Rumtek Monastery

Rumtek Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on a hillside about 24 km from Gangtok in East Sikkim, and the largest monastery in Sikkim. Rumtek Monastery is the seat in exile of the Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school, and is also known as the Dharma Chakra Centre. An older monastery was founded here in the mid-18th century under the ninth Karmapa, and its restored building still stands nearby.

The sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, left Tibet in 1959 and was offered land at Rumtek by the Sikkimese royal family. He built the new monastery in the early 1960s, completed in 1966, closely modelled on the Karmapa's traditional seat at Tsurphu in Tibet. After his death in 1981, a dispute over the recognition of his successor divided the Karma Kagyu community, and the monastery has had a visible security presence ever since. Today Rumtek is home to a large community of monks and the Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for higher Buddhist studies.

What to see

• The main shrine hall, with its large Buddha and painted murals
• The Golden Stupa, holding the relics of the sixteenth Karmapa
• The courtyard, where masked cham dances take place at festivals
• The Karma Shri Nalanda Institute behind the main temple
• The old Rumtek monastery a short walk below

What to wear

Dress modestly at Rumtek Monastery, with shoulders and knees covered, and remove your shoes and hat before entering the shrine hall. Walk clockwise around the stupa and prayer wheels. Rumtek sits at about 1,500 m and is mild, but mornings and evenings are cool, so bring a light jacket; carry an umbrella from June to September. Sikkimese Bhutia men and women wear the bakhu, a wrap-around robe, often with a silk blouse called honju for women.

Local food to try

Small cafes near the monastery gate serve momos, thukpa and tea. In Gangtok, look for phagshapa (pork with radish), gundruk soup, sel roti and shaphaley, a fried bread stuffed with meat. Butter tea is served in monasteries and some local cafes. MG Marg in Gangtok has plenty of restaurants, and vegetarian dishes are easy to find.

Good to know

• Best time: March to June and October to December; festival dances follow the Tibetan calendar
• Open daily, roughly 6am to 6pm; morning prayers are the best time to visit
• Free entry; donations welcome
• Allow one to two hours
• About 24 km from Gangtok, around 45 minutes to an hour by road
• Carry ID or passport for the security check at the gate; ask before photographing inside halls

Nearby places

Rumtek Monastery is a half-day trip from Gangtok, which is also the starting point for Tsomgo Lake and, for Indian nationals, Nathula Pass. Darjeeling, with its own monasteries and tea gardens, is about four hours away by road.