By road
~131 km from Gangtok, ~135 km from Siliguri
Northeast India · Sikkim
Pelling, Sikkim
Kanchenjunga's front-row balcony · ~131 km from Gangtok, ~135 km from Siliguri
Getting there
By rail
New Jalpaiguri (NJP), Siliguri, ~135-140 km
By air
Bagdogra Airport, ~160 km
Best time to visit
October to December and March to May — the wall of snow shows itself
Don't miss
Pemayangtse Monastery
Rabdentse ruins
Khecheopalri (wish) Lake
Kanchenjunga Falls
Things to do
Skywalk to the giant Chenrezig statue
Waterfall circuits
Village walks
Where to eat
Sources: open-meteo, wikimedia, Photo: Santanu Paul · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Warm layers, walking shoes for monastery and bridge trails
A quieter corner
The half-ruined Rabdentse palace walk through moss forest
Before you go
West Sikkim's cluster of Nyingma monasteries around the old capital; Tashiding's Bumchu (Feb-Mar) is Sikkim's most sacred festival.
About Pelling
- Mountains
Where it is
Pelling is a small town in western Sikkim, on a ridge at about 2,150 m facing the Kangchenjunga range, some 10 km from Gyalshing, the headquarters of Gyalshing district.
History
Pelling lies in the historic heartland of the Kingdom of Sikkim: the first Chogyal was consecrated at nearby Yuksom in 1642, and from 1670 to 1814 the capital stood at Rabdentse, whose ruins lie close to the town. Pemayangtse and Sanga Choeling, just outside Pelling, are among the oldest and most important monasteries in Sikkim.
People
Pelling's people are Bhutia, Lepcha and Nepali, and Sikkimese (Bhutia) and Nepali are the main languages. Many families farm cardamom, maize and vegetables on terraced slopes, and Pemayangtse's masked cham dances are held each year at the end of the Tibetan year, around February.
Known for
- Close views of Kangchenjunga
- Pemayangtse Monastery
- The ruins of Rabdentse, Sikkim's second capital
- Khecheopalri Lake, sacred to Buddhists
- The skywalk to the Chenrezig statue
Did you know?
Pemayangtse Monastery belongs to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and oversees all the other Nyingma monasteries in Sikkim.
Shrines and sites
- Pemayangtse Monastery
- Sanga Choeling Monastery
- Tashiding Monastery
- Rabdentse ruins
Traditions
- Buddhist
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.