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Until the
beginning of the 18th century the whole of the area between
the present borders of Sikkim and the plains of Bengal,
including Darjeeling and Kalimpong, belonged to the rajas of
Sikkim. In 1706 they lost Kalimpong to the Bhutanese, and
control of the remainder was wrested from them by the
Gurkhas who invaded Sikkim in 1780, following consolidation
of the latter's rule in Nepal.
These annexations by the Gurkhas, however, brought them into
conflict with the British East India Company. A series of
wars were fought between the two parties, eventually leading
to the defeat of the Gurkhas and the ceding of all the land
they had taken from the Sikkimese to the East India Company.
Part of this territory was restored to the rajas of Sikkim
and the country's sovereignty guaranteed by the British in
return for British control over any disputes which arose
with neighbouring states.
One such dispute in 1828 led to the dispatch of two British
officers to this area, and it was during their fact-finding
tour that they spent some time at Darjeeling (then called
Dorje Ling - Place of the Thunderbolt - after the lama who
founded the monastery which once stood on Observatory Hill).
The officers were quick to appreciate Darjeeling's value as
a site for a sanatorium and hill station, and as the key to
a pass into Nepal and Tibet. The officers' observations were
reported to the authorities in Kolkata and a pretext was
eventually found to pressure the raja into granting the site
to the British in return for an annual stipend of Rs3000
(raised to Rs6000 in 1846). |
