Happy Valley is an area situated within the hill station of

Mussoorie Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill s ...

with majority of Tibetans settled in area in Dehradun district,

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

, India.

Location

Happy Valley is near the Indian Administrative Services Academy -

Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) is a civil service training institute on public policy and public administration in India. The academy's main purpose is to train civil servants of the IAS cadre and also con ...

. Within the valley is a Tibetan Monastery with a clear view of Hathipaon. Happy Valley is west of

’s Dalai Hill from where the mountain ranges of Jaunpur and Nag-Tibba are visible.

History

On 18 October 1929

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

addressed the European municipal councillors at

. At that time he stayed at Birla House in Happy Valley. One of the landmark events in the history of the Tibetan government in exile in India happened in April 1959 when a young

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

arrived at Happy Valley. In April 1960, he left Happy Valley for another hill town -

Dharamshala Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855. The ...

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 ...

with an entourage of eighty officials of the Tibetan government in exile. Later, this government-in-exile moved to

in Himachal Pradesh leaving behind at Happy Valley, a community of Tibetans who have integrated with the life and culture of

, but had built a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Temple and Tibetan-style homes. As of 2016, Happy Valley still was home to about 5000 Tibetan refugees.

Characteristics

Happy Valley has an Indian Administrative Service Academy - The

. it also has Tibetan Temples and a Municipal Garden. The area of the valley leads to the Cloud's End- a place where the geographical borders of

end. The Hathipaon Park Estate is also there. From Happy Valley can be seen the whole of Mussoorie with

George Everest Colonel Sir George Everest CB FRS FRAS FRGS (; 4 July 1790 – 1 December 1866) was a British surveyor and geographer who served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. After receiving a military education in Marlow, Everest joined ...

's house on one side and the Himalayan ranges on the other.

References

{{Dehradun Dehradun district Hill stations in Uttarakhand Tibetan diaspora in India Tourism in Uttarakhand Mussoorie