Following the Tibetan Uprising in 1959, Chagdud Tulku escaped along with Khenpo Dorje to India, after enduring hunger, and many dangers, where it looked like they would be captured. His route took him through the Pemakö region of Tibet, and his party came out from there into the Indian state of Nagaland. In India Rinpoche lived in a number of Tibetan refugee resettlement camps ─ Kalimpong, Odisha, Dalhousie, Bir, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi. He practiced traditional Tibetan medicine, and was much in demand as his fellow refugees had trouble coping with the heat, and subtropical diseases found in India.