Fotos

Mongpong is a small settlement on the approachway to the Darjeeling hills. The nearest well-known and well-connected place is Sevok, about 5 kms away, and famous for the Coronation bridge (Baagh-pool).

There is a small village just on the banks of the river Teesta. The villagers grow paddy and maize. This is the season when the elephants visit the fields frequently, and all the villagers have to remain alert all night to chase them off with drums and torches.

Life here is calm and peaceful. People do not have the tension of a cosmopolitan life. Villagers mostly work in their own land and eat what they produce. Some members work with the forest department and a few have gone out to neighboring towns to do something different,... like driving a car, or work in a small farm. This is what I came to know from this man, who belongs to the Tamang community.

Tamang are a ethnic group of Tibeto-Burman origin from Nepal and the hills of North Bengal & Sikkim.