Silnon Gompa

Sikkim


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 snow-tipped mountains Narsing and Siniolchu and a ridge of mountains sharpened in Patagonian splendour. While not necessarily worth a special trip, starting from this monastery is a good way of shortening the reverse-version of the Yuksom–Tashiding Hike.

By road it's 12km from Tashiding, but walking there are numerous short cuts that halve the distance, albeit on steep paths and stairways. The descending path towards Tashiding is easy to miss behind the monastic school. Then from the lower road, a major cut starts from behind the sign for Thangchung School.

Service jeeps bound for Labthang, Kongri, Manginam and Karji all pass within 1km of the monastery but they depart Tashiding around 1pm – a rather late arrival assuming that you'll then need to walk back. There's a beautiful 2.7km forest path that takes barely half an hour from the Dechen Yulo Kyod Retreat in Gangyap.