Culture and history · Sourenee
The sardar who planted Sourenee
Stop in the village and learn how Sourenee began: land given to a Nepali sardar, Dakman Rai, tea planted by his son Bhoujit, and the estate formally set up by the Tiwari brothers in 1902.
A sardar in the early Darjeeling tea industry was a headman and labour contractor who brought workers from eastern Nepal to the new gardens and supervised them. Some sardars became landholders in their own right. Sourenee's recorded history names one of them: Dakman Rai, who received land here from the British.
His son Bhoujit made the first plantings of tea. In 1902 the Tiwari brothers formally established the estate. The village around it, the descendants of the workers who came to plant and pluck, is still mainly a tea community.
Ask at a roadside tea stall or in the village whether anyone tells the family story. Versions differ; treat them as oral history alongside the written account.
Cost: Free
Questions people ask
Good to know
What was a sardar in Darjeeling tea gardens?
A sardar was a headman and labour recruiter who brought workers, mostly from eastern Nepal, to the new tea gardens and supervised their work. Some became influential landholders. Their role was central to how the Darjeeling tea workforce formed in the nineteenth century.
When was Sourenee tea estate established?
The estate's recorded history says it was formally established in 1902 by the Tiwari brothers, after earlier plantings by Bhoujit, son of the Nepali sardar Dakman Rai, who had received the land from the British.
Who lives in Sourenee village today?
Mostly Nepali-speaking families, many descended from the workers who came to plant and pluck tea. The census village, Saurinibasti, had 3,901 residents in 2011. Tea remains the main work, along with small farming and shops on the Mirik road.