Yoga and meditation

Dharamkot's reputation rests on three institutions, and we happen to sit in the middle of them. This is the single most practical thing we can tell you about planning a stay: book the course before you book the room. Places fill months ahead, and two of the three shut for the winter.

The Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre is effectively next door, a minute's walk. It was founded in 1985 by Sharat Arora, a long-term student of B.K.S. Iyengar, and runs five-day courses, nine-day immersions and longer intensives. Everyone starts with the introduction regardless of experience, so there is no prerequisite beyond turning up. Their Dharamkot dates run roughly April to December; they also run a centre in Goa.

Tushita Meditation Centre is about ten minutes through the forest and teaches in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition. Its ten-day Introduction to Buddhism runs repeatedly through the season and is the course most people mean when they say they are going to Tushita. The season runs February to November, with a winter break from late November. Courses routinely go to a waiting list.

Dhamma Sikhara, the Vipassana centre, is a five-minute walk. It runs ten-day silent courses in the S.N. Goenka tradition from April to November, and they are free: no charge for tuition, food or accommodation. Applications open sixty days before each course and fill quickly.