Himalayan Times (1954)

Eight ^Sm»I«t».i 'C'l'iic"

THE RUINS OF DALING [ORT *

N. R MUK.HEFvJEE

The ruins of Daling
fort- are situated at a
distance of 0 miles from
Sombaria Hat and at an
elevation of 3543 feet.
The road to Daling is
j,«epable towards Ambiok
Busty upto. the 9lh mile
of the road and thence,
a steep climb to the Da-
ling hill on the top of
which the ruins of the
old fort are situated: At
the foot ot Daling hill
and by the Dating coast
of the Chell river, Ambiok
tea estate is situated on
a flat, pleasant valley.
Along the western side of
the Daling hill, flows I he
Dalim river, seperWing
- Daling hill from the Da-
lingknte forests.

From the valley of
Ambiok - tea estate and
from Pankhaaari, a view
of the Daling hill is quite
impressive: It makes one
wonder about the - merit
of selecting'such an invul-
nerable hill -lop for erec-
ting a fort of this, type.
The slopes of the Daling
hill are dangerously steep
upto the expanse of some
2000- feet .and not only '
at war but at. ordinary-
climbing even it is quite
difficult to walk on the
same, not to talk about
climbing at the. top of
the hill along this steep

slope. I was told by local
villagers that even goats
can not move on the
same for grazing purposes
The ruins are situated
on lands owned by the
Khasmahal ^Department.
Most of thevrtiins are now
covered with, small trees
and shrubV making it
difficult to the visitor to
ascertain the proper nature
of the ruins. If these are
cleared pff and the ruins
are made visible without
the chance of one's going
wild in finding them out,
the ruirts of Daling fort
will surely attract a good
number of visitors.

Fortunately, 1 met
one A nek on Dukpa mid
his wife at the site of
the ruins. They live at
Dalim Busty, in a house
which is situated nearest
to the ruins. He told me
that his great-grand father
used to work as an orderly
in, the Daling fort He
could not speak anything
concerning the fort and
it's destruction He showed
me, however, a cannon
ball, kept with him. which
was found in the debris
of the fort by his father
That was an used British
cannon ball pspbablv fired
on Daling fort during the
British-Bhutan war, when
the fort was destroyed.

February 21, 1051

From the top of the
Daling hill one gets a
commanding sway over the
valleys and planes sorroun-
diug the fort area. The
ruins are spread over an
area of pome 2 acres of
land at the main site of
the fortress. There was a
six •feet wide, rock built
bastion encircling the top
of the hill within "widen
there were paths, residen-
tial quarters, under-ground
chambers, trenches; and
water reservoirs. Along
the encircling line of the
bastion there w re p oba-
bly some five charging
posts from whieh stones
were flung down to the.
valley The p! utb wis1
plastered with a mixture
of lime and sards All
the walls were extremely
woll built and some reai-
d utial quarters inside the
bastion were probably
double stor»y»d j
The ruins of the,fort
are interesting to the rural
people living around, who
point it out to their child-
ren and tell tiiem .-tor; es
about kings and queens
who lived there. Most of
• hese folk stories seem to
be concocted and imagini-
tive They spw.ik about
the royal grandeur and
power with which the fort
used to rule the "king
dom". I also- heard a
story about an women v
who for her lust of gold
showed the way to the
{Continued on page 10)

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