Dharamshala Travel Guide — History & Tourist Information

Dharamshala began as a modest British-era cantonment town in the Kangra Valley, its name literally meaning "spiritual dwelling" or rest house, after a shelter once built here for travellers. In 1905, a major earthquake devastated the town and much of the Kangra region, and the British subsequently relocated some administrative functions elsewhere, leaving Dharamshala a quiet hill outpost for decades.

The town's modern identity was reshaped in 1959–60, when the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet following the Chinese takeover and the Indian government offered him refuge in the upper part of Dharamshala, McLeod Ganj — itself a former British summer outpost. He established the Tibetan government-in-exile there, and thousands of Tibetan refugees followed over subsequent decades, building monasteries, schools and the Tsuglagkhang temple complex.

Since then, McLeod Ganj has grown into a global centre for Tibetan Buddhist culture and the Tibetan exile movement, often referred to as "Little Lhasa," while lower Dharamshala remains the district's administrative hub and, since 2017, the second capital of Himachal Pradesh. The dramatic Dhauladhar mountain backdrop has also made the area a growing base for trekking and paragliding.