McLeod Ganj

McLeod Ganj or McLeodganj (pronounced /məˈklaʊd ˌɡʌndʒ/) is a suburb of Dharamshala, in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is known as "Little Lhasa" as the Tibetan government-in-exile is headquartered here and there is a significant population of Tibetans in the region.

McLeod Ganj was named after Sir Donald Friell McLeod, a Lieutenant Governor of Ajmer during British colonial rule in India; the suffix ganj is a common Persian word used for "neighbourhood".

The region finds references in ancient Hindu scriptures such as Rig Veda and Mahabharata. There are mentions of the region by Pāṇini in 4th century BC and by Chinese traveler Heun Tsang during the reign of king Harshavardhana in 7th century AD. The indigenous people of the Dharamshala area (and the surrounding region) are the Gaddis, a predominantly Hindu group who traditionally lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic transhumant lifestyle.

The region was subject to attacks from Mahmud of Ghazni in 1009 and Firuz Shah Tughlaq in 1360. In 1566, Akbar captured the region and brought it under the Mughal rule. As the mughal rule disintegrated, Sikh chieftain Jai Singh brought the region to his control and gave it to Sansar Chand of Katoch dynasty, legitimate Rajput prince in 1785. Gurkhas invaded and captured the region in 1806 before being defeated by Ranjit Singh in 1809. The Katoch dynasty was reduced to status of jagirdars under the treaty of Jawalamukhi signed between Chand and Singh in 1810. Post the death of Chand, Ranjit Singh annexed the region into the Sikh empire.

The British captured the region following the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1846. Under the British Raj, the regions were part of undivided province of Punjab, and was ruled by the governors of Punjab from Lahore. In 1860, the 66th Gurkha Light Infantry was moved from Kangra to Dharamshala, which was at first made a subsidiary cantonment. The Battalion was later renamed 1st Gurkha Rifles. Dharamshala became a popular hill station during the British. In 1905, the Kangra Valley suffered a major earthquake destroying much of the cantonment and the infrastructure in the region killing nearly 20,000 including 1,625 at Dharmasala including 15 foreigners and 112 of the Gurkha garrison."

Post Indian Independence in 1947, it remained as a small hill station. On 29 April 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso established the Tibetan exile administration in Mussoorie when he had to flee Tibet. In May 1960, the Central Tibetan Administration was moved to Dharamshala when Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India allowed him and his followers to settle in McLeod Ganj. There they established the "government-in-exile" in 1960 and the Namgyal Monastery. In 1970, Dalai Lama opened the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives which is one of the most important institutions for Tibetology.

Several thousand Tibetan exiles have now settled in the area where monasteries, temples and schools have come up. It has become an important tourist destination with many hotels and restaurants, leading to growth in tourism and commerce. In 2017, Dharamshala was made the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh with the legislative assembly located at Sidhbari.

McLeod Ganj has an average elevation of 2,082 m (6,831 ft). McLeod Ganj is located in the Kangra Valley, in the shadow of the Dhauladhar mountains and forms a part of the town of Dharamshala.