Tea is Darjeeling’s original raison d’etre – and the source of much of its past strife. Before the British selected it as a summer retreat in the early 19th century, this region was inhabited by a sparse population of forest-dwelling Lepcha and Limbu people. It was to change drastically after the introduction of tea. Darjeeling was dramatically deforested, indigenous people were displaced, and the population swelled with Nepali, Sikkim and Bhutanese workers brought in to build infrastructure and labour on the tea plantations.

Today the British are long gone, but the cultural make-up of Darjeeling has been permanently shaped by their presence. After they left India, their labourers stayed, and wealthy Indians from the plains bought up their plantations and cottages. Later, Tibetan refugees flooded in, following the annexation of Tibet by China in the 1950s. The result of all this human upheaval is a unique cultural and ethnic mix found only in Darjeeling.

The lingua franca here isn’t Bengali but Nepali, and the local people identify as Indian Gorkha – a mixed cultural identity with roots across the Himalayas. This distinctive local flavour is palpable the moment you arrive in town. Grubby streets are brightened by splashes of colour: shiny fruit and veg; Tibetan woven blankets; baskets of yellow-and-orange marigolds. Stalls sell everything from samosas to cream doughnuts to thukpa noodle soup. Buddhist and Hindu traditions coexist peacefully, sometimes even in the same temple – at Mahakala, on Observatory Hill, a Hindu priest and a Buddhist lama sit literally side-by-side.

Darjeeling’s Gorkhas have long campaigned for their own separate state, and every time another region gains autonomy (Telangana in 2014, for instance) there is a flare-up of protests. But though tempers sometimes run high, they are directed at the powers that be. Darjeeling is otherwise a peaceful and welcoming place, with no end of things to see and do.

Of course, the landscape is the big draw. Swarms of people cram into Jeeps every morning to see the sunrise from Tiger Hill, illuminating the white caps of Everest and Khangchendzonga before creeping down into lush, green valleys filled with puzzle-like tea plantations and forests of sal and oak.

There are many ways to enjoy Darjeeling’s natural surroundings. A visit to a local plantation will introduce you to the surprisingly complex process involved in producing the ‘champagne of teas’. Treks will take you further into the surrounding hills, and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, founded by Sherpa Tenzing, has a fascinating museum dedicated to early expeditions up the world’s highest peaks. Best of all, however, is the UNESCO-listed Darjeeling Railway, known locally as the ‘toy train’, which has puffed effortfully past spectacular mountain panoramas since 1881.