Wool, Toothbrushes, and Beards: Kalimpong and the "Golden Era" of Cross-Border Trade

In the first issues of the Himalayan Times, a locally produced newspaper, Kalimpong is described as having a high potential for development, due to the caravans of wool making their way from Tibet through Kalimpong and on to India, the US, and beyond. In the years to follow, the Kalimpong trading scene became a well-known locus for the sharing of geopolitical knowledge and the forging of new economic networks from far-flung locations. From a mule staging ground to a retail hub for commodities such as Santa Claus beards, this paper argues that an examination of the changes in mid-twentieth century Kalimpong-based trade is a good starting point from which to investigate larger scale geopolitical shifts and the restructuring of social and economic inequalities in the
Himalayas.