Chauntra is a small market town in the state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

in northern India located along National Highway 20 (Updated 154) which connects

Pathankot Pathankot is a city and the district headquarters of the Pathankot district in Punjab, India. Pathankot is the 6th most populous city of Punjab, after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda. Its local government is a municipal cor ...

(in Punjab) to Mandi. It is also home to a Tibetan refugee community consisting of a settlement, several monasteries, and two schools. It is an important developmental block of Mandi district. Situated near to Joginder Nagar this town is very much suitable for tea growing.

Geography

The town stands at an altitude of about above sea level and is lined by the

Dhauladhar Dhauladhar ( hi, धौलाधार) () is a mountain range which is part of a lesser Himalayan chain of mountains. It rises from the Shivalik hills, to the north of Kangra and Mandi. Dharamsala, the headquarters of Kangra district and th ...

range in the north. The range includes the famous paragliding spot of Billing which has hosted several international paragliding competitions. A small river, Bajgad Khad, on the east side of the town originates from nearby Gunher in the north and runs south towards Bhaterh in the south. The landscape slopes slightly to the south with terraced fields towards what is called Lower Chauntra (which includes small rural villages of Bhaterh and Sainthal). Another notable land feature is the tea field, which once covered a good portion of the area where the Tibetan settlement is now located, although only a small portion of it now remains.

Tibetan Community

The Tibetan refugees, mainly from the

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The original residents of Kham are called Khampas (), and were governed locally by chieftains and monasteries. Kham ...

region of Tibet, settled in Chauntra in the 1970s set up two small settlements, colloquially called 'Khang-sarma' and 'Khang-nyingma' (literally 'of new houses' and 'of old houses'). The original settlers consisted of about sixty families. The settlement at present has two Tibetan schools, Sambhota Chauntra and TCV Chauntra. In recent years, the settlement has seen the establishment of several monasteries such as Bhumang Jampaling (of

Drikung Kagyu Drikung Kagyü or Drigung Kagyü ( Wylie: 'bri-gung bka'-brgyud) is one of the eight "minor" lineages of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. "Major" here refers to those Kagyü lineages founded by the immediate disciples of Gampopa (1079-1153) ...

sect) and Zabsang Choekhor Ling (of

Nyingma Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...

sect). There is also the monastic college,

Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (c. 1893 – 1959) was a Tibetan people, Tibetan lama, a master of many lineages, and a teacher of many of the major figures in 20th-century Tibetan Buddhism. Though he died in 1959 in Sikkim, and is not so well ...

Institute (better known as Dzongsar Shedra), the college holds a sizable amount monastic population. Villages in Mandi district Tibetan diaspora in India {{HimachalPradesh-geo-stub