Tourists flock to Darjeeling festival

By Subir Bhaumik BBC, Darjeeling

A 10-day carnival in Darjeeling has brought a flood of tourists to this tea-producing Himalayan tourist resort in eastern India.

The festivities continued into the night

For the past week, Darjeeling has been swinging to the beat of some great music.

Jazz star Louis Banks, who hails from the town, performed to huge crowds at the carnival.

Rock bands with hill roots - the Groove Suppa of Bombay (Mumbai) and the Full Circle of Kathmandu - also drew full houses.

Thousands of tourists - from the West and from across India - enjoyed rides on the famous "Toy Train", which passes through the world's highest railway station.

Local Nepali-speaking Gurkhas, Bengalis in their ear-covering monkey caps (to beat the cold) and heavy-drinking Punjabis had enough to dance about on Darjeeling's famous Mall every evening.

We will make sure nobody calls Darjeeling a dirty town any more Darjeeling municipal chairman Pasang Bhutia

"It was a memorable journey down the pages of history," said Geoffrey Lawson, whose grandfather worked as a tea estate manager in Darjeeling during the late 19th century.

"The ride on the train, the music, the tea-drinking ceremonies gave us an unforgettable experience," he said.

Sight and sound

The carnival showcased much of what is part of Darjeeling's treasured heritage.

Poetry-reading sessions, painting and photo exhibitions, tea-drinking ceremonies, a Land Rover rally, music concerts and ethnic food festivals - there was clearly a lot to choose from.

The 114-year-old Toy Train is a Unesco world heritage site

Plays by schoolchildren and the flower shows also attracted tourists.

Eminent citizens led a two-kilometre run for "Darjeeling and peace".

British and Germans, Spaniards and Italians - all from great soccer-playing nations - revelled in chungi, a local kind of football played with a ball made of leaves.

The Darjeeling carnival will now become an annual event.

"November is a great time for tourists and we want tourists to plan their holidays around the carnival to enjoy the sound and sight of Darjeeling," said Samir Sharma, one of the organisers.

The carnival was put together by the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, the town municipality and the state tourism department with support from the railways, the tea industry and citizens' groups.

Hotels across the hill town were full, local Darjeeling tea sold heavily at the retail outlets and tourists bought loads of local chocolates and pastries.

Historic journey

"It has been good business for all in Darjeeling," said Rajendra Baid, owner of the Swiss Hotel in Darjeeling, who heads the support group set up to "protect and defend" the 114-year-old rail link known as the Toy Train.

The train takes travellers on an 84-kilometre (52-mile) steam journey from Siliguri in north Bengal to Darjeeling through the world's highest railway station, Ghoom 2,259 metres (7,410 feet).

Darjeeling has been called the Queen of the Himalayas

"Some bureaucrats wanted to abolish the Toy Train because of losses," said Rajendra Baid.

"But the carnival has proved the enormous tourist potential of the area and the attraction of a steam train ride up the Himalayas is at the heart of the great Darjeeling experience. So this train will stay."

Mr Baid says chartering the train used to cost a fortune - a quarter of a million rupees ($5,500) - for 30 to 40 passengers.

"But the railway authorities have now become more practical and a charter may now cost about 40,000 rupees. That will be reasonable," Mr Baid told the BBC.

Clean-up

As the carnival was halfway through, the country's premier Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in Darjeeling began to celebrate its golden jubilee.

That brought some of India's greatest mountaineers to the town.

"Our courses are in great demand across the world. When we started in 1953, most of our trainees were from the army," says KS Thami, the HMI's vice-principal.

"Now we get a lot of foreigners because we train them at much higher altitudes than elsewhere in the world."

Tenzing Norgay, the first to climb Everest, was the first technical director of the institute.

Years of political and labour unrest, declining civic infrastructure and unplanned expansion had turned Darjeeling into a dirty town.

Just before the carnival, a drive to clean the town started and its walls were being painted afresh. Authorities say the cleaning drive will continue after the carnival.

"There's much to see around Darjeeling. Rafting in the Teesta river, the view of the great peaks like Kanchendzonga, the legendary tea gardens and so much more," says Pasang Bhutia, the chairman of Darjeeling municipality.

He is determined to live up to Mark Twain's description of the town as "the Queen of the Himalayas".

"We will make sure nobody calls Darjeeling a dirty town any more."