Serang Gompa

You drive from Kathmandu to Machha Khola, walk three days through Jagat and Deng to Bihi, and climb to the monastery on the fourth.

The drive from Kathmandu to Machha Khola covers about 140 to 160 km and takes 7 to 10 hours, depending on the road and the weather. Local-market reports in 2026 put the public bus at about NPR 1,500 to 2,000. That is an operator figure, not a government fare. In season, jeeps may go farther towards Bangsing or Philim, but do not plan around it.

On the lower trail, guidebook and GPS distances between Machha Khola, Jagat and Deng vary by 10 to 20% because the trail is rerouted round landslides and bridges.

The climb from Bihi to Serang Gompa takes 5 to 6 hours and gains about 900 to 1,000 m. One experienced operator measures it at 7.9 km and another at 13.5 km, a difference that probably comes from different start points and trail variants. There are no reliable teahouses on the way, so carry food and water.

For the way out, a GPS track recorded in November 2025 from Serang Gumba through Bihi Bazar to Ghap gives the best recent measure:

• Distance: 15.31 km.
• Climbing: 592 m of ascent and 1,504 m of descent.
• Highest point: 3,019 m.
• Time: 5 hours 46 minutes moving, 7 hours 13 minutes in all.

A trek to Serang Gompa and back without the Larkya La takes about 10 days from Kathmandu, and adding the full Manaslu Circuit makes it about 15. Both are planning estimates built from published stage times. An 18-day version adds acclimatisation nights.

The 10-day Serang trek runs as follows.

1. Drive Kathmandu to Machha Khola (140 to 160 km, 7 to 10 hours).
2. Walk to Jagat (15 to 22 km, 6 to 7 hours).
3. Walk to Deng (15 to 20 km, 6 to 8 hours).
4. Walk to Bihi (4 to 5 hours).
5. Climb to Serang Gompa (5 to 6 hours).
6. Descend to Bihi and walk to Ghap (15.31 km, about 7 hours).
7. Walk to Deng (2 to 4 hours, verify locally).
8. Walk to Jagat (6 to 8 hours).
9. Walk to Machha Khola (6 to 8 hours).
10. Drive to Kathmandu (7 to 10 hours).

The 15-day Serang and Manaslu Circuit trek follows the same first five days, then rejoins the circuit at Ghap.

The 18-day version adds a rest day at Bihi before the climb, a second night at Serang and a second night at Samdo. Those extra nights follow CDC guidance to slow gains in sleeping altitude above 3,000 m, and no rule requires them.

The best months for Serang Gompa are March to May and September to November, the seasons the Nepal Tourism Board recommends for Manaslu. For Serang without the Larkya La, late March to April and October to early November usually give the best balance of weather and trail services, going by official season guidance and operator experience.

Foreign trekkers to Serang Gompa need a Manaslu Restricted Area Permit, a Manaslu Conservation Area Permit (MCAP) and a TIMS card. All three are arranged through a registered trekking agency with a licensed guide. The Department of Immigration does not issue restricted-area permits for independent trekking.

The Department of Immigration’s Gorkha Manaslu restricted-area table lists Chumnubri Wards 1 to 4, and Serang is in Ward 5. The normal route through Jagat and the upper corridor still crosses restricted wards first, so you need the permit. An itinerary that reached only Ward 5 without crossing any restricted ward would need clearing with Immigration and the agency.

An older Nepal Tourism Board page still shows conservation fees of NPR 2,000 foreign and NPR 200 SAARC. The current NTNC e-permit fees of NPR 3,000 and NPR 1,000 take precedence. Advice that TIMS is not needed with a restricted-area permit is out of date: the current TIMS rule names the Manaslu Circuit, Manaslu-Tsum and Tsum Valley.

For the permit, Immigration asks for your passport and current Nepal visa, the trekker list, insurance for trekkers, guides and porters, and a detailed itinerary. A correct application submitted before the office cut-off can be processed the same day.

The official permit fees are in the table above, and the monastery publishes no tariff for staying there. No published source gives the cost of the mandatory licensed guide or of teahouses on the route, so this page gives no total.

The overnight figures are dated indications, not official monastery prices. Overnight visitors are expected to make a meaningful contribution to the community.

The trek to Serang Gompa is strenuous: several days of walking, then a climb of about 900 to 1,000 m in one day from Bihi. Your sleeping altitude rises from about 2,120 to 2,180 m at Bihi to about 3,050 m at Serang, a jump of about 850 to 930 m. The two figures measure different things. The first is the trail’s total climbing, which rises and falls, and the second is the difference between the two places you sleep. Children under 10 enter the Manaslu Conservation Area free.

At about 3,050 m, Serang Gompa is high enough for acute mountain sickness to matter. US CDC guidance says any unacclimatised traveller sleeping above about 2,450 m (8,038 ft) can develop altitude illness, and at about 3,050 m inspired oxygen is only about 69% of sea level.

Above 3,000 m, CDC and Wilderness Medical Society guidance advises raising your sleeping altitude by no more than about 500 m a night, with an extra night for each further 1,000 m. Arrive at Bihi after several days of gradual ascent, and walk up to Serang slowly.

Do not go higher to sleep while you have symptoms, and descend if they worsen despite rest. Severe breathlessness at rest, falling exercise capacity, confusion, drowsiness or loss of coordination can mean high-altitude pulmonary or cerebral oedema (HAPE or HACE), and need urgent descent.

Serang Compassionate Clinic and Bihi Mother’s Love Clinic opened in October 2024. The Serang and Bihi clinics provide basic community care, with no hospital trauma or altitude critical care.

Helicopter rescue exists in Nepal, and the Nepal Tourism Board recommends comprehensive travel insurance because helicopter rescue and treatment are expensive. Any evacuation from the Serang valley would depend on the weather, an available aircraft and a landing zone. As planning advice, make sure your policy covers helicopter evacuation and trekking to at least 3,200 m for Serang alone, or above 5,200 m for the full circuit.

Emergency numbers: Tourist Police 1144, Police 100, and weather and flood warnings 1155.

No. A foreign trekker cannot go to Serang Gompa independently, because the Department of Immigration issues restricted-area permits only through authorised trekking agencies, and the guided-trek rule covers Manaslu. The Tourist Police advise using government-registered tourism providers, and the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal publishes a member directory. Arrange accommodation at the monastery in advance too.

The Manaslu Conservation Area Project of the National Trust for Nature Conservation answers conservation-area and trail-condition questions at mcap@ntnc.org.np. The project’s main field offices are at Philim and Sirdibas, and its tourist check posts and information centres are at Jagat and Samagaun. The Department of Immigration in Kalikasthan, Kathmandu, administers restricted-area permits.

The Nepal Tourism Board’s central office is at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu, with a Gandaki Province office in Pokhara, and the Tourist Police head office is on the same premises. For the monastery itself, the most authoritative public route found is the Mahasukha Foundation. No verified public booking number for the monastery was found as of September 2026.

You can combine Serang Gompa with the full Manaslu Circuit by rejoining it at Ghap and continuing over the Larkya La, which adds about five days to the Serang-only trek. The full circuit is much harder. It rises to Samagaun (about 3,530 m), Samdo (about 3,860 to 3,875 m), Dharamsala (about 4,460 to 4,480 m) and the Larkya La (about 5,106 m). Entering the Tsum Valley needs its own restricted-area permit.

• Dress modestly.
• Walk clockwise around chortens and other prayer structures where that is the custom.
• Remove footwear where instructed.
• Ask before photographing monks, nuns, shrines or ceremonies.
• Keep retreat spaces quiet.
• Camping needs the community’s permission.

First-time visitors often miss three points.

• Serang is in Nubri, not the Tsum Valley, so no Tsum permit is needed for it.
• TIMS is now required on Manaslu routes.
• Serang has a primary school inside the monastery compound and a village clinic, both projects of the Mahasukha Foundation.

• Rooms are basic monastery or monastery-managed guest rooms, with simple bedding and shared facilities. There is no hotel.
• No source certifies the drinking water, so bring a filter or purification tablets.
• Electricity and Wi-Fi are intermittent or absent at times, and no network is guaranteed. Do not depend on mobile data.
• No card or cash-machine service was found at Serang. Carry enough Nepali rupees.

• A paper Manaslu map, an offline map, a downloaded GPS track and a power bank.
• A sleeping bag for the season. Winter at Serang can reach −15 °C.
• Layered clothing, waterproofs, a warm hat and gloves, and a sun hat.
• Broken-in boots and poles. Microspikes only if snow or ice conditions call for them.
• Water treatment and enough water for the Bihi climb.
• A first-aid kit, your medications and an altitude plan.

The NTNC Manaslu Conservation Area Geoportal is the official starting point for boundaries and for layers of gompas, health posts, peaks and trails. NTNC also publishes a “Chumchet to Bihi Trek” layer of about 24 km, downloadable as GeoJSON, CSV, GML or shapefile, though that is not a Serang route. A commercial 1:125,000 Manaslu and Tsum Valley map names the Bihi, Syarang and Serang trail. No official GPX or KML track to the monastery was found, and the November 2025 track on a GPS-sharing site is the most relevant.

According to a tradition recorded by the Mahasukha Foundation, Guru Padmasambhava foretold Kyimolung as one of several refuge valleys. The same source says the treasure revealer Garwang Dorje (1640 to 1685) revealed six terma, hidden scriptures, in the region. Local tradition associates Milarepa with meditation retreats in the caves of Kyimolung. These traditions are the reason Buddhists treat the valley itself as sacred.

The monastery’s own history says Serang Gompa was founded “centuries ago” by the yogi Chokyi Gyaltsen, who was associated with the Jatson Nyingpo and Jangter, or Northern Treasure, teachings. Chokyi Gyaltsen’s practice lineage passed from father to son through eleven lineage holders, ending with the late Nubri Lama Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche after his full ordination.

The monastery’s account of its Jangter origins and Longchen Nyingtik practice places Serang Gompa in the Nyingma tradition, and recent sources identify it as Nyingma. One commercial operator calls it Drukpa Kagyu. The monastery’s own detailed account is the primary source, so Nyingma is the better-supported description, and the Drukpa Kagyu label stays unconfirmed unless independent scholarship establishes a Kagyu phase in the monastery’s history.

After extensive renovation, Serang Gompa was offered to H.H. the 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche in 1992. That year it received the name Sangchen Rabten Norbuling, and the Longchen Nyingtik teachings were transmitted there. A monks’ retreat centre was founded in 1992 and a nuns’ retreat centre in 1995, for the traditional retreat of three years and three months.

A report by an experienced trekking operator from about 2018 describes Serang as having only lately opened to non-monastic Western visitors at the time of writing. Operator material from 2025 and 2026 treats Serang as a deliberate side trip from Bihi.

The permanent building of Serang Primary School, inside the monastery compound, was completed and inaugurated on 24 November 2019. In October 2024 the Mahasukha Foundation opened the Bihi Mother’s Love Clinic and renovated and reopened the old Serang Health Post as Serang Compassionate Clinic. Before the clinic, reaching the nearest health post could take a full day’s steep walk. The foundation also opened a branch school at Bihi.

Trekkers drive from Kathmandu to Machha Khola and walk from there, though jeeps sometimes go farther towards Bangsing or Philim in season. Floods on 6 September 2026 damaged bridges in the Namrung area, and the route’s reopening was announced on 11 September 2026.

The Manaslu Conservation Area covers 1,663 km² and includes the former Sirdibas, Chumchet, Chhekampar, Bihi, Prok, Lho and Samagaun areas. The National Trust for Nature Conservation calls the north-west of Manaslu Nubri, the middle Bihi sector Kutang, and the north-east Tsum. Serang lies in Nubri, and some online pages wrongly put it in the Tsum Valley.

Published altitudes for Serang Gompa range from 3,019 m, the maximum on a GPS track from November 2025, to 3,200 m for the Serang school inside the monastery compound. Trekking sources give 3,042 to 3,100 m. No surveyed figure exists, so this page uses about 3,050 m for planning, with an uncertainty of about 150 m.

No government or NTNC point locates the monastery building. An older national settlement list gives Serang (Syarang) at 28.551057° N, 84.893805° E and 2,940 m. A mapped locality gives 28.53968° N, 84.87612° E and 3,068 m, about 2 km away. Use a guide’s GPS waypoint or a recorded track rather than either point alone.

Serang Gompa is in Ward 5 (Bihi) of Chumnubri Rural Municipality, Gorkha District, Nepal, inside the Manaslu Conservation Area. It stands in the Nubri-Kyimolung valley above Bihi.

Serang Gompa is at about 3,050 m (10,007 ft). Sources range from 3,019 m, the highest point of a November 2025 GPS track, to 3,200 m for the school inside the monastery compound.

No. Serang Gompa is in Nubri, above Bihi. Some online pages wrongly place a “Serang Gompa” in Tsum at about 3,800 to 3,900 m.

Drive 7 to 10 hours from Kathmandu to Machha Khola, walk three days through Jagat and Deng to Bihi, and climb 5 to 6 hours to the monastery. On the 10-day trek, you reach Bihi on day 4 and Serang on day 5.

The trek from Bihi to Serang Gompa takes 5 to 6 hours with about 900 to 1,000 m of climbing. Published distances range from 7.9 km to 13.5 km.

A trek to Serang Gompa and back without the Larkya La takes about 10 days from Kathmandu, as a planning estimate from published stage times. With the full Manaslu Circuit it takes about 15 days, or about 18 with extra acclimatisation nights.

Yes. Foreign trekkers to Serang Gompa need a Manaslu Restricted Area Permit, a Manaslu Conservation Area Permit and TIMS. You also need ACAP if you cross the Larkya La.

As of September 2026, the Manaslu Restricted Area Permit costs USD 100 for the first week from September to November, then USD 15 a day. From December to August it costs USD 75 for the first week, then USD 10 a day. A registered trekking agency arranges it, and independent trekkers cannot apply.

No. Restricted-area permits are issued only through authorised agencies, and the guided-trek rule covers Manaslu. The Tourist Police advise using government-registered tourism providers, and the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal publishes a member directory.

No. A Tsum Restricted Area Permit is needed only if you enter the Tsum Valley. Serang lies in Nubri, and the National Trust for Nature Conservation places Tsum in the north-east of the Manaslu area.

Yes. The current TIMS rule names the Manaslu Circuit among its guided routes, so older advice that TIMS is not needed no longer holds for Manaslu treks, including Serang Gompa. TIMS costs NPR 2,000 for non-SAARC trekkers and NPR 1,000 for SAARC trekkers, under the rule effective 31 March 2023.

The best months for Serang Gompa are March to May and September to November, the seasons the Nepal Tourism Board recommends for Manaslu. October is usually the best all-round month, going by official season guidance and operator experience.

Yes. Serang Gompa has basic monastery guest rooms, which you should arrange in advance. One operator gives about USD 40 a night including meals, but this is not an official price.

Yes, altitude sickness is possible at Serang Gompa, which lies at about 3,050 m. Sleeping there after Bihi means a jump of about 850 to 930 m, so arrive after gradual ascent and walk slowly.

Yes. Serang Compassionate Clinic reopened in October 2024, and Bihi Mother’s Love Clinic opened at the same time. The two clinics give basic care and offer no hospital or rescue services.

No network is guaranteed at Serang Gompa, and electricity and Wi-Fi are intermittent. Carry a paper map, an offline map and a downloaded GPS track, and do not depend on mobile data.

The monastery says the yogi Chokyi Gyaltsen, of the Northern Treasure tradition, founded Serang Gompa centuries ago. Serang Gompa was offered to the 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche in 1992.

Serang Gompa is Nyingma, practising the Longchen Nyingtik in the Dodrupchen lineage, according to the monastery. One commercial operator calls it Drukpa Kagyu, which the monastery’s own account does not support.

Winter temperatures at the Serang school can reach −15 °C, according to the Mahasukha Foundation. Bring a sleeping bag suited to the season.

Yes. The Nepal Tourism Board announced on 11 September 2026 that the Manaslu route had reopened after flooding on 6 September. Check conditions with MCAP and your agency immediately before you go.

No public festival calendar for Serang Gompa was found as of September 2026. Ask the monastery through the Mahasukha Foundation before planning a visit around a festival.

The Manaslu Conservation Area Project has tourist check posts and information centres at Jagat and Samagaun. You pass Jagat on day 2 of the trek to Serang, and Samagaun only on the full circuit.

After the full circuit, you return to Kathmandu by road from Dharapani or Besisahar, a long transfer day. The Serang-only trek returns the way it came, through Machha Khola.