Everton Villa

“Everton Villa was situated on the outskirts of the Development Area, not far from Panorama, which meant that it was about two miles from the bazaar. Like Panorama it occupied a broad hillside terrace, and like Panorama it commanded a magnificent view of the Darjeeling foothills, as well as the foothills of western Sikkim. Like Panorama, too, it was not overlooked by any other building and was strangely quiet, not only at night but even during the day.

Oblong in shape, and with a roof of so low a pitch that it was almost flat, the isolated, unpretentious bungalow contained three large rooms at the front and three much smaller ones at the back. The middle room at the front, which was very large, opened on to a narrow veranda running the whole length of the building. Behind, there was a kitchen, storeroom, and servants’ quarters, and on one side a square of lawn in the centre of which stood a small monkey puzzle tree.

Access was by means of a flight of stone steps that from the pukka road connecting the Upper and Lower Cart Roads ran down to the square of lawn.”

When Sangharakshita first saw Everton Villa it had been empty for a couple of years — the roof leaked, some windows were broken, and patches of mould had developed on the walls. However, the owners repaired and decorated it within a week, and by mid-September he had moved into the newly painted and varnished bungalow.

A few days after moving in, he celebrated Anagarika Dharmapala’s birth anniversary, and resumed work on A Survey of Buddhism.

— In the Sign of the Golden Wheel