Glimpses of Bhutan

The flight into Paro is one of the great arrivals in the Himalaya. On a clear day the snow peaks run along the window before the plane turns between forested ridges and drops into the valley, and the first thing you notice on the tarmac is the air: cool, thin and clean. Met at the airport, you drive down the Paro river and up the Thimphu river to the capital.

Thimphu is the seat of government, the summer home of the monk body and the country’s commercial centre, and it still has no traffic lights: at the main junction a policeman in white gloves directs the cars by hand. Before dark, walk the Craft Bazaar, a few minutes from the hotels, where the stalls sell work made in Bhutan — handwoven textiles, bamboo, wooden masks and handmade paper.

End the day at Tashichho Dzong, the ‘fortress of the glorious religion’, which opens to visitors on weekdays once the offices close. It holds the king’s throne room and government offices, and in summer it is the seat of the Je Khenpo, the chief abbot. The Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who unified Bhutan, built it in 1641; it was rebuilt in the 1960s in the traditional way, without nails or written plans.

East out of the valley and up to Dochu La, the pass at over 3,000 metres where 108 chortens stand on a knoll among the prayer flags. On a clear day the snow peaks of the eastern Himalaya line the northern horizon; on a misty one the chortens come and go in the cloud.

Then the long descent into Punakha, the old capital, lower and warmer than Thimphu or Paro, with rice terraces in place of pine. Punakha Dzong, the ‘palace of great happiness’, stands at the meeting of the Pho Chhu and the Mo Chhu. The Zhabdrung built it in 1637; the Je Khenpo and the monk body spend the winter here, and though fire, flood and earthquake have damaged it over the centuries, it has been rebuilt each time.

Later, a twenty-minute walk from the road at Sopsokha, across the rice fields and through the hamlet of Pana, to Chimi Lhakhang. Drukpa Kunley, the Divine Madman, subdued the demoness of Dochu La on this spot; the temple built here in 1499 keeps a wooden effigy of his ‘thunderbolt of wisdom’, and couples who hope for a child come for his blessing.

Back west over Dochu La, with lunch in Thimphu and a last chance for souvenirs, then down to Paro. Before the roads were built most of Bhutan’s trade came through this valley, from Tibet over the Tremo La or from the south through Haa. It runs from Jomolhari on the Tibetan border down to Chuzom, where the Paro river meets the Thimphu river.

Rinpung Dzong, the ‘fortress on a heap of jewels’, was built by the Zhabdrung in 1646 and still houses the district administration and the monk body. Above it, in the round watchtower of the Ta Dzong, the National Museum keeps a fine collection of thangkas, the painted and embroidered religious hangings, and the Tshogshing Lhakhang, the temple of the tree of wisdom. In the evening, cross the covered bridge with your guide and walk into the town, past the chortens by the river and the walls of the Ugyen Pelri palace.

A slow breakfast, then the short drive to Paro airport for your flight onward.