The Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre on Gandhi Road is a working craft workshop and small museum established in 1959 to help the first wave of Tibetan refugees preserve their cultural traditions. The workshops produce carpets, woodwork, leather goods, and thangka paintings, and the pieces are for sale at prices lower than tourist shops in town. The quality is genuine and the proceeds go directly to the artisans.
The attached museum documents the story of Tibetan exile: photographs, artefacts, and first-person accounts from the 1959 exodus. It's small but affecting — the kind of exhibit that makes the abstract history of Tibet feel immediate. Allow an hour; the workshops are open during the morning hours and watching the carpet weavers is as interesting as the museum itself.