Historically, the Kangra Valley was ruled by the ancient Katoch dynasty, one of the oldest surviving royal lineages in the world. The area that is now Dharamshala remained a quiet, forested region until the British annexed the Kangra Valley in 1848. A year later, a military cantonment was established on the slopes of the Dhauladhar range to house a Gurkha regiment. The town grew as a popular hill station and was made the district headquarters in 1855.
Tragedy struck in 1905 when the devastating Kangra earthquake leveled much of the town and destroyed the nearby Kangra Fort. Following the quake, the British moved some administrative offices to lower elevations, but Dharamshala slowly rebuilt itself as a peaceful retreat and a tea-growing hub.
The modern history of the city was fundamentally altered in 1959, when Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled Tibet. The Government of India allowed him and his followers to settle in McLeod Ganj in 1960. This established Dharamshala as "Little Lhasa," a global center for Tibetan culture, education, and politics. In 2017, the city was officially declared the second capital (winter capital) of Himachal Pradesh, and it was subsequently selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a "Smart City" under the national Smart Cities Mission.
