Trek to Dubdi Monastary – Karthok Lake – Coronation Throne – Khanchendzonga National Park
About Yuksom
Yuksom is a small town known as the “Gateway to Khanchendzonga” and popular for its gorgeous landscapes and for its Buddhist heritage. It was the first capital of Sikkim, Yuksom meaning ‘meeting point of three monks’.
Where is Yuksom located?
- West of Sikkim (a state in India)
- 33 kms from Pelling
- 45 km from Gyalshing
How to reach here?
By road from the following places in West Bengal
- Bagdogra airpot
- New Jalpaiguri
- Siliguri railway station
Best time to visit
- March to June
- September to November
- July and August is monsoon season and avoid preferably
- December to February experiences heavy snowfall.
Our experience
Yuksom is also the gateway to the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve, the base for some of the most fascinating treks through high mountain regions like the Dzongri Trek.
Trek to the Dubdi Monastery
Our main intention of spending 2 days here is to just relax in this beautiful laid-back town and go trekking. After speaking with a trek organizer, we decide to visit the Dubdi Monastery via a trek as per the map below. We start from a small lane next to the Yuksom hospital. Our driver, Tashi drops us here with further instructions to wait for our call and pick us up.
Dubdi Monastery is 2 km uphill and the oldest in Sikkim. Locals take 20 minutes to climb up the mountain leading to Dubdi monastery, so we presume we might take 30-40 minutes. The plan is to trek through the mountain and visit the Dubdi monastery and on our way back walk through the main road and pass through small hamlets on our way. It’s a well-laid trail with rest/ viewpoints at regular intervals. We stop at these rest areas to check for leeches and to admire the valley beneath. Would highly recommend this path up the mountain.
We finally reach the Dubdi Gumpa in around 30 minutes and we are proud of our speed indeed. It’s a beautiful monastery but it was closed and no one was in sight except a couple of sweepers. We ask them and they are not sure when the monastery will open; “it depends on when the Llama comes here, no fixed schedule.” The Llama stays in the main village of Yuksom.
Khangchendzonga National Park
The descent begins. We walk along the motorable road, cross small waterfalls, and after an hour reach a little hamlet from where the Kanchenjunga Dzongri and Goech-La trek starts. We take a break here and call Tashi to pick us up. We make a mental note to come back here again for the 7-day trek of Kanchenjunga National Park before we get old and our feet give up. It’s almost 11 am. We hop into the car and stop at the Khanchendzonga national park interpretation center. There is a small informative museum here and a couple of good eateries. Beautiful view from here and we bask in the glory of nature.
Kathok Lake / Norbugang Chorten
Do read up the history and legend of these 2 places before visiting. You will feel like you are revisiting a moment of the past. How the first Chogyal (religious king) of Sikkim was coronated here at Norbugang Chorten, by three wise men (hence the name Yuksom), and the Chogyal dynasty lasted 333 years up until the year 1975 and thereafter annexed as the 22nd state of India. Yuksom was made the first capital of Sikkim, then Rabdentse before finally shifting the capital to Gangtok
Next, we stop at the pristine and serene Kathak (Karthok or Karthog) lake, prayer flags adding a feeling of eternal peace. A beautiful lake, though smaller than Kheochopalri lake, has religious significance as the Coronation of the first Chogyal was done by sprinkling water from this lake. Believers come here, pray and make a stack of 7 stones. We spend some quality time here enthralled by nature’s beauty. A short 200 m walk/hike takes us to the place where the history of Sikkim originates – the Norbugang Coronation Throne. There is a monastery of Guru Padmasambhava / Guru Rinpoche. You can see the statue of Guru Rinpoche here.
Yuksom Bazaar
Our trekking and sightseeing mission for today is accomplished, now it’s time for lunch. It is 2 pm. We have lunch at a small home-style restaurant, Traditional Inn, one of the many such cafes in Yuksom Bazaar.
We enjoyed a lip-smacking lunch after a good trek/ walk. Now back to our hotel for rest. It is very cloudy already and by 6 pm, it starts raining heavily and Electricity is disconnected. Yummy dinner is served at 8 pm and now we have nothing to do. We go to the terrace lobby which is covered and protected and decide to watch the rain, talk, and enjoy each other’s company in the dark. In Pelling, we did star gazing, however here, it is cloudy, raining, thundering accompanied with lightning. So, today we revise our physics concepts – we measure the time between successive lightning and thundering and calculate the difference in their speeds. Finally, at 9.30, electricity is revived and we settle down in our rooms to sleep. There is a small library here with a decent collection of books, I spend some 30 mins here before going to bed.