Rumtek, also called the Dharmachakra Centre, is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery located 24 km from Gangtok, the capital of the Sikkim, at an altitude of about 1500 m. Originally built by the 9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje in 16th century, Rumtek served as the main seat of the Karma Kagyu lineage in Sikkim for some time. When the 16th Karmapa arrived in Sikkim in 1959, after fleeing Tibet, the monastery was in ruins. Despite being offered other sites, the Karmapa decided to rebuild Rumtek. To him, the site possessed many auspicious qualities and was surrounded by the most favorable attributes. With the generosity and help of the Sikkim royal family and the Indian government, it was built by the 16th Karmapa as his main seat in exile.

After four years, construction of the monastery was completed. The sacred items and relics brought out from Tsurphu Monastery, the Karmapa's seat in Tibet, were installed. On Tibetan New Year's Day (Losar) in 1966 the 16th Karmapa officially inaugurated the new seat called, "The Dharmachakra Centre, a place of erudition and spiritual accomplishment, the seat of the glorious Karmapa."

The monastery is currently the largest in Sikkim. It is home to the community of monks and where they perform the rituals and practices of the Karma Kagyu lineage. A Golden Stupa contains the relics of the 16th Karmapa. A college or Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies is situated opposite the building. The Stupa walkway surrounds the Rumtek monastery, where monks, pilgrims and visitors perform kora. The Dharma Chakra Center includes a beautifully structured main shrine temple and monastery with monks' quarters, a three-year retreat center, a monastic college, where the relics of the Sixteenth Karmapa are enshrined, nunnery, stupas, a protector's shrine, institutions for the lay community and other establishments. The Rumtek monastery became the international Kagyu Headquarters during the life of His Holiness and became the residence of a new generation of Kagyu masters.

Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh is the largest monastery in India. It was founded by the Mera Lama Lodre Gyasto in accordance with the wishes of the 5th Dalai Lama, Nagwang Lobsang Gyatso.The monastery belongs to the Gelugpa school and has a religious association with Drepung Monastery in Lhasa. The monastery is at an elevation of about 3,300 metres (10,000 ft) in Tawang Town. It is three stories high and spread over an area of 140 sq.m. and enclosed by a 610 m long compound wall. Within the complex there are 65 residential buildings and 10 other structures having a capacity of about 700 monks. t is said to be one of the biggest Buddhist monasteries in the world outside of Lhasa, Tibet.

Tawang Monastery is one of the largest monasteries of Mahayana sect in Asia. The monastery is also known in Tibetan as Galden Namgey Lhatse, which translates to 'celestial paradise in a clear night.' The library of the monastery has valuable old scriptures, mainly Kanjur and Tanjur, numbering 850 bundles. It also houses the three-storied Parkhang library: a collection of 400-year-old Kangyur scriptures in addition to many other invaluable manuscripts. Other large collections include the Sutras, Tangym, Sungbhum, old books and other manuscripts, both handwritten and printed, many of them in gold. Dances and ceremonial celebrations are held in the courtyard, the most important of which is held on the night of Buddha Poornima.

The most fascinating part is the Dukhang or Assembly Hall — a three-storied building housing the temple and the 8.3 m (27 ft) high Golden Buddha. To the left of the altar on the northern wall is a silver casket wrapped in silk containing the Thankas of Goddess Dri Devi (Palden Lhamo), the principal deity of the monastery. It was given to Merak Lama by the 5th Dalai Lama and has come to be known as the Ja-Droi-Ma, which means it has the warmth of a bird, symbolizing that the Thanka is of a living type.

The Namdroling Nyingmapa Monastery is 6 kms away from the twin town Kushalnagar and 85 km from Mysore, Karnataka. Namdroling is the largest teaching center of Nyingmapa (a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism) in the world. It is home to a sangha community of 5,000 monks and nuns of all ages, a religious college and a hospital. The monastery was established by throne-holder Kyabje Penor Rinpoche in 1963, following his 1959 exit from Tibet. The monastery's full name is Thegchog Namdrol Shedrub Dargyeling, called "Namdroling" for short. Its initial structure was a temple constructed from bamboo, covering an area of approximately eighty square feet. Carved from the jungle that the India government generously granted Tibetan exiles, initial challenges included rampaging elephants and other tropical dangers.

Also known as Golden Temple, the monastery’s gold-tipped stupas shines especially when hit by the afternoon sun. The doors are embossed with gold carvings and intricate murals based on Tantric Buddhism. Inside the temple complex, there are beautiful gardens. Stepping inside the entrance through the two huge red doors feels like another world. Inside the temple, one can see three giant statues are centrally located. Raised on a platform, these statues are gold-plated. Buddha which is around sixty-feet tall held prominent place, flanked by Guru Padmasambhava and Amitayush statues each around 58 feet tall. The monastery hosts several ceremonies yearly. The famous among them is Tibetan New Year (Losar). It is celebrated in February or early March over a period of fifteen days. During that time, the monastery hosts traditional colourful lama dances and huge thangkas, a Tibetan silk painting with embroidery depicts Buddhist deity.