Lebong owes its name to the Lepcha word 'Alibong' that refers to 'tongue shaped spur'
Lebong is is a valley roughly 1,000 feet below and 8 miles away from Darjeeling town. This place was a great draw for the early British settlers owing to its temperate climate. This place has a small race course called Lebong Race Course (LRC). Known formerly as the "Darjeeling Gymkhana Races," horse racing started at LRC in 1925. Jockeys regarded this race course as one of the toughest in the country. Incidentally, the LRC was also the only course where the horses ran counter-clockwise owing to the nature of the land. Racing stopped in 1984 as the when the race organizer, the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club, suffered large losses in maintenaning the Lebong Race Course.