Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre

Set up in Darjeeling in 1959, the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre grew out of the wave of Tibetans who left their country that year, after the rising against Chinese rule, and crossed into India and its neighbours. Local residents and the Indian government created it to give the new arrivals a roof, schooling and paid work.

It still serves that purpose, offering training for jobs, education and basic health care, and it has become a place where the community keeps its inherited skills alive. In the workshops, weavers work at looms on dense Tibetan carpets, painters produce colourful thangka scrolls and carvers shape wooden pieces. Visitors may walk through, talk with the craftspeople about their methods and buy items made on site, which helps fund the work.

Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons to come, when the weather in the hills is clear and the slopes around the town are in flower.