Library of Tibetan Works & Archives

Mcleod Ganj


Inside the government-in-exile compound, nearly 2km downhill from the Tsuglagkhang complex, the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives began life as a repository for sacred manuscripts saved from the Cultural Revolution. Today it has over 120,000 manuscripts and books in Tibetan, and more than 15,000 books on Tibet, Buddhism and the Himalayan region in English and other languages.

Upstairs is an interesting cultural museum with statues, old Tibetan artefacts and books, and a couple of complex 3D mandalas in wood and sand.

Regular library visitors can become temporary members (₹100 per month for reading; ₹300 per month plus ₹1000 deposit for borrowing; passport photocopy needed for ID) to access the foreign-language collection.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Mcleod Ganj attractions

1. Cultural Museum

Upstairs in the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives is a small but interesting cultural museum with statues, old Tibetan artefacts and books, and a couple…

2. Nechung Gompa

0.03 MILES

Downstairs behind the government-in-exile building, the colourful Nechung Gompa is seat of the Tibetan state oracle, a monk named Thupten Ngodup.

3. Men-Tsee-Khang

0.17 MILES

Men-Tsee-Khang is an organisation established to preserve the traditional arts of Tibetan medicine and astrology. The Gangchen Kyishong branch includes a…

4. Men-Tsee-Khang Museum

0.18 MILES

Three floors of displays explain the sophisticated sciences of Tibetan astrology and medicine.

5. Tsuglagkhang Main Temple Room

0.46 MILES

Spiritually (if certainly not architecturally) the Tsuglagkhang's 1969 central temple room is the exiles’ concrete equivalent of the Jokhang temple in…

6. Kalachakra Temple

0.46 MILES

Visiting the Tsuglagkhang clockwise, as is required by Buddhist convention, you pass a prostrating area then a door leads into the westernmost building,…

7. Tibet Museum

0.47 MILES

This must-see, two-storey museum sets out to remind visitors of Tibet's history as an independent nation, mourning the Chinese occupation (since 1949) and…

8. Tsuglagkhang Complex

0.49 MILES

McLeod's main focus for visiting pilgrims, monks and most tourists is the Tsuglagkhang complex, a custard-coloured concrete monastic village that's home…