Kalimpong

import Media from './components/media'; import { Gallery } from './components/wrappers';

“It is no exaggeration to describe Kalimpong as one of the most beautifully situated places in the world. To the north the gazes weeps across the chain of Sikkimese mountains, which break in green waves against the white rampart of the Himalayas. The mountains support the vault of heaven with their glittering peaks and pinnacles. Amongst the snowy summits, overtopping all its neighbours, stands the sacred Kangchenjunga. Seen from the town it is half hidden behind another mountain whose southern slope contains a naked wall of rock many hundreds of yards high. This rock-face was laid bare only thirty years ago by a gigantic landslide. [...] Today Kalimpong is the most important town on the Indo-Tibetan frontier, the gateway to Central Asia and the starting point of the busy trade road to the three closed kingdoms of the Himalayas Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. Because of its favourable position the town was chosen as the administrative centre for a considerable tract of Indian territory bordering Sikkim and Bhutan.”

[Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René von. 1957a. Where the Gods Are Mountains: Three Years among the People of the Himalayas. Translated by Michael Bullock. New York: Reynal and Company, 61, 65]

Changes over the last 70 years: