Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj

Dharamsala has been the home of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government who have been in exile for the last 60 years.

The above image of the Dalai Lama was taken inside the temple at the Tibetan cultural centre.

McLeod Ganj is a suburb of Dharamsala and technically McLeod Ganj is the name of the hilltop retreat village where the Dalai Lama resides.

His house is located at the Dalai Lama temple and he was inside at the time we were there. If you wish to meet him you need to make an appointment several days in advance at least.

We were fortunate to see a service during our visit. We didn’t stay for long or go properly inside as the readings were in Tibetan.

The Kalachakra temple is in the same building and behind the Dalai Lama temple. Kalachakra means ‘wheel of time’ and is an important aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism of Tibet.

The temple walls contained colourful and detailed paintings. Inside were also ornate golden statues some of which had offerings placed beside them.

Many prayer wheels surround the temple of the Dalai Lama which contain thousands of mantras. They are to be spun in a clockwise direction.

Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama who was born in 563 BCE to a wealthy family. He rejected his rich and affluent lifestyle to practice extreme self discipline. After 49 consecutive days of meditation he became the Buddha, the enlightened one.

This monument is dedicated to the Tibetans who lost their lives while campaigning to free Tibet during the last 60 years.

Buddhist monks stroll through the streets together with locals, tourists, dogs, cows, mopeds and taxis.

McLeod Ganj was named after Donald Friell McLeod who was an Anglo Indian civil servant who served as the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab between 1865-1870. ‘Ganj’ is the Persian word for neighbourhood.

McLeod Ganj is also sometimes known as ‘Little Lhasa’ as the Tibetans try to maintain their culture. Tibetan street food such as momos can be found in abundance as well as a range of quality restaurants serving Tibetan dishes.

Restaurant McLlo is well known and has been visited by the rich and famous. Following our visit to the Dalai Lama temple, the 8 of us (minus Maddy our guide) had lunch in there.

Richard looking at the restaurant photos trying to spot famous people! Restaurant McLlo had a great atmosphere with friendly and welcoming staff. They also served alcohol which not every restaurant (or our hotel) does.

I enjoyed vegetable thukpa, a traditional Tibetan noodle soup. This tasted delicious and is something I hadn’t had since my Tamang Heritage and Langtang Valley trek in Nepal in October 2019. Langtang Valley is close to the Tibetan border and this was often a lunchtime staple.

After lunch on this day we had free time to ourselves and everyone did their own thing. After another short wander through the streets and past shops selling ethnic goods I headed back to the hotel and spent some time in my room drafting these blog posts.

This was in between the power cuts! Today had been a mix of a bit of sun interspersed with thundery showers and hailstones. And it was cold at only 4 degrees max.

Later in the evening Richard, Nikki, Paul, Jude and myself got a couple of taxis for the 1.5 km trip into McLoud Ganj central and had a fabulous evening back in Restaurant McLlo.

This time we shared a couple of bottles of local red wine (which was very good) and I had a Tibetan vegetable chow chow! The total bill, including the wine and a few beers was just 1200 rupees (£12) per person. The taxi was just 200 (£2) each way.

Tibetan Cultural Centre

En route from Mandi, about an hour before we reached Dharamsala we stopped at Norbulingka Institute which was established to help preserve Tibetan culture.

I saw many of these during my trekking in Nepal. Buddhist stupas are mounds, the earliest of which contained some of the ashes of Buddha.

You can wander through and watch Tibetan arts and crafts people at work in their workshops and studios.

The Tibetan centre shop sold intricately hand crafted wall hangings. While some of them were around 100,000 rupees (£1000) each to buy, they represented many hours of work. Each one had a deep Bhuddist meaning associated with it.

The cultural centre had two restaurants and we had a delicious buffet lunch in the Tibetan style one.

All food was vegetarian and a range of dishes including egg plant with ginger, cheese momos and something called dalma khan and bhindi masala were among those from which to choose.

Hotel Spring Valley Resort

This was a good quality 3-4 star hotel with extras such as slippers and a hairdryer (for the first time on the trip). The above is the view from the terrace just outside my 2nd floor hotel room.

Bhagsu Naag is an ancient 5000 year old Hindu temple located in McLeod Ganj. It had a cold water swimming pool for cleansing. This was a 10 minute walk from our hotel and was on the way to the waterfall.

Maddy lead us up the mountainside for about 20 minutes where we passed a few rustic little cafes serving traditional food.

And we saw some lovely rhododendrons.

The 20 m high Bhagsu Nag waterfall is a popular picnic spot and is also a place of pilgrimage.

This 18th century gothic style church can be found just outside McLeod Ganj and contains the tomb of a viceroy.

The Church of St John is in a forest of Himalayan cedar trees which surrounds Dharamsala.

Getting to Dharamshala

In rainy and stormy conditions we were driven along twisty winding mountain roads in the mini bus for 4 hours from Mandi to the Tibetan culture centre. After the visit and lunch we had one further hour before we reached our hotel at McLeod Ganj.

Our mini bus journey took us through the foothills of the Himalayas where we could see snow capped peaks in the distance but with the poor weather these spectacular views were not showcased at their best.

Summary

During our short two night stay I learned a great deal about the tragic plight of the Tibetans. They feel their spiritual traditions and unique culture has been repressed for over 60 years since the Tibetan government failed to become independent from the Republic of China in 1959.

But this is a non-judgmental and non-political travel blog so I will refrain from sharing my views.

Finally on the morning we were leaving Dharamsala we had some lovely clear blue skies.