|
| |
 |
Enchey Monastery |
|
| |
|
This Monastery is 200 years old monastery, which stands three kms away from the city centre. It is advisable to visit this monastery during December when the annual religious dances are performed. Lamas perform religious masked dances for 2 days at Enchey. This monastery was built on the site blessed by the great tantric master Lame Druptab Karpn, known for his flying powers. He is supposed to have built a small hermitage at the spot he reached after he flew from Maenam Hill in South Sikkim. Later during the reign of Sikyong Tulku (1909-1910), the present monastery was built in the |
 |
| shape of a Chinese Pagoda. The monastery, however, owes its present form to over 200 years of devoted work by its Nyingma sect of Buddhist monks. Religious masked dance is performed on the 18th and 19th of the twelfth Tibetan month. This is an important seat of the Nyingma order. It has images of Gods, Goddesses and other religious objects in its premises. Every year around January "Chaam" or religious masked dance is performed. An important seat of the Nyingma order, the Enchey Monastery meaning the Solitary temple, was originally built with the solace that no other construction would be allowed near it. Following the Nyingma order, it has around 90 monks. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Chortan Stupa |
|
| |
|
|
The venerable Truslshi Rimpoche, head of the Nyingma order of Tibetan Buddhism, built the Do-Drul Chorten or Stupa in 1945. Inside this Stupa, there are complete Mandala sets of Dorjee Phurba. Around this Chorten, are 108 Mani-lhakor (prayer wheels) which are turned by the devout Buddhist while chanting, "hail to the jewel in the lotus ", to invoke Bodhisattva. The Chorten or Stupa rises like a great white bell surmounted by a golden pinnacle. Situated at Deorali, the SRIT is within a walkable distance from the main town of Gangtok. Nestled close by is the Dotrabu Chorten of Guru Padmasambhava
|
| and a small temple dedicated to the Guru Rimpoche housing a 60 feet statue of Guru Padmasambhava, the patron saint of Sikkim. The outhouses of the monastery is occupied by monks and lamas of the Nyingma Sheda, a monks college which has students from Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and other places. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Institute of Tibetology |
|
| |
|
Instituted with the aim of promoting and keeping alive the state's traditional arts and crafts, the directorate of handicrafts & handloom is a storehouse of hand-woven carpets with traditional motifs, blankets, shawls in Lepcha weaves and exquisitely-carved 'Choktse' or table and many other gift items.
About one kilometer downhill from the main market of Gangtok, amidst a small forest of Oak, Magnolia and Birch trees stands the Research Institute of Tibetology built in 1958, promoting research into Mahayana Buddhism and the language and tradition of Tibet. It has one of the world's largest |
 |
| collection of books and rare manuscripts on Buddhism and many religious works of art and a collection of beautiful silk embroidered Tibetan paintings called Thangkas. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Roomtek Monastery & Dharma Chakra Centre |
|
| |
|
|
Dharma Chakra Centre, or Rumtek Monastery, is one of the most important seats of the Kagyu lineage outside Tibet. In the early 1960's, His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa founded this seat near the 300 year old Kagyu monastery built in the sixteenth century by the Fourth King of Sikkim under the guidance of the ninth Karmapa. The new Rumtek monastery was built about two kilometers away from this old monastery. Rumtek became the International Kagyu Headquarters during the life of His Holiness, from where lineage activities manifested throughout the world. It also became
|
| the residence of a new generation of Kagyu masters, who are being trained in a tradition of study and meditation practice which began 800 years ago. Dharma Chakra Center includes a beautifully structured main shrine temple and monastery with monks' quarters, where the Karmapa resides and where the most of the important relics are enshrined; a three-year retreat center; a Shedra, or monastic college, where the relics of the Sixteenth Karmapa are enshrined; a nunnery; stupas; a protector's shrine; institutions for the lay community; and other establishments. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Tsomgo Lake |
|
| |
|
Situated at a distance of 30 kms. from Gangtok and at a height of 12,400 feet on the Gangtok - Nathula highway, which used to be the old silk route to China, is the Tsomogo Lake. Before 1962 caravans of mules used to ply on this route. The lake is considered sacred because in the early days the Lamas would forecast the future by looking at the colour of the water in the Lake. It is a snow fed lake and is a treat to one's eyes in winters, when it is frozen. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
