Mungpoo – Tagore’s Summer Retreat with Cinchona Plantations

✨ Mungpoo – Tagore’s Summer Retreat with Cinchona Plantations

🌿 Where Poetry Meets the Mountains

Some places you travel to; others you feel.

Mungpoo – Tagore’s Summer Retreat with Cinchona Plantations is one such place, tucked away in the arms of the Eastern Himalayas. Here, the breeze hums with verses, the forests echo the stories of yesteryears, and every turn of the mountain trail feels like a tribute to nature’s soft poetry. Located just 35 km from Darjeeling, Mungpoo isn’t just scenic—it’s spiritually evocative.

As a wanderer, my journey to Mungpoo wasn’t just a trip; it was a homecoming of emotions. The very soul of this hamlet carries the breath of Rabindranath Tagore, who stayed here multiple times, mesmerized by its tranquility, and wrote letters and poems inspired by the land, its people, and its serenity.

🚗 Getting to Mungpoo: A Journey Through Mist and Tea Gardens

🚌 Routes from Major Cities

  • From Kolkata: Train to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) → Shared/Private Cab to Mungpoo (approx. 3.5 hours).
  • From Siliguri: Around 50 km drive via Peshok Road
  • From Darjeeling: Around 35 km drive, passing through gorgeous loops and pine-covered hills

✈ Nearest Airport

  • Bagdogra Airport: Approx. 60 km away

The road journey itself is a sensory delight—tea gardens, rolling clouds, and sharp turns unveil one secret after another.

🙏 Tagore’s Legacy: Where the Bard Found Peace

🏫 Rabindra Bhavan (Tagore House)

A modest house with green roofs, surrounded by cinchona groves—this is where Tagore spent his days in 1938 and 1939. The home is now a museum that preserves his handwritten letters, framed poems, walking stick, and his favorite chair by the window that overlooks the valley.

There’s a certain holiness in silence here. I remember just standing still inside the room and imagining the soft scratch of his pen against paper, as he watched clouds drift through the valleys.

A bronze bust of Tagore greets visitors outside, and local schoolchildren often recite his verses nearby during special events.

🌿 The Green Heart: Cinchona Plantations and Botanical Heritage

🌿 Cinchona Cultivation

Mungpoo is home to India’s first cinchona plantation, introduced by the British in 1862 for extracting quinine—a medicine for malaria. Even today, the gentle undulating plantations spread across the slopes like green velvet.

🌺 Lloyd Botanical Garden (Nearby)

Located near Darjeeling (35 km away), this extension of botanical richness showcases medicinal plants, orchids, and Himalayan flora that connect back to Mungpoo’s ecological significance.

Walking amidst the plantations with dew-drenched leaves brushing my knees, I felt part of something ancient and healing.

🍽️ Local Flavors: The Taste of the Hills

🍲 Must-Try Dishes

  • Thukpa: Hot noodle soup with veggies or meat
  • Phagshapa: Pork with radish and dry red chili
  • Kinema: Fermented soybean curry
  • Aloo Tama: Potato and bamboo shoot curry
  • Churpee with Niguru: Yak cheese with wild fern

The meals are served with simple smiles in homestays, often cooked over woodfire, giving every dish an earthy authenticity.

☕ Don’t Miss:

Locally made organic tea, handpicked wild honey, and herbal cinchona-based teas from the plantation outlets.

🏞️ Places to Visit in and Around Mungpoo

📷 Mungpoo Monastery

A small, colorful monastery perched on a hill. The prayers, the bells, and the view from here create a deep sense of peace.

💼 Cinchona Directorate Museum

A hidden gem that showcases the science and colonial history of cinchona production, tools, and its journey in India.

👅 Rungli Rungliot Tea Garden (18 km)

A lesser-known but immensely scenic tea garden where you can walk through lush lanes and sip some of the finest first-flush teas.

⛰ Ahal Dara Viewpoint (25 km)

You can watch Mount Kanchenjunga glow like molten gold at sunrise. Ideal for an early morning ride from Mungpoo.

🛅 When to Visit Mungpoo

🌟 Best Season

  • Spring to Early Summer (March to June): Flowers, clear skies
  • Autumn to Winter (October to February): Pleasant weather, clear mountain views

⛈ Avoid

  • July to September (Monsoon): Roads might be slippery and landslide-prone

The winter mornings wrapped in mist and the golden rays falling on the cinchona leaves is a sight etched in my heart forever.

🛍️ Where to Stay in Mungpoo

🏡 Accommodation Types

  • Homestays: Warm hospitality, local food, cost-effective
  • Heritage Lodge: Former colonial-era quarters, now refurbished into charming mountain lodges

Cost Range: INR 1200 to 2500 per night with meals

Waking up in a wooden cottage with the smell of fog and orchids outside was a luxury of its own kind.

✉️ Travel Tips and Essentials

🌞 Essentials to Carry

  • Woollens (nights can be chilly)
  • Medicines for motion sickness
  • Camera & Binoculars
  • Walking shoes for plantation strolls
  • Reusable water bottle & eco-friendly toiletries

🌐 Connectivity

  • Mobile network: Spotty for some operators
  • Internet: Available at select accommodations

🌿 Nearby Hidden Gems to Explore

🌄 Sittong (25 km)

Another orange-scented retreat famous for its orchards and ethnic Lepcha culture

🌄 Takdah (22 km)

A vintage hill station with British bungalows and gardens

🌲 Lamahatta (28 km)

Peaceful forest trails, ideal for couples and nature lovers

🌲 Tinchuley (30 km)

A quiet mountain hamlet offering panoramic views of Teesta valley

🌟 Cultural Events and Celebrations

🌿 Rabindra Jayanti (May)

Celebrated with poetry recitations, Tagore’s songs, and processions at Rabindra Bhavan.

🌹 Cinchona Blooming Festival (Local)

During spring, the plantations host walks and local stalls to celebrate the blooming season.

I had the fortune to attend the local Rabindra Jayanti celebration here—with school children singing Rabindrasangeet in unison, under fluttering prayer flags. Pure magic.

🌍 Why Mungpoo is the Poet’s Paradise

It’s hard to describe the feeling of sitting beside Tagore’s window, watching the fog roll in, and listening to nothing but silence. Mungpoo doesn’t try to impress; it simply exists in beauty.

It’s where time slows down. Where letters come alive. Where leaves tell stories. If you want to breathe in the air that once inspired one of the world’s greatest poets, Mungpoo is your calling.

📢 Book Your Mungpoo Retreat with Sonakshi Travels

Let Sonakshi Travels craft your poetic escape to the heart of the hills.

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🛏️ Comfort Meets Wilderness — Book a Luxury Sundarban Tour Package!
Enjoy cozy stays, delicious food, and thrilling safaris with personalized services.

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🛶 A Sundarban Tour teaches you to sail where the forest ends and the river begins

Our Mungpoo packages include:

  • Pickup & drop from NJP/Bagdogra
  • Guided Tagore heritage walk
  • Cinchona plantation tour
  • Organic village meals & homestay

📢 Contact Sonakshi Travels Today

Sonakshi Travels
📞 WhatsApp: +91 7980469744
Your stories begin here, among the mists of Mungpoo.

Mungpoo – Tagore’s Summer Retreat with Cinchona Plantations is not a destination you check off a list. It’s a feeling you carry home. A quiet presence that lingers in your poetry, your photos, your silence.

If you’re seeking not just a trip, but a soulful experience that connects heritage, healing, and Himalayan charm—then Mungpoo is waiting for you.

💕 Bookmark this memory. Wander the words. Discover Mungpoo.