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Rumtek
A 37-km drive from Gangtok in the west through lovely countryside brings you to Rumtek - a
monaster of great beauty and significance. When the Chinese occupied Tibet,
His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa, the ninth incarnate of the original Gyalwa Karmapa of Tibet and head
of the Karmagupa sect of Buddhism, took refuge in Sikkim. The Chogyal of Sikkim welcomed
him and gifted him apiece of land to set up a new monastery. And so the
beautiful Rumtek monastery was built an exact replica of the monastery at Chhofuk in Tibet. With
its beautiful traditional architecture, carved and painted woodwork,
magnificent murals and treasures of manuscripts and icons, Rumtek is a
splendid example of the Tibetan monastic art in Sikkim. It is now the
residence of His Holiness and the headquarters of the Dharma Chakra Religious Centre.
On the spur of a hill, a short walk from the new monastery stands the
old Rumtek monastery, which was built in the reign of the fourth
Chogyal. It is now entirely renovated and reconstructed andyoung have done the paintings
in the traditional style Sikkimese who learnt his trade from the lamas.
A precious relic of the old Rumtek is a stone stab marked with the footprint of Guru
Padmasambhava.
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