Monthly Photos Apr 2026 : The Toy Train of Darjeeling

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa. (The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

In February 2025, leaving behind my colleagues at the Institute—who never tire of proclaiming their love for tea, I was visiting Darjeeling. Alongside the tea plantations, what makes this town famous is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The track gauge on this line is 610 mm—known as a narrow gauge—and the train climbs slowly and steadily for nearly 8 hours along a route of just under 90 km from New Jalpaiguri to the terminus at Darjeeling. It feels as if the locomotive takes a breather after safely delivering passengers to the hilltop.

February 18, 2025
Darjeeling, West Bengal, India
OGURA, Satoshi