Darjeeling: District Gazetteers

Darjeeling conjures up the image of snow-clad Himalayan peaks, Buddhist monasteries peopled with yellow-robbed monks, and rush of summer tourists. But there is more in Darjeeling than meets the eye. The geography, fauna and flora, inhabitants, their way of life, habits, customs, rites, rituals and festivals form a mosaic of great interest. Names after the Buddhist monastery of ‘Darjeeling’ or the ‘place of thunderbolt’, this districts forms an irregular triangle 1164 square miles in area, its base resting on Sikkim in the north while its apex stretches into West Bengal in the South. It is demarcated from Nepal in the west by the Singania mountain chain and its north eastern boundaries are with Bhutan and the districts of Jalpaiguri and Purnea respectively. Ranging in altitude from 3000 to 12000 feet about sea level this largely hilly region is drained by the Mechi, Balasan, Mahanadi, Tista andjaidhaka rivers. Its vegetation ranges from pine, oak, maple and chestnut foresis and teagardens at the higher altitudes to palm and plantain in the marshy terrain. A handy and authentic reference work on the border district of India.