Sikkim
The most dramatic of four waterfalls between Yuksom and Tashiding, the Phamrong's powerful flow fires itself through a high, green notch then crashes down a steep cliff.
Viewed from the road, it's fronted by several sub-cascades; climbing an overgrown path for around five minutes gets you to a vandalised octagonal viewing pavilion, beyond which are a couple of natural pools just before the main spray. Locals bathe here but access can be rather dicey.
22.09 MILES
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, known affectionately as the toy train, made its first journey along its precipice-topping, 2ft-wide tracks in 1881 and…
22.36 MILES
Singalila National Park covers the Indian side of the scenic Singalila Ridge, the Darjeeling region's finest trekking area, along the India–Nepal border…
8.37 MILES
With a breathtaking backdrop of Himalayan peaks, the gigantic, 41m-tall Buddha statue is one of Sikkim's most iconic sights. Finished in 2013, it's…
9.14 MILES
This wobbly old temple is a peaceful, half-forgotten delight with appealingly naive paintings and an incredible 360-degree mountain panorama. There's no…
1.46 MILES
All aflutter with prayer flags, the Norbugang 'coronation park' is a historic woodland garden containing a small temple, a huge prayer wheel, a chorten…
15.14 MILES
Visible for miles, this 45m-high statue of Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) is painted in shimmering copper and gilt and sits on a lotus plinth high above…
Namgyal Institute of Tibetology
22.86 MILES
The NIT's 1958 core building feels like a Tibetan fantasy palace, with corner towers, colourful mural frontage and a forest-glade setting. The main hall…
15.66 MILES
This unmissable feast of colour is a remarkable Hindu religious theme park crowning Solophuk hilltop, 5km southwest of Namchi. It brings together replicas…
0.71 MILES
Said to be Sikkim’s oldest still-functioning monastery, this compact, peaceful gompa is beautifully set in tended gardens on the ridge above Yuksom, with…
1.02 MILES
When Yuksom was Sikkim’s capital, a royal palace complex known as Tashi Tenka sat on a ridge to the south of town. Essentially nothing remains, but the…
1.14 MILES
Right in the village centre, this unique creation is a glass-walled, templelike building enclosing 18 oversized prayer wheels in two close-packed rows.
1.17 MILES
This relatively new gompa, accessed opposite Hotel Tashi Gang, features an impressively stern statue of Guru Padmasambhava.
1.39 MILES
Just outside Norbugang's south wall, this giant, seated statue-shrine commemorates Lhatsun Chempo's 20th-century 'reincarnation'. Seen from Tashi Tenka,…
1.46 MILES
All aflutter with prayer flags, the Norbugang 'coronation park' is a historic woodland garden containing a small temple, a huge prayer wheel, a chorten…
3.5 MILES
Like Tashiding Gompa way, way below, Silnon (see-non) was founded by Ngadhak Sempo Chempo. Its fairly modest central temple has a spectacular backdrop of…
3.74 MILES
One of Sikkim’s oldest and most significant Nyingmapa monasteries, Pemayangtse (literally ‘Perfect Sublime Lotus’) is 500m off the Geyzing road – turn…