From the plains of Bengal right up to the high altitude passes which border with Tibet, wherever you travel this is a place of intensely captivating views looking steeply down into valleys and up to peaks and ridges. The further north you travel, the higher and more dramatic it becomes, with the Kanchenjunga range never far from sight.

Long before historical records began, the indigenous Lepcha people inhabited and cultivated this land. Yet the Buddhist influence from Tibet intensified, culminating into the Namgyal monarchy rule from 1640. Nepal and Bhutan encroached on the kingdom over several centuries, before the British colonial powers intervened for reasons of trade, and political influence – as China intensified its grip on Tibet.