Rumtek

thumb|250px|Monastery of Rumtek with [[Sikkim]], seat of Karmapa in exile

The Monastère of Rumtek is the seat of the Karmapa in exile in India. It is the largest monastery of the Eastern Himalayas, its architecture is of origin Tibetan. Place where it rises, the panorama on the Himalayenne chain is splendid.

It is located near Gangtok, at an altitude of 1500 m, the capital of the Sikkim, with a population of 50.000 inhabitants. The landscapes are extraordinary and of many sites neighborhood offer superb sights on all the Himalayenne chain, in particular on the Kanchenjunga, third plus high summit of the world. Another site to be visited in the vicinity: the Monastery of Enchey and the Institute of Tibétologie which is famous in the whole world for the studies on Buddhist philosophy) and the chorten (stupa) of C-Drul.

Guest to be gone to the Sikkim, the 9th Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje (1556 - 1603) which cannot go there sent a representative who establishes three monasteries of which that of Rumtek.

The construction of the new monastery of Rumtek was completed in 1966 and the brought relics of Tsourphou were placed there. It is the day of the new year Tibetan (Losar) which the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje inaugurated officially its new seat, that it called " the Center Dharmachakra, place of scholarship and spiritual achievement, sits of Gyalwa Karmapa ". Rumtek consequently became the pivot from which the dharma Kagyupa was spread in the whole world and, gradually, the activities recovered to follow the traditional monastic calendar, with the prayers, the dances of spangled, the retirements of summer at the rain season, thus founding spiritual dynamics just for the years which followed.

After the escape from the China for the India of the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje, recognized by three of the four regents Karma-Kagyu (Taï Sitou Rinpoché Gyaltsab Rinpoché, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoché) and the 14th Dalaï Lama, the monastery of Rumtek drew the attention of the media.

See too

List of Buddhist temples of Tibet
List of Buddhist temples of India

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