Hanuman Tok

Hanuman Tok stands on a ridge above Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, at over 7,000 feet – one of the highest and most visited Hindu shrines in the state, and, alongside the nearby Ganesh Tok, one of the city’s best-known viewpoints. Unlike most of the ancient dynastic or Puranic foundations recorded elsewhere in this directory, Hanuman Tok is a distinctly modern temple: it was built in 1950 by a civil servant, Appaji Pant, over a stone locally associated with Hanuman, with construction completed in 1952. The surrounding land subsequently passed to the Indian Army, which has maintained the temple ever since – an unusual custodial arrangement compared with the trust- or royal-family-run temples that dominate this directory’s older entries.

Local legend ties the site to the Ramayana’s Sanjeevani episode, in which Hanuman flies to the Himalayas to retrieve the life-saving herb needed to revive the wounded Lakshmana – a tradition attached to this particular stone and hilltop after the temple’s founding rather than a claim with independent historical support. What is well documented is the temple’s present-day role: an active Hanuman shrine, host to Gangtok’s Hanuman Jayanti celebrations, and one of the capital’s principal religious and scenic landmarks, commanding views across the Gangtok valley toward Kangchenjunga on clear days.