Sights in East Sikkim
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Himalayan Zoological Park
From the gompa, follow the access road north-east around the base of an unmissable tele-communications tower. An initially obvious path scrambles up in around 15 minutes to Ganesh Tok viewpoint. Festooned in colourful prayer flags, Ganesh Tok offers superb city views and its minicafe serves hot teas. Across the road, a lane leads into the Himalayan Zoological Park. Red pandas, Himalayan bears and snow leopards roam around in extensive wooded enclosures so large that you’ll really value a car to shuttle between them.
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Namgyal Institute of Tibetology
Housed in traditionally styled Tibetan architecture, this unique institute was established in 1958 to promote research into Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetan culture. It contains one of the world’s largest collections of Buddhist books and manuscripts, plus statuettes, thangkas (Tibetan cloth paintings) and sacred objects, such as a kapali (sacred bowl made from a human skull) and human thighbone trumpets. There are plenty of useful explanatory captions.
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Rumtek Gompa Complex
This rambling and walled complex is a village within a village, containing religious buildings, schools and several small lodge-hotels. To enter, foreigners must show both passport and Sikkim permit. Unusually for a monastery, this place is guarded by armed police, as there have been violent altercations, and an invasion, by monks who dispute the Karmapa’s accession.
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Flower Exhibition Centre
When the orchids bloom (March) it’s worth peeping inside the Flower Exhibition Centre, a modestly sized tropical greenhouse full of exotic plants.
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Enchey Gompa
Approached through gently rustling conifers high above Gangtok, this monastery, dating back to 1909, is Gangtok’s most attractive, with some decent murals and statues of Tantric deities. It comes alive for the colourful Detor Chaam (December/January) masked dances.
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