Darjeeling: The Queen of Hills

With the snow-capped Kanchenjunga apex overlooking the town, lush tea gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage toy train, and a nice climate all year, the 'Queen of Hills' is an ideal destination that combines picturesque landscape with an incredibly exhilarating experience. This is a story about the interesting history of the hill station Darjeeling. The origin of its meaning, the wars that ensued for conquest, and how the hill station came to be what it is today.

View of Darjeeling Tea Gardens. Source: Google.

Adorned by beautiful, lush green hills, Darjeeling is a town in India's West Bengal state, located at an elevation of six thousand seven hundred feet in the Himalayan foothills (2,042.2 m). It is famous for its tea and the ‘Toy Train’, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the few hill stations with a steam locomotive that connects to the plains. The town is set against the snow-capped mountains of the southern Himalayas. Mt. Kanchenjunga is the third tallest mountain in the world.

Darjeeling is world-renowned for the tea it produces; it is one of the world's oldest and most celebrated tea-growing regions. Darjeeling tea is well-known around the world and is one of the most popular black teas. It is widely regarded as the ‘Champagne’ of tea. The region is endowed with a year-round cold climate, fresh mountain air, pine trees, and natural flora and fauna found nowhere else. As a result, Darjeeling produces some of the most sought-after aromatic teas.

Darjeeling's harvest seasons last nine months, with three main tea flushes (spring, summer, and autumn) and two minor 'in-between' flushes. Every flush yields unique tea varieties, and no two flushes yield the same.

The political history of Darjeeling is rather interesting. It was initially a part of Sikkim and briefly a part of Nepal until the British East India Company bought it in 1835. In 1827, disputes broke out between Sikkim and Nepal and by the Treaty of Titania signed in 1817, the Sikkim King asked the British Governor for help. During this period, Caption Lloyd was sent to Darjeeling for a few days in February 1829. The place was then known as 'Old Gorkha Railway Station in Darjeeling'. That place was not where it is today.

It was a remote area surrounded by dense forests and mountains. Captain[1] Llyod realized that Darjeeling could be a great sanatorium or health resort for British officers. The proposal was immediately sent to the British Governor-General, who approved it. Captain Lloyd, who had been promoted to the rank of general, was sent again to negotiate with the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim to hand over Darjeeling to them. In 1920, Chogyal was persuaded to give Darjeeling as a gift to the East India Company as a friendly gesture. In return, the company gave Chogyal an allowance of three thousand rupees which was later increased to six thousand rupees per annum.

In the years before that, there were still minor skirmishes between the Sikkim and the British. Eventually, Darjeeling became much more peaceful after 1866 and this led to the development of large hill stations. Farming has improved, and communication has improved. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway opened in 1881, providing convenient links between hills and plains.

Eventually, Darjeeling grew and prospered and turned into a beautiful hill City millions of tourists visit every year. One of the most well-known destinations in north-eastern tourism is a dream destination for anyone looking to spend some quiet time in nature. The location, which literally means ‘abode of God’, is ideal for any tourist. Darjeeling has been dubbed the ‘Queen of the Hills’ due to its captivating natural beauty.