Dragon's Heartland

Arrive at Paro

We meet you at Paro and give you the afternoon. The valley floor is at about 2,235 metres and the drive east starts tomorrow, so the useful thing to do today is very little — a walk along the Paro Chhu, and an early night.

If your flight lands early, Kyichu Lhakhang is fifteen minutes away and takes half an hour to visit. It is one of the oldest temples in the country and a gentle introduction.

Paro to Thimphu

A short drive to the capital, then the essentials: Buddha Dordenma above the valley at Kuensel Phodrang, the National Memorial Chorten of 1974, and the takin preserve at Motithang.

Tashichho Dzong in the late afternoon, once the offices close. Thimphu is the only stop on this route where you will see anything resembling a crowd, and after tomorrow the roads empty out for a week.

Over Dochu La to Punakha

Dochu La at about 3,100 metres, with its 108 chortens and — in clear weather — the eastern Himalaya along the northern skyline. Then a long descent into the sub-tropical Punakha valley at around 1,250 metres.

We stop at Sopsokha and walk twenty-five minutes through the rice terraces to Chimi Lhakhang, built in 1499 and associated with the fifteenth-century teacher Drukpa Kunley.

Punakha Dzong and Khamsum Yulley

Punakha Dzong, built in 1637–38 at the confluence of the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu, is the second oldest in Bhutan and still the winter seat of the central monastic body. Give it two hours rather than one.

In the afternoon, the forty-five minute walk up through the rice terraces to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, completed in 2004, and the view back down the Mo Chhu from its upper storey.

East over the Pele La to Trongsa

The longest drive of the trip and the one that changes the journey. The road climbs out of the Punakha valley past Wangdue Phodrang — whose dzong burned in 2012 and has been rebuilt — then up through dwarf bamboo to the Pele La at about 3,420 metres, the traditional boundary between western and central Bhutan.

Beyond the pass, Chendebji Chorten stands beside the river, built in the Nepalese style in the eighteenth century. Trongsa appears long before you reach it: the dzong is strung along a spur above the Mangde Chhu gorge, and the road spends half an hour working around the valley to get to it.

Trongsa Dzong was built in 1648 and controlled the only east–west route through the country. Both the first and second Kings ruled from here, and the crown prince still holds the title of Trongsa Penlop before accession.

Over the Yotong La into Bumthang

We start at the Ta Dzong above Trongsa — the old watchtower, now the Tower of Trongsa museum, which sets out the history of the monarchy better than anywhere else in the country.

Then east over the Yotong La at about 3,425 metres and down into the Chhume valley, the first of Bumthang's four. Chhume is where Bhutanese yathra is woven — a thick woollen cloth in strong geometric patterns — and the weaving houses at Zungney are worth the stop.

Jakar, the main settlement of Bumthang, sits at around 2,600 metres in the Chokhor valley.

The temples of the Chokhor valley

Jambay Lhakhang is traditionally counted among the temples founded in the seventh century by the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, which would make it one of the two oldest in Bhutan. Kurjey Lhakhang, a short distance up the valley, is built around a cave holding what is held to be the body imprint of Guru Padmasambhava.

Across the river, Tamshing Lhakhang was founded in 1501 by Pema Lingpa, the treasure-revealer whose lineage runs through this valley and whose descendants include the royal family. Its original murals are among the oldest surviving in the country.

In the afternoon, Jakar Dzong on its ridge, and a walk back down through the fields.

The Tang valley and Mebar Tsho

A day in the least developed of the four valleys. Mebar Tsho, the Burning Lake, is a pool in a gorge of the Tang Chhu where Pema Lingpa is said to have retrieved hidden treasures while holding a lit butter lamp — and emerged with the lamp still burning. It is a small place, hung with flags, and it matters enormously here.

Higher up the valley, Ogyen Choling is a manor house turned museum, run by the family that has held it for generations. It is the best surviving picture of how a noble household in central Bhutan actually lived, and the twenty-minute walk up to it is part of the point.

Ura, then west to Trongsa

Ura is the highest and most easterly of the Bumthang valleys, at about 3,100 metres — a compact village of clustered houses along cobbled lanes, which is unusual in Bhutan, where farmhouses normally stand apart in their own fields. Sheep grazing and potato farming still shape the year here.

In the afternoon we start back west, recrossing the Yotong La to Trongsa for the night.

Trongsa to Paro

The long return over the Pele La and Dochu La. It is a full day on the road, broken at both passes and for lunch near Wangdue, and it is the price of having gone as far east as Ura.

We arrive in Paro in the late afternoon with time for Rinpung Dzong, built in 1644, and the cantilever bridge below it. If you would rather add the Taktsang climb, we can restructure this day and the next — tell us at the enquiry stage.

Departure from Paro

Transfer to Paro International for your flight. If your departure is late enough, there is time for the Sunday market or one last walk along the river.