Sights in West Bengal
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Happy Valley Tea Estate
Happy Valley Tea Estate, below Hill Cart Rd, is worth visiting when the plucking and processing are in progress. March to May is the busiest time, but occasional plucking also occurs from June to November. Outside of high season there’s no plucking on Sunday, which means most of the machinery isn’t working on Monday. An employee will whisk you through the aromatic factory and its various processes before politely demanding a tip – Rs20 from each visitor is appropriate. Take the turn off 500m northwest of the Office of the District Magistrate, or take Lochnager Rd from Chowk Bazaar.
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Sunderbans Tiger Reserve
Home to one of the largest concentrations of tigers on the planet, this 2585-sq-km reserve is a network of channels and semisubmerged mangroves that is part of the world’s largest river delta. Royal Bengal tigers (officially estimated to number 289) lurk in the impenetrable depths of the mangrove forests, and also swim the delta’s innumerable channels. Although they do sometimes kill villagers working in the Sunderbans, tigers are typically shy, and sightings are the very rare exception. Nevertheless, cruising the broad waterways through the world’s biggest mangrove forest and watching wildlife, whether it be a spotted deer, 2m-long water monitor or luminescent kingfisher…
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Bhutia Busty Gompa
Together, Darjeeling and Ghoom are home to a number of fascinating Buddhist monasteries. Probably the most scenic is Bhutia Busty Gompa, with Khangchendzonga providing a spectacular backdrop. The shrine originally stood on Observatory Hill, but was rebuilt in its present location by the chogyals of Sikkim in the 19th century. The gompa houses a fine gold-accented mural and the original copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but permission is required to see it.
To get here, follow CR Das Rd downhill for 400m from Chowrasta, and take the right fork where the road branches.
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Dr Graham’s Home
This working orphanage and school was built in 1900 by Dr JA Graham, a Scottish missionary, to educate the children of tea-estate workers, and now has more than 1300 students. There’s a small museum that commemorates the founder and his wife Katherine. The 1925 chapel above the school looks like it’s straight out of Scotland, with its grey slate, spire and bell. It features fine stained-glass windows. The gate is 4km up the steep KD Pradhan Rd. Many people charter a taxi to get here (Rs90) and then walk back to town.
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Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, known affectionately as the Toy Train, made its first journey along its precipice-topping, 2ft-wide tracks in September 1881 and is one of the few hill railways still operating in India. It's even listed as a World Heritage site. Besides its regular diesel service to/from New Jalpaiguri and steam service to/from Kurseong, there are joy rides during high season that leave Darjeeling at 10:00 and 12:50 for a two-hour steam-powered return trip to Ghoom.
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Singalila National Park
The popular Singalila Ridge Trek from Sandakphu to Phalut passes through the scenic Singalila National Park and offers fantastic views of the Himalaya. Guides (about Rs350 per day) are mandatory within the park (the park entrance is near Tumling) and can be hired privately through the DGHC, travel agencies or at the trek’s starting point in Mana Bhanjang, 26km from Darjeeling; you’re more likely to get a good guide if you line it up beforehand.
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Refugee Centre
Established in 1959, this refugee centre comprises a home for the aged, school, orphanage, clinic, gompa and craft workshops that produce carpets, woodcarvings, leatherwork and woollen items. There’s also an interesting, politically charged photographic exhibition (you might have to ask for the hall to be opened) portraying the establishment and workings of the centre.
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Mangal Dham
This ungainly modern Mangal Dham is sacred to Krishna. In its ballroom-like prayer hall there are eight vibrant, life-size dioramas from the Krishna Leela. The temple is dedicated to Guruji Shri Mangaldasji, who's commemorated in a shrine below the prayer hall. The temple is about 500m downhill from Thongsa Gompa, or you can walk from the centre along Relli Rd and turn left by the Roman Catholic church.
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Japanese Peace Pagoda
Perched on a hillside at the end of AJC Bose Rd is the gleaming white Japanese Peace Pagoda, one of more than 70 pagodas built by the Japanese Buddhist Nipponzan Myohoji organisation around the world. Drumming resonates through the forested grounds during their daily pujas (prayers). It’s about a 35-minute walk from Clubside along Gandhi and AJC Bose Rds.
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Nature Interpretation Centre
The Nature Interpretation Centre hosts what must be the world's most educational badminton court. Surrounding the court are a number of well-organised dioramas depicting the effects of human activity on the environment. It's an easy walk from the town centre. About 450m further up the hill is the small but serene Rishi Bankim Chandra Park (also known as Kalimpong Park).
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Himalayan Mountaineering Institute
Tucked away within the grounds of the zoological park, this prestigious mountaineering institute was founded in 1954 and has provided training for some of India’s leading mountaineers. Within the complex is the fascinating Everest Museum, which traces the history of attempts on the world’s highest peak.
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Yiga Choling Gompa
Yiga Choling Gompa, the region’s most famous monastery, has wonderful old murals and is home to monks of the yellow-hat sect. Built in 1850, it enshrines a 5m-high statue of the Maitreya Buddha (Future Buddha) and 300 beautifully bound Tibetan texts. It’s just west of Ghoom, about a 10-minute walk off Hill Cart Rd.
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Samten Choling Gompa
The Samten Choling Gompa has the protector Garuda atop the ornate backdrop to the Buddha; it has a festive air, with tour groups and souvenir stalls. This gompa is on Hill Cart Rd and can be reached by share jeep from Darjeeling (Rs12); some people organise to visit on the way back from Tiger Hill.
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Mangrove Interpretation Centre
At Sajnekhali, the official gateway into the Sunderbans reserve, you’ll find the Mangrove Interpretation Centre with a small turtle and crocodile hatchery, a collection of pickled wildlife and a blackboard with the date of the last tiger-spotting chalked up. Boats are available for hire.
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Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre
Established in 1959, the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre comprises a home for the aged, school, orphanage, clinic, gompa and craft workshops that produce carpets, woodcarvings, leatherwork and woollen items. There's also an interesting photographic exhibition portraying the establishment and workings of the centre.
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Hazarduari
The Hazarduari is a palace famous for its 1000 doors (real and false), built here for the nawabs in 1837. It houses an astonishing collection of antiquities from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Great Imambara on the palace grounds was being renovated at the time of research and may be closed.
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Lloyd Botanical Gardens
These pleasant gardens contain an impressive collection of Himalayan plants, most famously orchids and rhododendrons, as well as temperate trees from around the world. Follow the signs along Lochnager Rd from the Chowk Bazaar bus/jeep station. A map and guide is available from the park office.
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Bengal Natural History Museum
The Bengal Natural History Museum, established in 1903, houses a mildewed and moth-eaten collection of Himalayan and Bengali species. Hidden away in a compound just off Bishop Eric Benjamin Rd, it’s well signed, and remarkably popular. The enormous leeches in jars will provoke a shudder.
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Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park
This zoo, one of India’s best, was established in 1958 to study, conserve and preserve Himalayan fauna. Housed within the rocky and forested environment is India’s only collection of Siberian tigers, as well as Himalayan black bears, red pandas, snow leopards and Tibetan wolves.
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Museum and Art Gallery
The museum and art gallery within the Uttarayan complex (Tagore’s former home) are worth a peek if you are an aficionado of Tagore. Reproductions of his sketches and paintings are sold here. The bookshop at the main gate has plenty of Tagore’s titles (Rs80 to Rs250) in English.
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Tiger Hill
To set your eyes on a spectacular 250km stretch of Himalayan horizon, including Everest (8848m), Lhotse (8501m), Makalu (8475m), Khangchendzonga, Kabru (6691m) and Janu (7710m), rise early and get to Tiger Hill, 11km south of Darjeeling, above Ghoom.
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Imambara
Climb the lofty clocktower of the romantically crumbling Imambara, where the view over the river (not to mention the climb) will take your breath away. The building was constructed in 1806 to host the Shiite procession of Muharram.
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Pine View Nursery
Kalimpong is a major flower exporter and produces about 80% of India’s gladioli as well as many orchid varieties. Visit Pine View Nursery to gaze at its eminently photographable cactus collection. Pine View has a few rooms.
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Santi Kunj
Kalimpong is a major flower exporter and produces about 80% of India’s gladioli as well as many orchid varieties. Visit Santi Kunj to see anthuriums and the bird of paradise flower (bulbs are also sold here).
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Cultural Institut de Chandarnagar
You can visit an 18th-century mansion now housing the Cultural Institut de Chandarnagar at the former French outpost of Chandarnagar. It has collections documenting this colonial outpost.
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