Sights in 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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B
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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Pemayangtse Gompa
Literally translated as ‘Perfect Sublime Lotus’, the 1705 Pemayangtse is one of Sikkim’s oldest and most significant Nyingmapa gompas. Magnificently set on a hilltop overlooking the Rabdentse ruins, the atmospheric compound is ringed by gardens and traditional monks’ cottages walled in unpainted stone. The contrastingly colourful prayer hall is beautifully proportioned, its doors and windows painted with Tibetan motifs. The statue is of Padmasambhava in his awful form as Dorje Bhurpa Vajrakila with multiple heads and arms. Upstairs, fierce-looking statues depict all eight of Padmasambhava’s incarnations. On the top floor, Zandog Palri is an astounding seven-tier…
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Padmasambhava Statue
Painted in shimmering copper and bronze, the impressively vast 45m-high Padmasambhava statue dominates the Samdruptse hilltop. Completed in 2004 on a foundation stone laid by the Dalai Lama, it’s visible from miles around, shining like a golden cone amid the forests of Samdruptse Hill. Reputedly it can be seen from Darjeeling and most certainly by its rival, Shiva, on Solophuk Hill opposite. The site is 7km from Namchi, 2km off the Damthang road.
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Rabdentse
The royal capital of Sikkim from 1670 to 1814, the now-ruined Rabdentse consists of chunky wall-stubs with a few inset inscription stones. These would look fairly unremarkable were they not situated on such an utterly fabulous viewpoint ridge. The entrance to the site is around 3km from Upper Pelling. From the site’s ornate yellow gateway, the ruins are a further 15-minutes’ hike around a pond then across a forested hill.
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C
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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Sisne Mandir
At its western-most edge, Jorethang’s most striking feature is the Akar Suspension Bridge, 400m north of which are the passingly photogenic roadside Shiva niches of Sisne Mandir.
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