Temples & Pilgrimage
3 places around Gangtok, with the travel time to each.
Rumtek Monastery
The largest monastery in Sikkim and the seat of the Karma Kagyu school, set on a ridge facing Gangtok across the valley. Built in its present form in the 1960s, it holds a golden stupa, a wall of prayer wheels and a main shrine hall painted in the Tibetan manner, and the walk up to it looks back over the whole of the town.
Ganesh Tok
A small hilltop shrine above Gangtok with a viewing balcony that opens onto the town below and the Kanchenjunga range beyond it. The shrine itself is modest and reached by a short flight of steps; what draws people is the outlook, which is at its clearest early in the day before the valley hazes over.
Do Drul Chorten
One of the most important stupas in Sikkim, ringed by prayer wheels that visitors turn as they walk its circuit. The white dome and gilded spire stand within a monastic compound where young monks study, and the constant low sound of the wheels and of chanting makes it a quiet stop.