Created on December 10, 2007[1] in the Tibetan exile community of Dharamsala in the Himalayan region of Northern India, it was the first independent trilingual daily online newspaper-in-exile, publishing in English, Tibetan, and Mandarin.

It acts as a free news source that reaches and informs many in the remote community.

According to its website cPanel and Google analysis, an estimated 60% of its readers are thought to be logging on from inside China,[3] giving it the largest readership of any Tibetan news source-in-exile and making it the only one claiming a majority of Chinese readers.

Subjects such as human rights, censorship, and the Tibetan cause in China are the driving forces behind the non-profit organization, 'Himalayan Literacy Trust' (HLT), by whom it was created.

The HLT is part of an affiliation that also includes Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the international freedom of press watchdog organizations in and outside of India, with a focus on the 'very serious' situation regarding freedom of expression in China and Tibet.