Told in the hills
How a Bhutanese hill became a wool market
Until 1865 the ridge where Kalimpong now stands belonged to Bhutan. After the Duar War of 1864–65, Bhutan signed the Treaty of Sinchula on 11 November 1865 and ceded the hill tract east of the Teesta, together with the plains Duars, to British India in return for an annual subsidy. The tract was attached to Darjeeling district, and a small village of a few households started to grow.
Its fortune came from the north. The easiest pass between Sikkim and Tibet's Chumbi Valley was Jelep La, at about 4,270 m, and Kalimpong was the nearest market town on the Indian side. Mule caravans brought Tibetan wool, furs and yak tails down the trail through Pedong and Algarah, and went back with cloth, tea, metal goods and sugar. Wool was baled in Kalimpong godowns and sent on to the plains and Calcutta.
Missionaries, traders and families followed. Rev. William Macfarlane of the Church of Scotland opened the first schools in the early 1870s, and Rev. John Anderson Graham founded the cottage homes that became Dr. Graham's Homes in 1900. The trade ended when Jelep La was closed after the 1962 India–China war. The town kept its schools, its nurseries and the Tibetan, Bhutanese and Marwari families who had settled for the trade, and that mix is what you walk through today.
Pinned to the board
Did you know
Kalimpong was part of Bhutan until the Treaty of Sinchula of 11 November 1865, which ended the Duar War.
Kalimpong became a separate district of West Bengal on 14 February 2017, carved out of Darjeeling district.
The Dalai Lama consecrated the Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery on Durpin Hill in 1976, and it keeps 108 volumes of the Kangyur brought from Tibet.
Jelep La, the old trade pass between Kalimpong and Tibet's Chumbi Valley, was closed after the 1962 India–China war and has not reopened to trade.
Neora Valley National Park, set up in 1986, covers about 88 sq km and is one of the few protected habitats of the red panda in West Bengal.
