Drive south from Dehradun’s clock tower for about twenty minutes and the city’s familiar chaos begins to settle. The signboards change. The prayer flags appear first — strung between buildings, snapping in the wind above shops selling butter lamps and thankas. Then a monastery, large and ochre-coloured, set back from the road. You have arrived in Clement Town, and it feels, just slightly, like somewhere else.

Clement Town is home to one of the largest Tibetan refugee communities in India. Established in the early 1960s following the Tibetan exodus after the Chinese takeover of Tibet, it is today a fully functioning neighbourhood of roughly 8,000 people — with its own schools, hospitals, cooperative societies, restaurants, and a monastery that draws visitors from across the country.

How It Began

When Tibetan refugees first arrived in India following the Dalai Lama’s flight in 1959, the Indian government faced the task of settling tens of thousands of people with no land, no resources, and no certainty about the future. Clement Town — then a largely undeveloped forested area on the outskirts of Dehradun — was allocated for a settlement.

The early years were difficult. Refugees who had walked over the Himalayas, many losing family members on the way, now had to build homes in an unfamiliar climate. The heat of the Doon Valley was unlike anything they had known in Lhasa. Diseases spread. Resources were scarce. But with support from the Indian government and international aid organisations, the settlement gradually stabilised.

Life in Clement Town Today

Walking through Clement Town today, it is hard not to be struck by how self-contained the neighbourhood is. The Mindrolling Monastery — one of the most important Nyingma monasteries outside Tibet — dominates the area. Its Great Stupa, completed in 2002, is one of the tallest stupas in the world and is ringed by prayer wheels that residents spin as they pass.

The market is a compact strip of restaurants, shops selling Tibetan jewellery and clothing, and small businesses run almost entirely by community members. The food is the draw for many Dehradun residents who make the trip specifically for the momos, thukpa, and butter tea. A dozen restaurants operate here, ranging from tiny three-table places run by elderly women to larger establishments that attract visitors from across the city.

The Tibetan Homes School and the Central School for Tibetans have educated generations of young Tibetans, many of whom have gone on to careers across India and abroad. The community runs its own newspaper, a hospital, and a network of cooperative businesses.

A Community Caught Between Two Worlds

Younger Tibetans in Clement Town speak of a tension that their parents’ generation did not fully feel. They are Indian-educated, Hindi-speaking, and in many cases have never been to Tibet. The homeland their grandparents describe is known to them only through stories and photographs. At the same time, they hold refugee status — not citizens, technically — and carry travel documents rather than passports.

Many have left for cities like Bangalore, Delhi, and Pune where economic opportunities are greater. Others have gone abroad — to the United States, Canada, and Europe, where Tibetan diaspora communities have grown significantly. Clement Town’s population has plateaued, and some of the older generation worry about who will maintain the cultural institutions they built.

But the neighbourhood remains. The prayer flags are still replaced each year. The monastery still fills with worshippers at dawn. And the momos are still, by general consensus, the best in Dehradun.