Dalingkot

Dalingkot lies among the lower Himalayan hills east of the Teesta River. Its name means “Daling fort,” and the district that later became Kalimpong was administered through this fortified height together with Damsang. The two hill forts controlled routes and villages in territory originally held by Sikkim, where Lepchas formed an early population alongside migrant Bhutia, Limbu and Kirati communities.

In 1718 the Kingdom of Bhutan annexed the region and held it for about 150 years. The hills were thinly peopled, and authority remained tied to a small number of fortified heights and to the movement of people along valley paths, rather than to a large urban centre.

Dalingkot’s older identity survives in the name of the fort, a reminder of a landscape once organised around high defences, local communities and neighbouring mountain kingdoms.