India is home to a large section of Tibetan refugees. In 1959 the Indian government granted the setting up of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.
The Ladakh Buddhist vihara in Kashmere Gate was one of the first places in the Indian plains where Tibetans arrived and settled in the early 1960s. In the year 1963, the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to several states requesting to grant permission to and allot land for the Tibetans to set up their settlements. He subsequently allotted Majnu ka Tilla, spread out over an area of 1.2 acres on the bank of Yamuna, for the Tibetan refugees.
Today, Majnu the Tilla is a popular tourist attraction. The settlement is an important transit point for the people of the trans-Himalayan range and conversely a gateway to Tibet for the Indians and foreign tourists alike. This ‘little tibet’ and the fusion culture on its streets, adds variety to the cultural spectrum of Delhi.
