Far in the East of Sikkim, between Pelling and Yuksom, there is the Khecheopari Monastery and its Sacred Lakes. A remonte Monastery that shines in many different colors, monks that are extremely friendly and a nice, and very spiritual lake.
Khecheopari Lake: a Sacred Place
The lake is scared for Hindus and Muslims. From the entrance, it’s another 200 meters to the lake. There are small paths on one side of the lake with several small buildings, temple and many unmissable, colorful prayer flags everywhere.
At the end of the hiking path, there is a prayer point close to the water of the lake. All in all, you walk about 500 meters along the lake. The place has its very own, very spiritual atmosphere. You can fell the sacredness of the lake.
Khecheopari Monastery: colorful magnificence of Buddhism
The monastery is on a hill, a bit off the lake. It’s a bit of a walk up the hill. This seems to be too much for many visitors, almost no one went up to the main building. The main building is an extremely colorful, shining and sparkling building where the monks still live.
After hesitating for a while, we came closer to the building. Because the monks just had a meeting, we did not want to enter or look inside. But the monks were signaling us several times to come and even offered us cookies. That is how we got the pics from the inside. We would not have done any of that without them telling us to enter.
The inside of the building is an extremely colorful collection of art and crafts. No matter where you look, there is always a new painting, a new colorful piece of cloth or a painted wall. Absolutely breathtaking and unique! Totally different from everything I have seen so far.
The main buildings’ outside is magnificent. There are artful sculptures everywhere, all of them in many colors and very well-kept. I could have spent hours just looking at things. A unique architecture.
Monks in Khecheopari
All the monks were very curious and friendly. They were standing around me in a group of 6, watched my pics on the camera and took pics of themselves. That is how the monk pics were made, we did not do it, they did it themselves. We also got an orange and a very warm welcome, even though there is not even a language we both share. How great having this experience!
The monastery was one of the Sikkim highlights. I would definitely recommend coming here.
see Sikkim Tour ###Link###
see Pelling ###Link###