Tibet in India — the Himalayan hill station where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, Tibetan monasteries and prayer flags colour the cedar forests, and trekkers set out on multiday routes through the Dhauladhar range above McLeod Ganj
Dharamsala — specifically the upper town of McLeod Ganj — is the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and home to the 14th Dalai Lama, who has lived here since fleeing Tibet in 1959. The town has become a cosmopolitan hub of Tibetan Buddhist culture in exile: monasteries, debating monks, thangka painting studios, and Tibetan medicine centres sit alongside Israeli backpacker cafes, yoga retreats, and trekking outfitters. The Tsuglagkhang (Central Cathedral) complex — the main Tibetan temple in McLeod Ganj — houses a gilded Avalokiteśvara statue and the Tibet Museum documenting the Chinese o…
The Dharamsala area was part of the Kangra kingdom, one of the oldest princely states in the Himalayas, before British annexation in 1846. The British developed the lower town as a cantonment and hill station for the Bengal Infantry; the Upper Town (McLeod Ganj, named after Lt. Governor David McLeod) was developed for European officers' residences. An 1905 earthquake largely destroyed the British settlement and the British largely abandoned the station, leaving it as a quiet Himachali town. In 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso fled Tibet following the failed Tibetan Uprising against Chi…