Places to visit in Sikkim - Rumtek Monastery ( Dharmachakra Centre ) near Gangtok, Sikkim

Rumtek Monastery Entrance Gate

Rumtek Monastery is another famous tourist destination and usually always recommended as one of the places to visit in Sikkim.  Rumtek monastery is located in Rumtek, a place which is 23kms away from Gangtok town. It is presently the largest monastery in Sikkim.
Rumtek Monastery is open from 6am to 6pm. From the base, it requires an uphill walk (about half a kilometer) to reach up to the main monastery.

Buddhist prayer wheels on the way to Rumtek Monastery.

The interior view of the Rumtek Monastery entrance:

Rumtek Monastery  also called the Dharmachakra Centre, is a gompa located in the Indian state of Sikkim near the capital Gangtok. A gompa is a meditation room where practitioners meditate and listen to teachings.

Photography is not allowed inside the monastery. Inside, you would find Buddhist monks reciting scriptures and chanting prayers. Opposite the monastery is a college, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies.

Rumtek monastery is one of the largest in Sikkim and belongs to the Kargyu sect of Buddhists which originated in the 12th century in Tibet. The architecture of the monastery is one of the finest in the world and resembles the original one in Tsurphu, Tibet. It was built by Gyalwa Karmapa in 1960s, who was the 16th Karmapa of the monastery. Karmapa is the head of a monastery. He came from Tibet and settled here when the Chinese invaded Tibet. However the 16th Karmapa passed away in 1981. [Source: https://www.darjeeling-tourism.com/darj_000106.htm]

Buddhist Monks chatting on the terrace:

From Rumtek, which is on the opposite to Gangtok, there are vantage points from where you get amazing sights of Gangtok town on the opposite hill.

View of Gangtok from Rumtek
Landscape photos of Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim.

Read more about Rumtek Monastery here.