Pemayangtse to Rabdentse heritage walk

Start at Pemayangtse at opening time, before the day visitors from Gangtok and Darjeeling arrive. Watch the morning prayers if they are running, then climb to the top floor for the seven-tiered wooden Zangdok Palri model. The monastery was enlarged under the third Chogyal and consecrated in 1710, and it still trains monks of pure lineage.

From the monastery, walk down to the ornamental gate on the Pelling–Gyalshing road and take the forest path to Rabdentse, about 15–20 minutes through oak and rhododendron. The second Chogyal, Tensung Namgyal, moved his court here from Yuksom in 1670. What remains are the walls of the palace wings, three chortens where the royal family prayed, and the Namphogang stone throne.

Sit on the terrace at the far end of the ruins: on clear days Kangchenjunga rises behind Pemayangtse across the valley, the same view the court had. A guide brings the stones to life with the kingdom's history, including the Bhutanese occupation of the early 1700s and the Gorkha raids at the end of that century.