Namgyal Institute of Tibetology

A Tibet museum in Gangtok, named after Sir Tashi Namgyal, the eleventh Chogyal of Sikkim. It is a working institution as much as a display. Its researchers are documenting the social history of Sikkim's roughly sixty monasteries onto computer, and digitising the state's old and rare photographs so they can be shared. A Nyingma college, the Sheda, is attached to it; Khempo Dhazar ran that for six years. Come here before you visit the monasteries rather than after. An hour inside changes what you notice once you are standing in one.