Names older than the roads
The oldest layer of history in these hills is in the place names. Kurseong is usually traced to the Lepcha word Kharsang, translated as 'land of the white orchid', and people point to Coelogyne cristata, a white orchid that hangs from mossy trees here in late winter. Another explanation links the name to a local cane, and we tell both as the explanations people give rather than settled fact. Mirik comes from the Lepcha Mir-Yok, usually rendered as 'place burnt by fire', which may remember forest cleared by burning for fields.
Other names come from Nepali, the language that tea workers brought from eastern Nepal in the nineteenth century and that is still spoken across these hills. Makaibari means a cornfield, from makai, maize, and bari, a field. Gopaldhara is 'Gopal's stream' in the estate's own telling, dhara being a spring or stream. Pokhri, as in Namthing Pokhri, is a pond. Reading the map this way tells you who was here first and who came with the gardens.
Sikkim, Nepal and the Company
Before 1780 these slopes were part of the kingdom of Sikkim. Around that year the Gorkha armies of Nepal pushed east and took the country up to the Teesta. After the Anglo-Nepalese War, the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816 and the Treaty of Titalia in 1817 returned the land between the Mechi and the Teesta to Sikkim, with the British East India Company as guarantor.
In 1835 the Chogyal of Sikkim granted the Company the Darjeeling tract as a place for a sanatorium. The slopes below Darjeeling, including the Kurseong ridge, were needed for the road up from the plains, and they came under British control in stages over the following decades. The first road up, which local people still call the Old Military Road, climbed over the ridge through what is now Dow Hill and Chimney, where a dak bungalow is said locally to have stood from about 1839. Its brick chimney is still there and gave the village its name.
Tea arrives in the 1850s
Tea changed everything. Experimental planting in the Darjeeling hills began in the 1840s, and commercial gardens followed in the 1850s. On the slopes below Kurseong, a Captain Samler cleared land that he soon sold to Girish Chandra Banerjee. A factory was commissioned at Makaibari in 1859, among the first in the district, and the Banerjee family ran the estate for four generations, unusual in a business dominated by British companies. Swaraj Kumar 'Rajah' Banerjee made it the first fully organic certified garden in 1988; the Luxmi Group bought it in 2014.
West of the Balason, the Mirik valley was planted from the late nineteenth century. Gopaldhara traces its first planting to 1881. Sourenee's recorded history begins with a Nepali sardar, Dakman Rai, who received land from the British; his son Bhoujit planted the first tea, and the Tiwari brothers formally established the estate in 1902. Thousands of workers came from eastern Nepal to clear and pluck these gardens, and their descendants are the families who now run the homestays.
A local planner turns it into a route for your dates.
Roads, rails and a town
The Hill Cart Road, built through the 1860s, gave Kurseong a proper link to the plains, and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway followed its line. The narrow-gauge track reached Kurseong in 1880 and Darjeeling in July 1881, and in 1999 UNESCO listed the railway as a World Heritage Site. To this day the train runs through the middle of Kurseong's bazaar, with shopkeepers pulling their goods back from the rails as it passes.
Kurseong became a municipality in 1879 and a subdivision of Darjeeling district in 1890. In 1879 too, Lieutenant-Governor Sir Ashley Eden founded Victoria School on Dow Hill, now Victoria Boys' School, for children of government servants of modest income; a girls' school followed on the same ridge and grew into Dow Hill School. From 1889 to 1971 St Mary's Hill held a Jesuit theological college that later moved to Delhi as Vidyajyoti College of Theology. Kurseong is still a school town, and the morning roads fill with children in uniform.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 1780 | Gorkha armies of Nepal take the hills up to the Teesta |
| 1817 | Treaty of Titalia returns the land to Sikkim |
| 1835 | Darjeeling tract granted to the East India Company |
| 1859 | Tea factory commissioned at Makaibari |
| 1879 | Kurseong municipality; Victoria School founded on Dow Hill |
| 1880 | Darjeeling Himalayan Railway reaches Kurseong |
| 1881 | Railway reaches Darjeeling; Gopaldhara's first planting |
| 1889–1971 | Jesuit theological college on St Mary's Hill |
| 1902 | Sourenee tea estate formally established |
| 1922 | Sarat Chandra Bose buys the Giddapahar house |
| 1936 | Subhas Chandra Bose under house arrest at Giddapahar |
| 1959 | Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary notified |
| 1979 | Sumendu Lake at Mirik opened |
| 1984 | Bokar Rinpoche founds his retreat centre above Mirik |
| 1999 | Darjeeling Himalayan Railway listed by UNESCO |
Netaji's house on Giddapahar
In 1922 the Calcutta lawyer Sarat Chandra Bose bought a house on Giddapahar, the hill a few kilometres below Kurseong bazaar, as a family retreat. His younger brother Subhas Chandra Bose stayed there more than once. In 1936, after he returned from Europe and was arrested, the British held him at the house under house arrest for several months. From its rooms he wrote political letters and letters to Emilie Schenkl in Austria, whom he later married.
The Bose family kept the house until the 1990s. It is now the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Museum, with photographs, letters and the furniture of the rooms where he stayed. Every 23 January, his birth anniversary, Kurseong marks Netaji Jayanti with gatherings at the house. Opening days and any entry fee change, so check current status before you travel.
Cinchona, oranges and a lake
East of Kurseong, the government planted cinchona from the 1860s at Mungpoo and spread the plantations through the slopes of Latpanchar and the Riyang valley to make quinine against malaria. Those plantations still belong to the West Bengal Directorate of Cinchona and Other Medicinal Plants, and many families in Latpanchar and Sittong have worked on them for generations. Sittong's other crop, the small loose-skinned Darjeeling mandarin, made it the orange village of the hills. Above Latpanchar, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary was notified in 1959 to protect gaur and tiger.
Mirik's modern story is short. In 1974 work began to turn a marsh at the bottom of the valley into a lake for a new hill resort, and Sumendu Lake opened in April 1979, with a 3.5 km road round it. In 1984 the Kagyu teacher Bokar Rinpoche (1940–2004) founded a small retreat centre on the hill above, which grew into Bokar Ngedhon Chokhorling, the monastery that now overlooks the town.
Seeing the history on the ground
Most of this story can be seen in two or three days. In Kurseong, start at the station, walk the bazaar as the train comes through, climb to Eagle's Crag for the view down the Hill Cart Road, and take a car or a long walk to the museum at Giddapahar. A second morning on Dow Hill takes in the school gates, the forest and the lone chimney at Chimney. Go down to Makaibari for the oldest garden and a factory visit in season.
In Mirik, walk the lake road and climb to Bokar monastery, then stop at Sourenee and Tingling on the way down to see how completely tea took over these slopes after the 1850s. A night in Sittong or Latpanchar adds the cinchona and orange story.
- Netaji museum, Giddapahar: allow 45 minutes to an hour
- Kurseong station and bazaar: best when a train is due
- Makaibari factory: visits depend on the season and the estate's schedule
- Chimney: a short stop, best on the walk from Dow Hill
Questions people ask
Good to know
What does the name Kurseong mean?
The usual explanation is that Kurseong comes from the Lepcha word Kharsang, translated as 'land of the white orchid'. People point to Coelogyne cristata, a white orchid that grows on mossy trees around the town in late winter. Another explanation ties the name to a local cane. We present the orchid as the explanation most people in Kurseong will give you.
Where did Netaji stay in Kurseong?
Subhas Chandra Bose stayed at his brother Sarat Chandra Bose's house on Giddapahar, a few kilometres below Kurseong bazaar. Sarat bought it in 1922, and in 1936 the British held Subhas there under house arrest for several months. The house is now the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Museum. Check opening days and timings before you travel, as they change.
How old is Makaibari tea estate?
Land at Makaibari was cleared for tea in the 1850s, and its tea factory was commissioned in 1859, among the first in the Darjeeling district. The Banerjee family ran it for four generations until the Luxmi Group bought it in 2014. In 1988 Makaibari became the first tea garden certified as fully organic, according to the estate.
When was Mirik lake made?
Sumendu Lake at Mirik is not natural in its present form. Work began in 1974 to turn a marsh at the bottom of the valley into a lake as part of a plan for a new hill resort, and the lake was opened in April 1979 with a 3.5 km road around it and a footbridge across. Hotels then grew up at Krishnanagar.
Who founded Bokar monastery in Mirik?
Bokar Rinpoche (1940–2004), a Tibetan teacher of the Kagyu tradition, founded a small retreat centre on the hill above Mirik in 1984. As students came to join him, it grew into the monastery known as Bokar Ngedhon Chokhorling. It is a short uphill walk from the lake and visitors are welcome in daylight if they keep quiet near the halls.
When did the toy train reach Kurseong?
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway reached Kurseong in 1880 and Darjeeling in July 1881, following the line of the Hill Cart Road. UNESCO listed the railway as a World Heritage Site in 1999. Kurseong is still a station on the line and the train runs through the bazaar, but services change with landslides, so check current status before you travel.
Was Kurseong part of Sikkim or Nepal?
Both, at different times. The hills belonged to Sikkim until Nepal's Gorkha armies took them around 1780. The Treaty of Titalia in 1817 returned the land to Sikkim, and in 1835 the Darjeeling tract was granted to the East India Company. The slopes around Kurseong came under British control in stages and later became part of Darjeeling district.
Why is Kurseong known for its schools?
Schools have been part of Kurseong since 1879, when Sir Ashley Eden founded Victoria School on Dow Hill for children of government servants. A girls' school, now Dow Hill School, followed on the same ridge, and St Mary's Hill held a Jesuit theological college from 1889 to 1971. Several boarding and day schools still operate, which is why mornings are full of children in uniform.
Who built the chimney at Chimney village?
The chimney is the only surviving part of a dak bungalow, a British rest house on the old road to Darjeeling over the Kurseong ridge. Local accounts date the bungalow to about 1839. When the Hill Cart Road and the railway took the traffic, the bungalow fell into ruin, but its brick chimney, about 7 m tall, survived and gave the village its name.