Seven nights, Sikkim
Sikkim was made by monks: three lamas crowned its first king. This journey visits one great house a day, from the Karmapa's Rumtek of 1966 to houses raised before the kingdom had a fixed capital, so each day explains the one before it.
Photo: Ankan Sarkar / Pexels
Gangtok, three nights
Day 2 is Rumtek's morning assembly, at the hour its office gives us the night before. Day 3 starts at 06:30 at Enchey, a Nyingma house of about 90 monks, then heads north to Labrang, on its original frame since the 1840s, above the ruins of Tumlong.
Photo: Jayanth Muppaneni / Unsplash
Ravangla, one night
New Ralang was raised in 1995 and houses several hundred monks; old Ralang, of 1768, stands a kilometer away. An hour before sunset you reach Doling Gompa, founded in 1718 and still looked after by descendants of its first lama.
Photo: Nithya / Unsplash
Day 5
Near Kewzing stands Yung Dung, one of very few Bon monasteries in Sikkim; walk its circuit counterclockwise, as Bon pilgrims do. Then Tashiding, founded in 1641 on a hill between two rivers, with 41 chortens and flagstones carved with Om Mani Padme Hum.
Photo: Rohan Kumar / Unsplash
Pelling, three nights
Pemayangtse, head of Sikkim's Nyingma monasteries, is a few minutes' walk from the house for the 06:30 assembly. In the afternoon a forest path of up to an hour climbs to Sangachoeling, founded in 1697; by custom, only men enter its hall.
Photo: Arjis Kundu / Pexels
Day 7, Yuksom
An hour's climb of about 3 km through cardamom and oak brings you to Dubdi, the oldest monastery still standing in Sikkim. Its one resident monk, told of your visit the day before, opens the hall: statues of the three lamas who made the first king.
Photo: Labun Hang Limboo
Before you go
The week stays below about 2,150 m (7,050 ft), with an assembly most mornings and two real climbs. Go October to mid-December or March to May. Tell us when you can travel, and we check whether a masked dance falls on the route.
Photo: Sahil Pandita