Editorial photo #11986397 Human Interest
Shedup Choephelling Buddhist Temple
A Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus entellus) is outside the Shedup Choephelling Buddhist Temple in Happy Valley, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India, on April 18, 2024. The Shedup Choephelling 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 stays in Happy Valley, Mussoorie, for one year before shifting to Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh due to security concerns. However, a large Tibetan population stays back and continues to flourish in Happy Valley. Happy Valley is home to 5,000 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. (Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto)
