From the archive record
McLeod Ganj is a village in the suburbs of Dharamshala, in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It has an average elevation of 2,082 metres (6,831 feet). It is situated in the lap of Dhauladhar Range, a branch of the southern outer Himalayas. The village is named after Lord David McLeod, the English lieutenant governor of Punjab, who founded it in 1848 as a retreat from the heat of the plains. The suffix Ganj is a common Hindi word for neighbourhood. By the early 1900s it had become an important centre of trade, commerce, and official work of Kangra District. But in 1905 the area was destroyed by a devastating earthquake, leaving the area without any significant activity for almost half a century. McLeod Ganj has a population of about 10,000 people, including local Indians, Nepalese