Shedup Choephelling Buddhist Temple

Smoke is rising from cedar being burnt outside the Shedup Choephelling Buddhist Temple in Happy Valley, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India, on April 18, 2024. The Shedup Choepelling Temple, sometimes referred to as the Tibetan Buddhist Temple, is dedicated by the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), making it the first Tibetan shrine constructed in India. In 1959, when His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama escapes from Lhasa in Tibet and takes refuge in India, he is staying in Happy Valley, Mussoorie, for one year before shifting to Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh due to security concerns. However, a large Tibetan population is staying back and continuing to flourish in Happy Valley. Happy Valley is home to 5000 Tibetan refugees who escape Chinese rule in 1959. The Tibetan community in Mussoorie later converts the place where the 14th Dalai Lama resides into the Shedup Choephelling Buddhist Temple.