Bir Tibetan Colony  Bir Tibetan Colony is a Tibetan refugee settlement in the Himalayan village of Chowgan on the outskirts of the town of Bir, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Bir Tibetan Colony was established in the early 1960s by Chokling Rinpoche following the exile of the Dalai Lama and other refugees from Tibet. The Tibetan Colony houses several Tibetan monasteries (representing the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya traditions), a Tibetan handicraft center, a Tibetan Children's Village school (Suja), a branch of the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute (Men-Tsee-Khang), a medical clinic, and the Deer Park Institute. It is also home to a number of shops, cafés, and guest houses. Bir Tibetan Colony is located in the western half of the village of Chowgan, on the southwestern edge of the town of Bir, in the Tehsil (administrative subdivision) of Baijnath, in the District of Kangra, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Bir Tibetan Colony is located east-southeast of Dharamshala and is three hours by bus from Dharamshala. It is situated 6 km south of the popular paragliding destination of billing, on the way to the Thamsar Pass leading to Bara Bhangal. Geologically, Bir is situated in the Dhauladhar Range of the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. The nearest railway station is Ahju, on the narrow-gauge line running between Pathankot and Jogindernagar via Kangra. Road access to Bir Tibetan Colony is from the Bir Road turnoff (signposted) on NH20, approximately midway between Baijnath and Jogindernagar. Detailed travel tips for Bir are available at the Bir Portal. The population of Bir Tibetan Colony is primarily Tibetan refugees, but there are also a number of Indian families and a small community of international expatriates and long-term visitors. Note that it is only the Bir Tibetan Colony itself that is primarily settled by Tibetan refugees: the population of the town of Bir proper is almost entirely Indian. The majority of the Tibetan refugees based in Bir originally came from the Kham region of southeastern Tibet, but many of the refugees living in the Colony today were born in India, and the population continues to diversify. There are several institutions in Bir that attract tourists, students, volunteers and other visitors from around India and from abroad:  The Deer Park Institute is a 'centre for the study of classical Indian wisdom traditions' established by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in March 2006 under the patronage of the Dalai Lama.