Missionary being taken up hill on a litter, Darjeeling, ca.1890

"Darjeeling. Miss [?] going up the hill to her work in her Dandy…" The town of Darjeeling, in the Eastern Himalayan Field, was established by Arthur Campbell and Lieutenant Robert Napier, it developed as a sanatorium and hill station, and was used by the British as a summer resort. The Church of Scotland founded a mission there, under the supervision of the Reverend William Macfarlane, in 1870. The region has a large ethnic mix with up to ten languages spoken there these include the Lepcha, Nepalese and Bhutanese peoples. Macfarlane set up a number of schools in the area extending his work to Kalimpong and Sikkim. "DANDY -- A kind of vehicle used in Himalaya, consisting of a strong cloth slung like a hammock to a bamboo staff, and carried by two (or more) men. The traveller [sic] can either sit sideways, or lie on his back" -- Hobson - Jobson. "A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases and of Kindred Terms". 2nd ed. London: John Murray, 1902 p.296.