Darjeeling

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

“Darjeeling is undoubtedly one of the most religious towns I know. From the first light of dawn until late in the evening gongs and bells reverberate, prayer-wheels turn in the Buddhist shrines, and on the highest elevation of the town, a hill dedicated to the Indo-Tibetan god Mahakala, a whole forest of prayer-flags flaps in the wind. During the night, when the noises of the bazaar are still, the muted call of the long temple trumpets often rises up from the lamaseries in the valley. The name Darjeeling comes from the Tibetan words ‘Dorje Ling’, the ‘Place of the Thunderbolt’. This was the name of a lamasery that once stood on Mahakala Hill.”

[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, 25]

Changes over the last 70 years: