Chonor House

Chonor House, a branch of Norbulingka, is a great location to stay in Mcleod Ganj, conveniently located near the Thekchen Choling Temple adjacent to the Dalai Lama's residence. Set amidst tall cedars, Chonor House is peacefully removed from the hustle and bustle of the town.

Chonor House was designed and built by British architect David Porter in a style intended to blend with the natural environment of the hills overlooking the Kangra valley. The building and interior decoration, which involved the work of three different groups of Tibetan painters.

Each of the eleven well-appointed rooms at Chonor House has been uniquely decorated according to a different Tibetan theme, with murals featuring regions such as Kham, Amdo and Central Tibet and the flora and fauna of the Land of Snow.

These striking wall paintings created by Norbulingka artists are complemented by appliqued fabrics, hand-knotted carpets and carved and decorated wooden furniture. Each room is provided with 24 hrs hot & cold water, a small electric kettle, a gas heater in Winter, a mini fridge, local and international telephone dialing.

Room Categories

• Deluxe room
• Trees & Flower room
• Lhamo Opera
• Suite
• Mythical Creature Of Tibet Room
• Birds Of Tibet Room
• Wild Animal Of Tibet Room
• Wild Animal Of Tibet Room
• Nomads Of Tibet Room
• Central Tibet Room
• Amdo Western Tibet Room
• Kham Eastern Tibet Room
• Voyage At Sea Room
• Traditional Tibetan Suite

Cyber Yak cum Library
E-mail and internet access with wireless facilities are available in the Cyber Yak, on your right as you step out of the restaurant. They also have a comprehensive selection of books and videos on Tibetan subjects.

Luxury Cars
They can offer comfortable A/c cars with Tibetan drivers who speak English, Hindi and Tibetan to take you wherever you want to go.

Travel Desk
They can arrange ticketing for international & domestic flights, as well as trains and provide a reliable pickup service.

Dzipak Lounge
The lounge takes its name from room length silk Roman curtain that displays a forbidding Dzipak spitting jewels and flanked by the eight auspicious symbols. The curtain is a fine example of the applique method used both for making thangkas and decorating ornamental picnic tents. The lounge can be hired for meetings and other functions.

Gift Shop
Chonor Designs brings you the best of Norling Arts creations - open every day, except Monday, 9 am to 9 pm.

The Traditional Arts are still in practice in Dharamshala and the guests are trained of the different processes of the following Arts

Thangkas Painting
Thangkas are used by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners to help them develop a close relationship with a meditational deity. They assist the meditator in clearly visualizing particular images. The earliest instances of Tibetan painting date from the 7th century CE, when Buddhism first had an impact on Tibet, during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo.

Sculpture
Two major sculptural traditions flourished in Tibet: one in which statues were modelled of clay that was not fired, but was allowed to dry and cure naturally. In the second, statues were made of metal, employing both the lost wax process that is mostly used to cast smaller images and the tradition employed at Norbulingka in which colossal statues are wrought from copper sheet and gilded before being assembled.

Applique Thangka
The creation of fabric thangkas, mostly made of silk, some of them woven, some embroidered and others made using a technique similar to appliqué, goes back many centuries in Tibet. The appliqué artists at Norbulingka do their finest work when they make silk thangkas. Constructed of hundreds of hand-cut pieces of silk and brocade, these elaborate creations require many months of work.

Wood Work
The wish to decorate these temples provoked a great surge of artistic activity, which has bequeathed to us some of the oldest woodcarving of its kind in the world. The Tibetan carpenter has traditionally fulfilled the role of architect and engineer, choosing how beams and pillars should be placed in new buildings and assessing which components should bear stress from which direction.