Lachen Travel Guide

Lachen is a small village located in north Sikkim at an altitude of 9,000ft with about 250 village families and few hotels & small shops. Its original inhabitants are known as Lachenpas who are a Sikkimese Buddhist community. They are mostly ship and yak herders. However today with growing tourism demand, many others from different parts of Sikkim have started living here.Although the distance to Lachen from Gangtok is only 121kms, it can easily take 6 to 7 hours to reach the place by car depending on road conditions. Many tourists also come here after having visited Lachung and Yumthang Valley. Lachung to Lachen takes about 2 hours by car.Tourists come to Lachen mainly to visit the famous & picturesque high altitude Gurudongmar Lake which is located further up at an altitude of 17,800ft near Indo-China (Tibet) border. There is no proper tourist accommodation beyond Lachen. So almost all tourists visiting Gurudongmar Lake stay at Lachen overnight before proceeding to the lake next morning. And along with the lake, a typical tour also combines a visit to Chopta Valley, a beautiful valley located in-between Lachen and Gurudongmar which gets covered with flowers in spring and with snow during winter.From Gangtok, you need to take the North Sikim Highway. The road passes through villages like Phodong, Mangan, Tong etc before reaching Chungthang a village which is about 95kms from Gangtok and takes about 5 hours to reach.The road at Chungthang bifurcates. The one towards right goes to Lachung which is about 22kms towards north and onward to Yumthang Valley. The road on the left known as Lachen road goes to Lachen settlement which is about 26kms from Chungthang and takes over an hour.Since both Lachen and Lachung are close to each other, many tourists make a combined visit of Lachen/Gurudongmar lake with Lachung & Yumthang Valley.From Mangan (which is about half way between Gantok and Lachen), you will see river Teesta flowing side by side all the way up to Chungthang. Note that Chungthang is the place where River Teesta actually becomes a river although its source lies far above in glacial lakes such as Tso Lhamo which you can also visit after reaching Gurudongmar lake.Lachen means 'Big Pass'. This small village at an altitude of 9,000ft is a valley with grassy land and scattered forests of Rhodendrons and conifer. The mountain stream Lachen Chu flows through it in deep gorges and on the other side of the river are large mountains with pine forest and snow peaks.