Trekking in Bhutan

A day hike to the viewpoint opposite Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest: two to three hours uphill all the way, through villages and pine forest. The monastery clings to a granite cliff some 900 metres above the valley. Guru Rinpoche is said to have flown here on a tigress in the eighth century and meditated in a cave in the rock, subduing the demons who stood in the way of Buddhism; the monastery was built over the cave at the end of the seventeenth century, and every Bhutanese hopes to make the pilgrimage once in a lifetime.

Later, Drukgyel Dzong, at the head of the valley, built in the seventeenth century to hold the road against the armies of Tibet. On a clear day Jomolhari, more than 7,300 metres high, rises white behind it.

A morning of crafts in Thimphu: the painting school, the National Library, a goldsmith’s workshop and the handicraft centres. In the afternoon, three hours east over Dochu La, at over 3,000 metres, where on a fine day the eastern Himalaya is laid out along the horizon, Gangkhar Puensum among them — the highest mountain in Bhutan, and the highest in the world never climbed.

From the pass the road drops all the way to the low, warm valley at Lobesa and on to Wangdue Phodrang, where you see the dzong from outside, on its ridge above the rivers, and walk through the market.

The trek begins. A moderate trail runs through meadows and fields, then climbs to Tsele La, through forest of juniper, bamboo, magnolia and rhododendron. On the far side lies Gogona, a village of herders who speak their own dialect. The camp is at about 3,200 metres, and the walking takes five to six hours.

The last day’s walking, from Khotokha by way of Nizergang: a short climb to Tashi La, at about 3,300 metres, then a long descent. Fill your water bottles soon after the pass, because the way down is very dry. The forest changes as you drop, all the way to the Dang Chhu at about 1,400 metres and the road at Chuzomsa, six to seven hours in all. The car is waiting for the forty-minute drive to Wangdue Phodrang, a hotel and a hot shower.

Buddha Dordenma sits on a hill in Kuensel Phodrang Nature Park, watching over the southern entrance to the Thimphu valley. The seated Shakyamuni is bronze, gilded and 51.5 metres tall, the largest statue in Bhutan; inside it are 125,000 smaller Buddhas, gilded bronze too, and its throne is a great meditation hall. It is said to fulfil a prophecy of the eighth century revealed by the treasure-finder Pema Lingpa.

At Simply Bhutan, a living museum run with young Bhutanese to keep the old ways alive, you dress in gho or kira, watch ara, the local spirit, being distilled, and try your hand at archery, the national sport — and learn why culture is one of the four pillars of Gross National Happiness.

Then the drive to Paro. The Ta Dzong, the old watchtower above the town, became the National Museum in the 1960s under the third king, with galleries on Bhutanese history and culture going back to the seventh century. Walk down to Rinpung Dzong, still the district’s administrative centre and a school for monks, then over the old covered bridge into the town and its market.