Jakar

Bumthang is where Bhutanese Buddhism has its deepest roots, and Jakar grew up among its temples rather than the other way round. Jambay Lhakhang is traditionally counted among the temples founded in the 7th century by the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, and in the 8th century Guru Rinpoche is said to have been invited to the valley by a local ruler, the Sindhu Raja, to cure him and subdue a hostile deity; Kurjey Lhakhang was later built around the rock bearing his body imprint. In 1450 the treasure-revealer Pema Lingpa was born in the valley, founded Tamshing in 1501, and recovered hidden texts at Membartsho, and several noble families, including the royal house, trace descent from him.

The town's name comes from its dzong. Jakar Dzong, the "castle of the white bird", was built in 1549 by the Tibetan lama Ngagi Wangchuk, on the site of an earlier temple, and it remains the district's administrative and monastic seat. Below it, Jigme Namgyal, the Trongsa Penlop known as the Black Ruler, built the Wangdicholing palace in the 1850s; his son Ugyen Wangchuck was born there and was crowned the first king of Bhutan in 1907.

The modern town is much newer. The lateral road reached Bumthang in the 1970s, bringing shops and lodges to Chamkhar, and Swiss development work introduced cheese-making, brewing and farm machinery that still mark the valley. Bathpalathang airfield opened in 2011, cutting a day of mountain driving, and tourism now sits alongside farming as the valley's other source of cash.

Bumthang's sense of itself is religious. The valleys hold a density of temples and sacred sites found nowhere else in the country, many of them tied to Guru Rinpoche or to Pema Lingpa, and pilgrimage is an ordinary part of life rather than an occasion. The Jambay Lhakhang Drup in autumn is the most famous gathering, with days of masked dance and, at night, dances by firelight, watched by a crowd that has come from across the district.

The valley has its own language, Bumthangkha, distinct from Dzongkha, and its own craft in yathra: thick wool cloth woven in bright geometric bands and made into jackets, blankets and floor rugs, sold from workshops along the valley. Houses are built of rammed earth with shingled or metal roofs and heavy timber window frames, and in autumn roofs and balconies are covered with drying chillies.

Manners follow the Bhutanese norm — national dress at offices and temples, the kabney or rachu scarf in the dzong, modest behaviour before monks — but the pace is slower than in the west. People know each other; hospitality is offered readily, usually with butter tea and a plate of puffed rice or cheese; and the Swiss connection has left a small but visible tradition of dairy work, honey and apple growing that residents take some pride in.

Bumthang district is thinly populated, and Jakar, with its bazaar at Chamkhar, is the only place that functions as a town: shops, a hospital, schools, government offices, the bank and lodges along one street, with a handful of side lanes. Everyone else lives in farmhouses scattered across the four valleys of Chokhor, Chhume, Tang and Ura.

Farming is cold-climate work. Buckwheat is the traditional staple, with barley, wheat, potatoes, turnips and apples on the valley floors, and yaks and sheep grazed on higher ground. Dairying is unusually important here: milk becomes butter, soft datshi cheese and firmer Swiss-style cheeses, and honey and apple juice are processed locally. Weaving yathra brings winter income to households in Chhume in particular.

Days start early and end early. Business is done in the morning; the street empties by evening and the valley is dark and very quiet. Tourism has added drivers, guides and lodge staff to the local economy, mostly in the autumn and spring seasons. The concerns are those of rural Bhutan — young people leaving for Thimphu, Australia or the Gulf, the cost of transport over the passes, and the slow arrival of services in the higher valleys.

Bumthang eats buckwheat where the rest of Bhutan eats rice. Puta, buckwheat noodles pressed through a wooden press and served with butter, chilli and often egg, is the valley's signature dish, and khule, thin buckwheat pancakes eaten with cheese or stewed vegetables, is the everyday version. Both are served with ema datshi, whole chillies simmered with soft cheese, which appears at almost every meal, and with potatoes and turnips cooked with dried beef or pork.

Dairy is the valley's pride. Soft datshi is made in most households, chugo — hard dried cheese sold in strings and chewed for hours — comes from yak milk, and the cheese workshop set up with Swiss help produces firm mountain cheeses unusual in the region. Bumthang honey, apple juice and jam are sold in the town's shops, and a small brewery in the valley makes beer.

Butter tea, suja, is drunk through the day, usually with puffed rice; sweet milk tea is the other standard. Ara, the home-distilled grain spirit, is offered to guests and at festivals, sometimes warmed with butter and egg. Restaurants are concentrated in Chamkhar and in the lodges, where a buffet of red rice, ema datshi, a meat dish and vegetables is the usual form, with buckwheat dishes added as the local speciality.