Rabong or Ravangla is a small town with an elevation of 8000 feet located, near Namchi City in the

Namchi district Namchi District is a district of the Indian state of Sikkim. Its headquarters is at Namchi. Geography Namchi district lies at an altitude of 400 to 2000 metres and has a temperate climate for most of the year. Major urban centres include ...

of the Indian

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

. It is connected by state highway to other major towns in the state and lies between Namchi,

Pelling Pelling (པད་གླིང་། ) is a hill station in ( རྒྱལ་ཤིང་རྫོང་།) Gyalshing district of Sikkim, India. Pelling is nestled at an altitude of . The town is located at a distance of 10 km from G ...

and

Gangtok Gangtok (, ) is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Sikkim. The seat of East Sikkim district, eponymous district, Gangtok is in the eastern Himalayas, Himalayan range, at an elevation of . The city's population of 100 ...

. It is the starting point for the trek to Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary. It is approximately 65 km from the state capital,

, and 120 km from

Siliguri Siliguri (, ; ), also known as Shiliguri, is a major Tier ii cities in india, tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms the twin cities, Twin Cities with the neighbouring city of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeel ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

. The name is derived from the

Sikkimese language Bhutia (, THL: ''dren jong ké,'' ; "rice valley language"), is a language of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Bhutia people in Sikkim in northeast India, parts of Koshi province in eastern Nepal, and Bhutan. It is one of the offici ...

. ‘Ra’ means wild sheep, 'vong' translates to a rearing place, and ‘la’ means a pass.

Geography

Mt.

Kanchenjunga Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...

, Mt. Pandim, Mt. Siniolchu, Mt.

Kabru Kabru is a mountain in the Himalayas on the border of eastern Nepal and India. It is part of a ridge that extends south from the third highest mountain in the world Kangchenjunga, and is the southernmost peak in the world. The main features ...

are some of the major peaks visible from Ravangla.

Flora

Upper parts of Ravangla sometimes experience snowfall during winter. During the months of April–May, the area is surrounded by many flowers including

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s and

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

Fauna

Ravangla attracts many Himalayan birds. Verditer flycatchers, blue-fronted redstarts, grey bush chats, dark-throated thrush, blue whistling-thrush, green-backed tits, and white-browed fantails are common. The forests around Ravangla have other birds like laughing thrushes, babblers,

cuckoos Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are somet ...

, and hill partridges. The rare

satyr tragopan The satyr tragopan (''Tragopan satyra'') also known as the crimson horned pheasant, is a pheasant found in the Himalayan reaches of India, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. They reside in moist oak and rhododendron forests with dense undergrowth and bambo ...

can also be spotted in Ravangla.

Tibetan community

A Tibetan community is located 1 km away from the Ravangla Market. It consists of seven camps, with 328.5 acres of total land and 1,300 people. The Tibetan settlement has one primary Tibetan medium school, two monasteries, administrative offices, and a primary health care clinic.

Ralang Monastery New Ralang Monastery or Ralong Palchen Choling is a Buddhist monastery of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism in southern Sikkim, northeastern India. It is located six kilometres from Ravangla. Ralang Monastery has an extensive collection of pa ...

, a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

monastery of the

Kagyu The ''Kagyu'' school, also transliterated as ''Kagyü'', or ''Kagyud'' (), which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools (''chos lugs'') of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan (or Himalayan) Buddhism. ...

school of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

is located 6 km from Ravangla. The old monastery is also a few kilometers from Borong. There are many small hamlets where these communities live. Tourism is a major source of income for these communities.

Geography

Flora

Fauna

Tibetan community

Education

Gallery

See also

References

External links