[4][5] The district is headquartered at Kalimpong, which grew to prominence as a market town for Indo-Tibetan trade during the British period.

[10][11] The area was sparsely populated by Indian Hindus, Lepchas, and migrant Bhutia, Limbu and Kirati tribes.

After the Anglo-Bhutan War in 1864, the Treaty of Sinchula (1865) was signed, in which certain "hill territory to east of the Teesta River" was ceded to British India.

Eden mentioned that the people there were well-disposed to the British administration and had frequently traded with the Darjeeling area to the west of Teesta in defiance of the Bhutanese authorities.

[16] The temperate climate prompted the British to develop the town as an alternative hill station to Darjeeling, to escape the scorching summer heat in the plains.

The movement of people into the area transformed Kalimpong from a small hamlet with a few houses, to a thriving town with economic prosperity.

Britain assigned a plot within Kalimpong to the influential Bhutanese Dorji family, through which trade and relations with Bhutan flowed.

[15] The young missionary (and aspiring writer and poet) Aeneas Francon Williams, aged 24, arrived in Kalimpong in 1910 to take up the post of assistant schoolmaster at Dr. Graham's Homes,[21] where he later became Bursar and remained working at the school for the next fourteen years.

By 1911, the population comprised many ethnic groups, including Nepalis, Lepchas, Tibetans, Muslims, the Anglo-Indian communities.

In 1962, the permanent closure of Jelep La after the Sino-Indian War disrupted trade between Tibet and India, and led to a slowdown in Kalimpong's economy.

In 1976, the visiting Dalai Lama consecrated the Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery, which houses many of the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures.

Riots between the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the West Bengal government reached a stand-off after a forty-day strike.

The town was virtually under siege, and the state government called in the Indian army to maintain law and order.

Since 2007, the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state has been revived by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and its supporters in the Darjeeling hills.

[24] The Kalimpong I block consists of 18 gram panchayats; Bong, Kalimpong, Samalbong, Tista, Dr. Graham's Homes, Lower Echhay, Samthar, Neembong, Dungra, Upper Echhay, Seokbir, Bhalukhop, Yangmakum, Pabringtar, Sindebong, Kafer Kanke Bong, Pudung and Tashiding.

[26] The Kalimpong II block consists of 7 gram panchayats, namely Dalapchand, Gitdabling, Lava-Gitabeong, Lolay, Payong, Shangse, and Shantuk.

[26] The Gorubathan block consists of 11 gram panchayats, namely Dalim, Gorubathan–I, Gorubathan–II, Patengodak, Todey Tangta, Kumai, Pokhreybong, Samsing, Aahaley, Nim and Rongo.

[37][38][39][40] State Agricultural Management & Extension Training Institute (SAMETI) from Narendrapur, proposed the GI registration of Kalonunia rice.