This is the first of a series of blog posts we plan to do on The Norbulingka Institute,a centre dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan art and craft.

Located in the scenic, serene town of Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, it houses painters, weavers, tailors and more. There are separate rooms/halls for each type of craft and you'll see several people working away at painting on canvas or on wooden boxes, weaving on the large handlooms, dyeing the yarn in natural colours like indigo, carving out boxes and other wooden products and much more.

You can spend an entire day here - watching skilled hands at work, talking to the artisans or just meditating. There's also a lovely cafe and a restaurant where you can just sit and enjoy being in the midst of lush green nature.

And if you do enjoy watching beautiful products come to life, even an entire day will not be enough!