Kalimpong district in the context of "Darjeeling Himalayan hill region"

The Tamang people (རྟ་དམག་; Devanagari: तामाङ; tāmāṅ) are an ethnic group living in Nepal, Northeast India and southern Bhutan. In Nepal, they are concentrated in the central hilly and Himalayan regions and constituted over 1.6 million people in the 2021 census. In India, Tamang people live in the state of Sikkim, in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal and in Assam. In Bhutan, they live foremost in the southern foothills including Tsirang District, Dagana District, Samtse District, Chukha District, Sarpang District and Samdrup Jongkhar District. The Tamang language is the fifth most-spoken language in Nepal.

The Sherpa people (Standard Tibetan: ཤར་པ།, romanized: shar pa) are a Tibetan ethnic group native to the mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.Most Sherpas live in eastern Nepal: the provinces of Bagmati (mainly in the districts of Dolakha, Sindhupalchok and Rasuwa) and Koshi (mainly in the districts of Solukhumbu, Sankhuwasabha and Taplejung). Some live north of Kathmandu, in the Bigu and Helambu regions. They can also be found in Tingri County, Bhutan, and the Indian states of Sikkim and northern West Bengal (the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts). Sherpas establish monasteries known as gompas in these regions, where they follow their local traditions. Tengboche was the first celibate monastery in Solu-Khumbu.

The Sherpa language is part of the southern branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, mixed with eastern (Khams Tibetan) and central Tibetan dialects. This language is separate from Lhasa Tibetan, and is unintelligible to Lhasa speakers.

Teesta River (Bengali:তিস্তা,Tistā)is a 414 km (257 mi) long river that rises in the Pauhunri Mountain of eastern Himalayas, flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal and subsequently enters Bangladesh through Rangpur division. In Bangladesh, it merges with Jamuna River which after meeting some other major rivers of the Bengal delta finally falls into the Bay of Bengal. It drains an area of 12,540 km (4,840 sq mi). In India, the Teesta River flows through Mangan District, Gangtok District, Pakyong District, Kalimpong district, Darjeeling District, Jalpaiguri District, and Cooch Behar District as well as the cities of Rangpo, Jalpaiguri, and Mekhliganj. In Bangladesh, it flows through Lalmonirhat District, Rangpur District, Kurigram District and Gaibandha District. It joins the Jamuna River at Phulchhari Upazila in Bangladesh. 305 km (190 mi) of the river lies in India and 109 km (68 mi) in Bangladesh. The Teesta is the largest river of Sikkim and second largest river of West Bengal after the Ganges.

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) is a semi-autonomous council consisting of the northernmost areas of the Indian state of West Bengal. The GTA was formed in 2012 to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 1988 and administered the Darjeeling hills for 23 years.

GTA presently consists of three hill subdivisions Darjeeling, Kurseong, Mirik, some areas of Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district and the whole of Kalimpong district under its authority.

Darjeeling District is the northernmost district of the state of West Bengal in eastern India in the foothills of the Himalayas, in the eastern Sivalik Hills.The district is famous for its hill station and Darjeeling tea. Darjeeling is the district headquarters. Kurseong, Siliguri and Mirik, three major towns in the district, are the subdivisional headquarters of the district. Kalimpong was one of the subdivisions but on 14 February 2017, it officially became a separate Kalimpong district.

Geographically, the district can be divided into two broad divisions: the hills and the plains. The entire hilly region of the district comes under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a semi-autonomous administrative body under the state government of West Bengal. This body covers the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Mirik and the district of Kalimpong. The foothills of Darjeeling Himalayas, which comes under the Siliguri subdivision, is known as the Terai. The district is bounded on the north by Sikkim, on the south by Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal, southwest by Kishanganj district of Bihar state, on the southeast by Panchagarh district of Bangladesh, on the east by Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts, and on the west by easternmost Koshi Province of Nepal. Darjeeling district has a length from north to south of 18 miles (29 km) and a breadth from east to west of 16 miles (26 km). As of 2011, it was the second least populous district of West Bengal (out of 19), after Dakshin Dinajpur.