When the British took the Kalimpong hills from Bhutan in 1865, the town was little more than a hamlet. Its value lay in the route north. From Kalimpong a track climbed through Algarah, Pedong and Rhenock to Jelep La, a pass of about 4,390 m on the Sikkim–Tibet border, and on into the Chumbi Valley and Lhasa.
By the early twentieth century Kalimpong had become the main market on the Indian side for the trade in Tibetan wool, furs and hides. Mule caravans brought bales of wool down over the pass and returned with cloth, metal goods, grain and other supplies. Traders from Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and the plains settled in the bazaar, and the town grew quickly.
The same route carried more than goods. The British expedition to Lhasa led by Francis Younghusband went over Jelep La in 1904. In 1910 the 13th Dalai Lama fled the other way, crossing the pass to Sikkim and Darjeeling. After 1959 many Tibetan monks and families came down to Kalimpong, bringing scriptures now kept at monasteries such as Zang Dhok Palri.
The trade ended after the war between India and China in 1962, when Jelep La was closed for good. Kalimpong's economy slowed, and the town turned to schools, horticulture and, later, tourism. You can still see the trade in the names of old shops and families in the bazaar, and in the Tibetan houses and monasteries that came with it.
Sources
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
