Mcleod Ganj
Especially if the multi-globe chandeliers are alight, The Vaikunth's expansive marble lobby offers an impressively stylish welcome, perused by a long-eared Buddha relief. A lift accesses 24 relatively luxurious, contemporary rooms, all with kettle, fridge and AC, but you'll need to pick the pricier 'Executive' versions for vast picture windows surveying the valley.
Number 307 is hard to beat. Some other rooms have limited or less interesting views and one or two have a slightly musty aroma.
0.24 MILES
McLeod's main focus for visiting pilgrims, monks and most tourists is the Tsuglagkhang complex, a custard-coloured concrete monastic village that's home…
3.18 MILES
Soothingly set amid bamboo, trees and flowing water, the delightful Norbulingka Institute, 6km southeast of Dharamsala, was established in 1988 to teach…
22.55 MILES
Between Palampur and Bir, don't miss a stop in Baijnath, whose uninteresting main-street buildings hide one of Himachal's most exquisite ancient temples…
Lakshmi Narayan Temple Complex
25.19 MILES
Far and away Chamba's top historical attraction, this temple compound crowning Dogra Bazaar contains a line of six beautifully sculpted stone sikharas …
24.85 MILES
Meaning 'honoured flame', Jawal-Ji is Jawalmukhi's main temple and raison d'être, enshrining natural eternal flames that are said to mark the legendary…
15.8 MILES
Rare for North India, Masrur's elaborate if severely eroded sandstone sikharas were hewn from living rock between the 8th and 10th centuries. With a…
0.25 MILES
This must-see, two-storey museum sets out to remind visitors of Tibet's history as an independent nation, mourning the Chinese occupation (since 1949) and…
26.5 MILES
The upland area of Dhainkund (2745m) is the most uplifting of many beauty spots around Dalhousie, with a 360-degree panorama encompassing the Pir Pinjal…
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Through a gallery-cafe and film screenings, this organisation tells the tales of individual Tibetan lives as a way to illustrate Tibet's plight.
2. Gu-Chu-Sum Movement Gallery
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A charity that assists current and former Tibetan political prisoners, Gu-Chu-Sum has a gallery displaying harrowing photos chronicling oppression in…
0.24 MILES
McLeod's main focus for visiting pilgrims, monks and most tourists is the Tsuglagkhang complex, a custard-coloured concrete monastic village that's home…
0.25 MILES
This must-see, two-storey museum sets out to remind visitors of Tibet's history as an independent nation, mourning the Chinese occupation (since 1949) and…
5. Tsuglagkhang Main Temple Room
0.28 MILES
Spiritually (if certainly not architecturally) the Tsuglagkhang's 1969 central temple room is the exiles’ concrete equivalent of the Jokhang temple in…
0.28 MILES
Visiting the Tsuglagkhang clockwise, as is required by Buddhist convention, you pass a prostrating area then a door leads into the westernmost building,…
0.29 MILES
Ringed by colourful prayer wheels, this recently built temple between Temple and Jogiwara Rds is generally known as the Chorten (Tibetan for stupa), since…
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This flourishing arts school keeps traditional Tibetan dance, music and colourful folk opera (lhamo) very much alive among the exile community. Irregular…