Do-Drul Chorten

It was raised in 1945 by Trulshik Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma order, and the tradition is that it was built specifically to subdue evil spirits held to inhabit the site. Building a stupa to pacify a place is a recurring practice across the Himalaya; what is unusual here is how explicitly the reason is remembered and repeated, rather than being lost behind the building.

Mani lhakor — more than a hundred of them, set in a gallery running all the way round the stupa, each containing the written mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. They are turned clockwise as you walk the circuit, and for most local visitors turning them is the purpose of coming rather than an accompaniment to looking at the building.

No. Do-Drul Chorten is an active religious site with a monastery and a religious school beside it, not a ticketed monument. The etiquette is simple: walk the circuit clockwise, dress modestly, take shoes off inside the shrine building, and ask before photographing monks or the shrine interior.

The Namgyal Institute of Tibetology is a short walk away and holds one of the largest collections of Tibetan manuscripts, thangkas and ritual objects outside Tibet — it is closed on Sundays and public holidays, which catches people out. The two are almost always done as one morning, and both sit on the same spur below the main Gangtok ridge.