www.kalimpong.info

See this link for the first video…

Here is one more video containing footage of Kalimpong (and Sikkim and Darjeeling) from 1957.

The videos are from the Museum Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. They were recorded by a Watson Kintner who along with his 30 mm camera, travelled all over the world and his recordings give us a never before insight into the sights of history. (Unfortunately there is no sound recorded with any of these videos)

Much thanks to Mr. Deepak Dewan for pointing me towards these archives (via the Kalimpong Facebook page).

The shotlist, according to the archive webpage is:

Cat. Reel 113 1957: Reel 9: Kalimpong, Gangtok. March 8.
Kalimpong, India; Gangtok, Sikkim.

Crude hut of branches and leaves.
Charcoal making.
Bridge to Sikkim, people and camps.
Dance – Tibetan.
Crowds at monastery.
Priest “stamping” people. (mws).
Priest and prayer wheel.
Market place.
Man with monkey.(xcu).
Camping.
Priest counting beads. Road scenes.
Making “doughnuts.” (cu).
Barber. (ws).
Dentist’s tools.
Road.
Trident, held with man.
Inside monastery, (fairly dark).

Here are some more historical photographs from the time of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to Kalimpong in 1952.

(Check out the first set of photos here.)

Jawaharlal Nehru & Indira Gandhi visiting the School for the Blind. Kalimpong, April 1952.

Students of the School for the Blind during Nehru’s visit. Kalimpong, April 1952.

The Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru & daughter Indira Gandhi with others at Dr. Graham’s Homes at Kalimpong which he visited on April 30, 1952.

The Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with students of Dr. Graham’s Homes at Kalimpong which he visited on April 30, 1952.

(more…)

Here are some historical photographs of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to Kalimpong in 1952.

Some great sights of Kalimpong & Mela ground back in the day. Thanks to Mr. Tenpa for the discovery.

(Click here for more photographs from this series)

Prime Minister addresses a public meeting at Kalimpong on April 29, 1952.

Prime Minister address a public meeting at Kalimpong on April 29, 1952.

Prime Minister addresses a public meeting at Kalimpong on April 29, 1952.

(more…)

A neat collection of never before seen photographs of Bhutan is on display at an exhibition in Delhi.

Here’s a sample from BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8486717.stm

The discovery of the photograph of the Tibetan Mirror Press and its editor Mr. Tharchin (or Rev. G. Tharchin, or Tharchin Babu) necessitates the stitching together of some past stories…

Dr. Sonam Wangyal’s essay about Tharchin Babu titled “Kalimpong’s Lonely Warrior” had a wonderful description of the editor of the Tibet Mirror Press and Kalimpong personality.

However, Tharchin, a Ladakh-born Tibetan who made Kalimpong his home is remembered not for the way he dressed or looked but for a journal he wrote. … Tharchin Babu is and will forever be reminisced for Tibet Mirror which was the only Tibetan language journal ‘in the whole world’. It was read from the grand monasteries of Lhasa to the Oriental departments of esteemed European universities, and it was eagerly awaited upon by the foreign offices of Washington, Peking (Beijing), London, Moscow and New Delhi. When the Chinese presence in Lhasa intensified Tibet Mirror responded with salvos of anti Chinese, anti communist and anti Mao Tse Tung articles.

The photograph from the previous post then put a face to the description. We also see the elegant and proud sign of Tibet Mirror Press back then in 1957.

Then we have yet another photograph that I had taken in Dec 2008 of the present state of the poor press:

It is a pity that Kalimpong’s rich and colorful history has been reduced to this.

Kuensel Newspaper
Contributed by Tshering Tashi
Co-author of Bold Bhutan Beckons

19 January, 2010 – Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594-1651?), who died more than three and half centuries ago, perhaps never visited Kolkata in his times, but a statue of him sits on the landing of a staircase on the third floor of its Asiatic Society building.

The 250-year old statue is a work of art and measures about six feet. The wooden plaque below it reads, “Brass Image of Dhurm Raja. Found at the capture of the Buxa Duar on 7 December 1864.” In bold letters, it is printed, “SAID TO BE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.”

The statue is believed to have been found by Captain Hadyat Ally in the Buxa duar foothills, one of the duars (gateways) to Bhutan. Captain Ally donated it to the Asiatic Society in the City of Joy.

Bhutan fought a war against the British in 1864-65. The small Bhutanese army, equipped with stones and matchlocks, were no match for the British army’s mortar’s and rifles. On November 12, 1864, the Governor General of India issued a proclamation of war against Bhutan. By the end of November, preparation of all military operations had been completed. By 19 December the British had annexed the Bengal duars, which includes the Buxa duar.

This water colour was painted by Lt Col. Armstrong (Engineers) at Dalimkote during the Bhutan war of 1865. It is currently on sale on e-Bay.

Buxa duar is what Bhutanese know today as Pasakha, part of which is still in Bhutan’s possession. This duar is one of the oldest towns in West Bengal. According to American scholar John Ardussi, an expert in Bhutanese history, “Buxa was truly the most ancient trade mart between India and Bhutan, going back centuries.”

However, Nicholas Rhodes, who has compiled the duar war documents, has raised some doubts about the size of the fort in Buxa capable of housing such a statue. Paintings and written records of that time do not show or mention any large monastery.

But records maintained by Captain Warren, a british officer, who served during the duar war, says that ‘Buxa itself consisted of a large two-storied house, substantially built, with carved verandahs on the upper storey – this was used for a hospital and as officers’ quarters.”

So where could such a statue have come from? Before the Anglo-Bhutan War, in addition to the Buxa fort, Bhutan had three other hill forts. The first fort is the Yongla goempa and the only one in present Bhutan. The second fort hill is between Kalimpong and Sikkim, India. John Ardussi, describes the location, “The Damsang Dzong is on a hill above Pedong, on the road from Kalimpong up to Tibet. This small hilltop fort is at least of 17th century vintage, and is now in ruins. Ardussi said, “The Bhutanese during the 18th century took over this area and held it until the British seized it in the 1865 war.”

The third and the most likely place for the origin of the statue is the fort hill of Dalimkote. It is a long way from Buxa, about 45 miles west and much closer to Kalimpong. According to Ardussi, Buxa and Dalimkha did have a monastery during the 18th century. Kalimpong district was annexed by the British after the war, along with 18 Duars that had previously been part of Bhutan.

Dasho Zepon Wangchuk supports Ardussi. He knows that the Paro monk body appointed the chief abbot of that monastery. Oral history records Lam Sangay Dali Jamtsho as the last abbot of the fortress. Oral stories, commonly told in Haa, talk of how Lam Sangay built a replacement monastery in Haa after the fortress of Dalimkot was razed to the ground.

Written British records describe the attack on the fort of Dalimkot, “a detachment of 400 infantry with the artillery, went up against Dalimkote, on the 6th of December…”

After ten hours of bombing the fort, the British took possession of it. The British suffered, “eight of their men were killed and fifty-six wounded.”

Ardussi explores another option. “When this war broke out, or at the threat of war, might not the Bhutan government have had the monk body transport this large statue to the frontier, for the purpose of imposing a kind of “protective” guardianship?

According to the librarian of the Asiatic Society “scrolls of paper were found with the chant of Aditya inside the statue.” In the Rigveda, the Adityas are the seven celestial lords. For Buddhists, it is a normal practice to put scrolls of paper with appropriate chants inside statues. Without these chants, a statue is just an art piece.

————
www.kalimpong.info

Title: Anderson Bridge
Caption: 20th November 1933: The new Anderson bridge over the Teesta Valley in Bengal, with the old suspension bridge in the background. The new bridge links the road between India and Tibet. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Date created: 20 Nov 1933
Photographer: Keystone/Stringer
Collection: Hulton Archive
Credit: Getty Images
Source: Hulton Archive

Title: Darjeeling, Cane Bridge c 1865.
Caption: INDIA – JANUARY 11: Photograph by Samuel Bourne of a footbridge over the Tista River leading into Bhootan (Bhutan), near the Indian town of Darjeeling, (now Darjiling, in West Bengal). Bourne, a pioneer of travel photography, began his working life as a bank clerk. ln 1863 he went to India where he established a studio in Simla, in partnership with Charles Shepherd. Between 1863 and 1870 he undertook several photographic expeditions, including trips to the Himalayas, producing a collection of landscape views unsurpassed in technical skill and compositional elegance. By 1870 the Bourne and Shepherd catalogue contained 2,000 views from all parts of the subcontinent. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Date created: 11 Jan 2005
Photographer: Science & Society Picture Library/Contributor
Collection: SSPL
Credit: SSPL via Getty Images

Here’s an important and informative discourse on the demographic politics played in the Dooars since partition. The essay is a little heavy with the numbers, but the numbers are important so please do not be intimidated by the figures and the statistics. This is a very relevant article, and has important information for the inclusion of the Dooars in the state of Gorkhaland.

The article is a little long, but I decided to put the whole thing up without breaking it up into parts. Do take the time to read it all. Book mark the page if necessary.
-Admin

PRE-INDEPENDENCE The ethnic people, the autochthones, were the Rajbansis,[1] or the Koches,[2] the Totos and the Mechis[3] Dukpas and the Garos. I will not claim that the Gorkhas are indigenous to the Dooars, a claim the Bengalis too cannot assert, but one can claim that the Gorkhas are one of the oldest non-autochthones. This report will also attempt to show that over the passage of time the natives and the ancient settlers got swamped by the continuous flood of Bengali immigration to the extent of making the area a Bengali subdivision.

The Gorkhas in the Dooars is not a recent phenomenon and the Gazetteer of West Bengal Government itself admits: “They began to immigrate and settle down in the district (i.e. Jalpaiguri) especially in the western parts of the district, as agriculturalists, from the beginning of the eighteenth century.”[4] This would mean that the history of the Gorkhas in the Dooras stretches to a minimum of 300 years. The recorded accounts of the Gorkhas inhabiting the area in the days of yore are also to be found outside the official gazetteers. The official history of Cooch Behar mentions of a gang of Sanyasis that used to raid Cooch Behar in the 1770s. The group seems to be so large and strong that the State police and the armed forces of the Maharajah could not stop the raids and the Government of Cooch Behar had to seek assistance from the East India Company. Even the Company’s representative seems to have been frustrated and he eventually appealed to the Nepal king to intercede[5] since the Sanyasis were almost entirely Gorkhas. This book Cooch Beharer Itihas (in Bengali) documents that Nepalis (Gorkhas), Bhutanese and Bengal Moslems would often combine and attack Cooch Behar with deadly effect.[6] The same source enlightens us that prior to Sino-Gorkha War, Nepal used to send tribute to the Chinese Emperor through the Raja of Baikunthapur.[7] This would have been impossible if the Gorkha king did not have substantial influence over the ruler of the place. The Sanyais were active even as late as the 1770s and many of them were employed by the Bhutanese “as means of enforcing collection of tribute from recalcitrant payers.”[8] The second phase of Gorkhas settling in the Dooars, according to the Gazetteer, was “in the mid-nineteenth century” with the opening of the tea gardens[9] and even in this case the Gorkha history in the Dooars is 150 years old. (more…)

Via Getty Images

(Admin: The renowned Tharchin Babu)
Title: Newspaper Editor
Caption: circa 1959: Mr Tanshi, editor of The Tibetan Newspaper, beside the sign on the door of the Tibet Mirror Press at Kalimpong, Sikkim, India. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Date created: 01 Jan 1959
Photographer: Keystone/Stringer
Collection: Hulton Archive
Credit: Getty Images
Source: Hulton Archive

Title: Bengali Market
Caption: 24th February 1951: A Tibetan lama or Buddhist monk, is seen in Kalimpong market, Northern Bengal, with a number of Nepalese and Indians.

Title: Tibetan Refugees
Caption: 24th February 1951: A Tibetan woman and her child in Kalimpong, northern Bengal, after fleeing Tibet following Chinese oppression in her homeland.

Title: Tibetan Family
Caption: A Tibetan mother and child on the road between Tibet and Kalimpong, Bengal.
Original Publication: Picture Post – 5210 – Tibet Dissolves – pub. 1951 (Photo by Bert Hardy/Getty Images)
Date created: 24 Feb 1951

(For last 3 photographs)
Original Publication: Picture Post – 5210 – Tibet Dissolves – pub. 1951 (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images)
Date created: 24 Feb 1951
Photographer: Bert Hardy/Stringer
Collection: Hulton Archive
Credit: Getty Images
Source: Hulton Archive

Hat tip to Mr. (Transhimalaya) Tempa for pointing me towards the images.

(Click on the photos for full images)

Google has incorporated some interesting historical maps onto Google Maps.

I found this one:

http://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/g2310065.html?lat=23.95885694444445&lon=88.19046111111109&zoom=6

Full Title: (Composite of) An actual survey, of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar &c. By Major James Rennell, Engineer, Surveyor General to the Honourable the East India Company, published by permission of the court of directors, from a drawing in their possession; by A. Dury. Wm. Haydon sculpt. Published 12th May, 1794, by Laurie & Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London.

Author: Rennell, James, 1742-1830; Dury, Andrew; (Kitchin, Thomas); Robert Laurie & James Whittle

Date: 1794

Do zoom in and explore.. It’s real interesting. Not directly related to Kalimpong but I thought some of the readers would appreciate it.

(Kinda reminds me of The Sea of Poppies by Amitava Ghosh)

The Statesman
British vision of rail link to Rangpo comes alive

Suman Sahoo

SILIGURI, 29 OCT: The foundation stone laying of the Sevoke-Rangpo rail link tomorrow would fulfill an plan envisaged in the early 19th century by the British rulers.

The colonial rulers had envisaged a rail link (Teesta Valley project) between Siliguri and Kalimpong in around 1909. Construction works of a metre gauge rail link, however, ended at Geille Khola, short of Kalimpong and the service was opened on 29 September 1915. The extension work to Sikkim, however, was never taken up.

A preliminary survey to extend Rail link to Sikkim was carried out in the years 1917-18. A girder bridge across the Teesta near the confluence with the Great Rangeet River replacing the suspension bridge built in 1880 was also thought of. A siding for railway stock and the development of a copper mine was to be laid at Rangpo and the extension work up to Gangtok, through Sankokhela was expected by 1925. The dream, however, remained unrealised.

Tomorrow, the railways would restart the linking exercise after 59 years since a devastating flood that drove through Darjeeling district in mid- June in the year 1950 washed up the railway tracks till Geille Khola. With one-third of the annual average rainfall in two days, the Teesta flooded the area destructing the railway tracks beyond repair. All roads, rail and settlement at Geille Khola had collapsed into the river.

All demands from the residents to repair the railway tracks, which had become a lifeline for trade and commerce in the area, fell on deaf ears thereafter. The authority did not show any interest in repairing the tracks and restart the service. All that is likely to change now for the good.

“Hardly anything except nostalgia of the service remains today,” said the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway director, Mr Subrata Nath. “Although the proposed railway tracks between Sevoke and Rangpo is different from the previous one, it would evoke our memory,” he added.
(With inputs from ‘The Tron Sherpa’, Vol 1, by Terry Martin)