Hill station

External video
	Booknotes interview with Barbara Crossette on The Great Hill Stations of Asia, August 23, 1998, C-SPAN

A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European emigrants as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler. In the Indian context, most hill stations are at an altitude of approximately 1,000 to 2,500 metres (3,300 to 8,200 ft); very few are outside this range.

History

British India

Hill stations in British India were established for a variety of reasons. One of the first reasons in the early 1800s, was for the place to act as a sanitorium for the ailing family members of British officials.[1] After the rebellion of 1857, the British "sought further distance from what they saw as a disease-ridden land by [escaping] to the Himalayas in the north". Other factors included anxieties about the dangers of life in India, among them "fear of degeneration brought on by too long residence in a debilitating land". The hill stations were meant to reproduce the home country, illustrated in Lord Lytton's statement about Ootacamund, in the 1870s as having "such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud."[2] Shimla was officially made the "summer capital of India" in the 1860s and hill stations "served as vital centers of political and military power, especially after the 1857 revolt."[3][4]

Dane Kennedy, following Monika Bührlein, identifies three stages in the evolution of hill stations in India: high refuge, high refuge to hill station, and hill station to town. The first settlements started in the 1820s, primarily as sanitoria. In the 1840s and 1850s, there was a wave of new hill stations, with the main impetus being "places to rest and recuperate from the arduous life on the plains". In the second half of the 19th century, there was a period of consolidation with few new hill stations. In the final phase, "hill stations reached their zenith in the late nineteenth century. The political importance of the official stations was underscored by the inauguration of large and costly public-building projects."[3]^:14

List of hill stations

Most hill stations, listed by region:

Madagascar

Antsirabe, Madagascar

Antsirabe

Brazil

Costa Rica

Monteverde

United States

Bangladesh

Sajek Valley, Rangamati Hill District, Bangladesh, most popular among the Hill stations and Summer destinations in Bangladesh.

Cambodia

Former residence of King Sisowath Monivong at Phnom Bokor

Bokor Hill Station

China

Cyprus

Platres, Cyprus

Platres

Hong Kong

Victoria Peak

India

Hundreds of hill stations are located in India. The most popular hill stations include:

A beautiful sunrise scene at Munnar.

Nainital, Uttarakhand, India

Tea plantations in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India

Hill View (Munnar - Kerala)

Indonesia

Puncak, West Java, Indonesia

Iraq

Amadiya in northern Iraq.

Japan

Karuizawa in Nagano, Japan

Jordan

A few suburbs in Amman

Malaysia

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.

Myanmar

Nepal

Village of Namche Bazaar in Nepal

Pakistan

Murree, Pakistan's most popular hill station

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Punjab

Sindh

Balochistan

Ziarat

Gilgit Baltistan

Philippines

Baguio, Philippines

Sri Lanka

Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Nuwara Eliya

Syria

Bloudan, Syria

Vietnam

Da Lat, Vietnam

Czech Republic

Brno

Australia

Mount Macedon, Victoria

Bardon, Queensland

Victoria

South Australia

Queensland

Western Australia

New South Wales

References

Dane Keith Kennedy (1996). The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the britishBritishRaj. University of California Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-520-20188-0.
Barbara D. Metcalf; Thomas R. Metcalf (2002). A Concise History of India. Cambridge University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-521-63974-3.
Kennedy, Dane (1996). The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 19 Aug 2014.
Vipin Pubby (1996). Shimla Then and Now. Indus Publishing. pp. 17–34. ISBN 978-81-7387-046-0. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
Walters, Trudie; Duncan, Tara (2 Oct 2017). Second Homes and Leisure: New perspectives on a forgotten relationship. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 9781317400264.

Bibliography

Crossette, Barbara. The Great Hill Stations of Asia. ISBN 0-465-01488-7.
Kennedy, Dane. The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj (Full text, searchable). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. ISBN 0-520-20188-4, ISBN 978-0520201880.

External links

Media related to Hill stations at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of hill station at Wiktionary
Hill Stations in Nepal

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[Kennedy1996-1] Dane Keith Kennedy (1996). The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the britishBritishRaj. University of California Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-520-20188-0.

[MetcalfMetcalf2002-2] Barbara D. Metcalf; Thomas R. Metcalf (2002). A Concise History of India. Cambridge University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-521-63974-3.

[kennedyDane-3] Kennedy, Dane (1996). The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 19 Aug 2014.

[Vipin1996-4] Vipin Pubby (1996). Shimla Then and Now. Indus Publishing. pp. 17–34. ISBN 978-81-7387-046-0. Retrieved 16 August 2013.

[JAPANHILLSTATION-5] Walters, Trudie; Duncan, Tara (2 Oct 2017). Second Homes and Leisure: New perspectives on a forgotten relationship. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 9781317400264.