considered a luxury destination, has become accessible to mass tourism.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Darjeeling

Walking and taxis are the two main forms of getting around.

Golf cart-style battery-powered taxi, 2015

Darjeeling has two major arterial roads: Hill Cart Road—which is a continuation of National Highway 110 connecting Siliguri at the base of the Darjeeling hills to Darjeeling—and Lebong Cart Road (see Figure 1). The average width of Darjeeling's roads in 2018 was between 6 metres (20 ft) and 7 metres (23 ft). According to a Darjeeling Municipality report of 2008, a little over half (55%) of Darjeelings roads were both metalled (paved with asphalt, or bitumen) and motorable; the rest were too narrow to admit traffic whether concrete roads or unpaved. There were three parking areas that were not located on the street and 13 on-street. Illegal parking along narrow roads has created congestion for both pedestrians and wheeled transport.

As of 2018, Darjeeling had no public transport system of buses. Less than one in 20 residents owned any form of vehicular transport, two-wheeled or four. For both locals and tourists motorized travel was limited to six- or eight-seater paratransit taxis that have no set routes or timetables. Passengers embark and disembark in the central shopping district of the town, making the area both congested and polluted. In 2015, in an attempt to tackle the pollution, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), which governs the district, introduced three battery-powered street-legal golf-cart-taxis on a trial basis. The taxis had cost approximately Rupees 36 lakh (or $14,670 in the 2015 exchange rate) per vehicle. Although the vehicles were factory-designed for a battery life of 60 kilometres (37 mi) before requiring a recharge, their batteries were found to run out in 5 kilometres (3.1 mi). Chalking up the disparity to the challenges of Darjeeling's steep streets, and the lack of mechanics to correct the malfunction, the administration withdrew the vehicles from the streets in 2016.

Darjeeling can be reached by the narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway that is 88 km (55 mi) long, from Siliguri. Pulled by steam locomotives, it travels at speeds of between 20 kilometres (12 mi) and 25 kilometres (16 mi) per hour. Although the service was begun in the 19th century to move humans and freight efficiently, its primary clients today are tourists who are availing themselves of the opportunity to experience the mobilities of travel of a bygone era. After an international and national campaign for its support, the railway was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. Darjeeling can be reached by motorized vehicles on National Highway 110, from Siliguri, 77 km (48 mi) away. Darjeeling has road connections with Bagdogra, Gangtok and Kathmandu and the neighbouring towns of Kurseong and Kalimpong. However, road and railway communications often get disrupted in the monsoons because of landslides. The nearest airport is Bagdogra Airport, located 90 km (56 mi) from Darjeeling.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Darjeeling

Prayer flags festoon the Mahakal Temple, built 1782

St Andrews Church (founded 1843) during a rare snowfall

The culture of Darjeeling is diverse and includes a variety of indigenous practices and festivals; it has a regional distinctness from the rest of India. Mixing and intermarriage between ethnic groups have led to hybrid cultural forms and practices.

Major festivals are Dashain (Vijayadashami), Tihar (Diwali), Holi, Lakshmi Puja, Maghe Sankranti, Losar, Buddha Jayanti, and Christmas. Tibetan Buddhism is followed by some ethnic groups such as Tibetans, Lepchas, Bhutias, Sherpas, Yolmos, Gurungs, and Tamangs; their common festivals are the Tibetan new year festival Losar, Saga Dawa and Tendong Lho Rumfaat. The Kirati ethnic group Rais, Limbus, Sunuwars and Yakkhas celebrate Udhauli and Ubhauli as their main festival.

Popular Hindu deities are Durga, Kali, and Shiva; other deities with both Hindu and Buddhist influences, such as Manjushri and Macchindranāth, are popular among Newar people, and Gorakhnath, and worshipped by Gorkhas. The Mahakal Temple on Observatory Hill is a pilgrimage site for Hindu and Buddhists. Followers of Tibetan Buddhism, or Lamaism, have established several gompa or monasteries. Ghoom Monastery (8 km or 5 miles from the town), Bhutia Busty monastery, and Mag-Dhog Yolmowa preserve ancient Buddhist scripts. A Peace Pagoda was built in 1992 by the Japanese Buddhist organisation Nipponzan Myohoji. In the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre, Tibetan crafts like carpets, wood and leather work are displayed.

The Darjeeling Initiative, a civil society movement, holds the ten-day Darjeeling Carnival; it celebrates Darjeeling Hill's musical and cultural heritage each year usually in November. A literary culture has matured in the Nepali-speaking population of the Darjeeling region; in 2013, Asit Rai, a resident and Nepali-language writer, was elected to the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour of India's National Academy of Letters.

Momos in a roadside stall

Fermented Tongba

A popular food in Darjeeling is the momo, a steamed dumpling containing pork, beef, chicken or vegetables (cabbage or potatoes) cooked in a doughy wrapping and served with watery soup. Wai-Wai, originally a product of Nepal, is a packaged snack consisting of noodles which are eaten either dry or in soup form. Chhurpi, a kind of hard cheese made from cow's or yak's milk is sometimes chewed. A form of Tibetan noodle called thukpa, served in soup form is popular in Darjeeling. Restaurants catering to tourists offer a variety of traditional Indian, continental and Chinese cuisines. Other popular foods are Kinema, Gundruk and Sha phaley. Fermented foods and beverages are consumed by a large percentage of the population. Fermented foods include preparations of soybean, bamboo shoots, milk and Sel roti, which is made from rice. Tea (especially butter tea, made with brick tea, butter, water, milk and salt) is a popular delicacy. Alcoholic beverages include Tongba, Jnaard (pronounced as Jaar) and Chhaang, variations of a local beer made from fermenting finger millet.

Football is the most popular sport in Darjeeling; the annual Gold Cup tournament was once a favourite event in the hills. An improvised form of ball made of rubber bands is often used for playing in the steep streets, and is known as Chungi.

Colonial architecture is exemplified in Darjeeling by cottages, Gothic churches, Planters' Club, the Raj Bhawan and various educational institutions.

Education

Students join a march for increased water supply in Darjeeling, May 2007

Primary school children in 1976

Darjeeling's schools are run by the state government, by religious organisations or by private secular ones. The schools use English and Nepali as their medium of instruction, but in addition emphasise India's official language Hindi and the state's official language Bengali. The primary schools (up to class or grade IV) and post-primary (classes V to VIII) run by the Government of West Bengal offer a mid-day meal to their students to mitigate possible food insecurity among their families and to retain them within the school system.

Most tea plantations make no more than lower primary school instruction available on site. As a result, tea garden workers have typically had fewer opportunities for education. As of 2022, a little over a third of the female workforce and half the male were educated up to class eight. The workers attributed this to their tea garden's remoteness and lack of means in the family during their childhood. Some thought it was better to take a tea garden job which did not require further education than to risk uncertain careers in the wider world in which they believed unemployment was high. Some workers, however, did want a better future for their children and were willing to work hard at their jobs to ensure this. Others have raised chickens or livestock to make more money or opened a corner shop and their children have gone to nearby towns to study in private schools in which the medium of instruction is English, which is thought to offer better career opportunities.

A study conducted between 2012 and 2014 observed that the elite schools established in Darjeeling during the late 19th-century for the education of British children were offering English-medium instruction of high quality to Indian children. The Jesuit boys' school, St Joseph's (usually called North Point), the Anglican boarding school for boys, St Paul's, and the Catholic girls' school Loreto Convent (see Figure 1) were attracting students from faraway places, including Burma and Thailand. North Point and Loreto had established colleges, St. Joseph's College and Loreto College (now Southfield College); these along with the Darjeeling Government College, a co-educational college founded in 1948, made up the three colleges of Darjeeling. All were affiliated to University of North Bengal in Siliguri. The same study suggested that the private schools were no longer all catering only to children of the affluent. Some lower-middle-class families in Darjeeling were sending their children to North Point and Loretto, despite their high fees, in order to give them better future opportunities. By 2014, colleges had increased the enrollment of students from rural backgrounds. In fields such as engineering and computer science, the local colleges, however, were less able to offer the professional training or career placement facilities of India's growth centres, which had caused some students to leave Darjeeling after high school.

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• Thapa, Namrata; Tamang, Jyoti Prakash (2020). "Ethnic Fermented Foods and Beverages of Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills (Gorkhaland Territorial Administration)". In Tamang, Jyoti Prakash (ed.). Ethnic Fermented Foods and Beverages of India: Science History and Culture. Singapore: Springer Nature. pp. 479–537. ISBN 978-981-15-1485-2.
• West Bengal (India) (1980). West Bengal District Gazetteers: Darjeeling. Gazetteer of India. State editor, West Bengal District Gazetteers. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
• Zivkovic, Tanya (2014). Death and Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: In-between bodies. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism Series. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-83067-6.
• Zurick, David; Pacheco, Julsun (2006). Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya. Basanta Shrestha & Birendra Bajracharya. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813173849. OCLC 704517519.

External links

• Darjeeling Municipality
• Darjeeling at Curlie
• Darjeeling travel guide from Wikivoyage