Geography : Dharamsala

   Dharamsala is a city located in the North of India, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, in the Kangra valley. It is 475 km from New Delhi. It is also called Little Lhassa due to the presence of tibetans refugees including the fourteenth Dalaï-lama, Tenzin Gyatso in Dharamsala (Lhassa is Tibet’s capital). There is 56 000 inhabitants, more than 10 000 of whom are tibetans. The city has an area of 29 km². Dharamsala is the second capital of Himachal Pradesh after Shimla since January 2017. The city is divided in two parts :

-          Down Dharamsala or Dharamsala reachs 1240 m altitude. It gather shops and an administrative centre.

-          Upper Dharamsala or McLeod Ganj reachs 1700 m altitude. There are 9 km between the two parts. It is where are living most of the tibetans refugees.

In 1960 the Dalaï-lama was autorisated by Nehru the Indian prime minister to establish in Dharamsala the Central Tibetan Administration (tibetan government). The presence of Tenzin Gyatso has made Dharamsala a popular destination for tourists. In fact, there are over 400 000 tourists per year. Dharamsala is hosting lots of organisations for the tibetans to teach them and help them to keep their traditions.

Dharamsala is surrounded by coniferous forests (cedar trees, oat trees and rhododendrons). There are cultures of rice, wheat and tea. For the moment, we have seen in the area black kites, goats, cows, mangooses, monkeys, horses and lot of birds with differents colors.

It is a subtropical climat. The temperatures goes from 0 to 15 degres during winter and it is snowing between decembre and february. During summer the temperature goes from 22 to 38 degrees. There is 3000 mm of rain per year.

The languages the most spoken are Hindi, Himachali and Tibetan.

It is a seismic region. In 1905 happened a big hearth quake that destroyed the majority of the batiments and killed 20 000 people.