URA FESTIVAL AND BUMTHANG CULTURAL TREK

Note: the day 03 programme is subject to arrival in Thimphu on a week-end.

Drive to Thimphu. After check in at Hotel visit the weekend open-air market where farmers and merchants meet to sell their crops and wares. The market is alive with photo opportunities: red hot-peppers weighed on centuries-old scales; a weathered old man spinning a prayer wheel while he hawks strings of rock-hard yak cheese; a mother feeding watermelon to a baby strapped to her back.

If day 03 does not fall on a weekend, visit:

-Memorial Chorten: Memorial Chorten. This stupa was built in 1974 to honor the 3rd King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. This religious structure is circumambulated only in a clockwise direction (reciting prayers and whirling the large red prayer wheels).

- Textile Musuem: Textile Museum - What would be the best dress to attend the festivals in Bhutan? The answer would be “colorful, hand-woven, and made of pure silk.”  It takes almost a year to weave one dress, but textiles has become the largest industry in the country. The visit to the textile museum is an introduction to the Bhutanese national attire and the workforce responsible for these items of utility and beauty.

- Late afternoon visit the National Takin Reserve, where a herd of Bhutan’s national animals reside. Legend has it that the takin is a cross between a goat and a buffalo, but biologists agree that its nearest relative is the arctic musk ox. 

Dinner and overnight: Hotel

- After breakfast begin your journey to the east, en route stopping at 10,500 ft. Dochula Pass for tea and biscuits and enjoy your first view of the eastern Himalayan mountains. Spend sometime walking through hundreds of colourful prayer flags surrounded by rhododendron forest and other high altitude flowers and plants. 

- Drive on to Wangduephodrang--shortened to Wangdue by the locals--where the most prominent feature is the Wangdue Dzong, visible from your hotel room window as it sits on a mountain spur commanding an archer’s view of two rivers. Check in at Dragon’s Nest Resort and have lunch.

- After lunch, visit Punakha Dzong (16 km from Wangdue)  Built in 1637 between the confluence of the Po Chu (male river) and Mo Chu (female river,) this fortress is the winter residence of Bhutan’s spiritual leader, the Je Khenpo or Head Abbot, and the central Monk Body--350 monks in total.    

- On the way back from Punakha, hike through farm houses to Chhi-Med (means “no dogs”) Lhakhang in the picturesque Lobesa valley, to visit the temple of one of Bhutan’s foremost saints, the Buddha Drukpa Kunley, affectionately known as the Divine Madman. The phallic paintings on the exterior walls of Bhutanese houses are attributed to the Divine Madman for his skill in warding off evil deities using ribald sexuality and outrageous behavior. You will also have opportunity to see farmers at work in their rice fields. 

Dinner and overnight at Hotel

- After breakfast visit Trongsa Dzong and its imposing watchtower. Today, Trongsa Dzong represents Bhutan's link with its historical monarchy, since it was here that the first hereditary monarch of Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuk, was enthroned in 1907. This is also the investiture site for future kings ascending the Golden Throne of Bhutan. You can see its remarkable succession of street-like corridors, wide stone stairs and beautiful stone court-yards. Trongsa Dzong represents the very best opportunity to capture the true essence of Bhutanese monastic and parliamentary architecture. Here, 25 lhakhangs (small temples, among which is the oldest lhakhang in Bhutan--the Chorten Lhakhang, built by Yongzin Ngagi Wangchuk in 1543) houses sacred images and religious relics. Intricate wood carvings and beautiful frescos are emblazoned on the walls and pillars. 

- After lunch, leave Trongsa and head to Jakar in the central district of  Bumthang, a 4-5 hour drive to the east. On the way, you will go over Yotongla Pass and get your first glimpse of the Black Mountains. This drive between Trongsa and Bumthang is the most scenic one as you cross rivers and streams and pass a chorten with water-driven prayer wheels and colorful rock carvings.

Overnight at Bumthang: Hotel in Jakar village

Another full day at the Ura festival, photographing the masked dances and the cultural scenes. You are welcome to enter the temple, roam the adjacent village.

- Late afternoon drive to Shingkar Village for more interaction with villagers in their homes. The “cluster village” of Shingkhar is about 10 kms from Ura by way of a gravel and stone road. There are two temples in Shingkhar--the one opposite the guest house is the older one and is called the "Shingkhar Lhakhang," with the other temple a short walk down the hill in the heart of the village. The Patron Saint of both temples is Longchen Rabjampa who established Shingkhar village when he discovered a small hut inside a tree. The word "Shing" means wood or tree and "Khar" means small house or hut.

- After dinner, sit around a bonfire and exchange cultural experience with villagers and guide over butter tea and Ara,(native alcoholic drink).   

Dinner and overnight: Hotel

After a hearty breakfast drive to embark on a wonderful nature trek to Nganglhakhang. Today you will hike for approximate five hours passing though villages, fields and forests and also crossing over suspension bridges. The trek route follows the Chamkhar River. Here the trout are plentiful! En route you will visit Thangbi Lhakhang before entering "Swan Land" (Ngang Yul). It’s believed that Swans first inhabited this part of the valley. Overnight camp 9,500 ft (2,800M).

Today’s trek will pass Ugyenchholing in the beautiful Tang Valley. You will visit the Ugyenchholing Palace, now housing the Family Museum, a place that will transport you to another world and time. You will view permanent exhibits recreated to capture the ambience of the lifestyle of the Trongsa Penelop (Governor) Tshokey Dorji and his household. Bhutan's history unfolds. Continuing from Ugyenchholing, you  reach the Rimochen Lhakhang, a temple dedicated to Guru Rimpoche, the Patron Saint of Bhutan. This is the last point in the trek route from where you drive on through Pangshing village to Jakar, Bumthang, stopping to visit farm house on the way. Overnight in a guest house to unwind from the trek over a sumptuous dinner and Ara!

After breakfast, you complete the return drive to Thimphu arriving for lunch at Hotel. After lunch, visit Zorig Chuksum, the School for Thirteen Arts and Crafts. This institute was established in 1971 and students from across Bhutan come to learn the traditional arts and crafts. 

In the afternoon you are free to roam the streets of Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital and largest city with 45,000 residents. By western standards and compared to other Bhutanese centers of commerce, Thimphu is the only center that rates being called a city. There are no traffic lights here--one was installed and quickly removed after citizens complained--but there are two traffic huts in the center of the main road that provide shade for white-gloved policemen who wave their arms in slow motion, reminiscent of tai chi. Small shops line the street, mostly catering to the locals. There are a few “tourist shops” but you must seek them out. Enjoy the time to yourself.

Dinner and overnight: Hotel.