The gorgeous snow peaks, a dawn trip to Tiger Hill, a toy train ride, savouring the flavours of Darjeeling tea, and the customary sightseeing rounded up with some rest at the Mall are the activities that most visitors to Darjeeling busy themselves with. But have you ever wondered if there is more to Darjeeling than meets the eye? Perhaps through the joy of discovering an out-of-print book, through a culinary lesson, by picking up local ditties while staying at a homestay, or a forest walk to know more about the medicinal plants found in the wild.
To most of travellers, Darjeeling is about nostalgia woven around an old British hill station and the eponymous tea which is still grown here. But there is more to Darjeeling and its neighbouring districts, says Anirban Dutta, cofounder-explorer at Darjeeling Walks, an organisation that curates walks and programmes to see the hills in a different light, and in collaboration with the local people.
The place was already inhabited by a hill tribe called the Lepchas or the Rongpas when the British arrived here, says Datta. Besides, owing to the region's proximity to one of the corridors which linked India with the Silk Route, it was also home to people from Tibet and Nepal, which has naturally fostered close cultural ties between the two countries.
According to Datta, there is no dearth of travellers to Darjeeling. But either they retire to the luxurious tea gardens or opt for the de rigueur sightseeing trips. As a result, travellers often miss the multi-layered core that lies within: the hill tribes and their culture, forest villages, the culinary inheritance, and more.