If you travel to North Eastern India and to the northern part of West Bengal you will reach the beautiful hill station of Darjeeling. Darjeeling has some very fascinating places of interest. The Botanical Gardens that contain a representative collection of Himalayan plants, flower and orchids. The hot houses are very interesting. he Himalayan Mountaineering Institute set up to train mountaineers, also has a museum containing an interesting collection of historic mountaineering equipment, specimens of Himalayan flora and fauna and relief model of the Himalayas. Another must in Darjeeling is a visit to the Happy Valley Tea garden. Here tea is still produced by the ‘ orthodox’ method as opposed to the ‘curling, tearing and crushing’ (CTC) method adopted in the plains.
Darjeeling (”place of the thunderbolt”) was purchased in 1835 from the raja of Sikkim, developed as a sanatorium for British troops, and constituted a municipality in 1850.
Darjeeling’s population of about 100,000 is made up of people of many races and religions. Gorkhas, Bhutias, Lepchas, Sherpas. Yolmos and migrants from the plains have all made Darjeeling their home, and everyone lives in perfect harmony
