Bumthang & Central Bhutan

Bumthang is where Bhutanese Buddhism has its oldest roots. Jambay Lhakhang is traditionally one of the 108 temples founded in the 7th century by the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, and in the 8th century Guru Rinpoche is said to have come to Bumthang at the invitation of a local ruler, the Sindhu Raja, subdued a hostile deity and left the imprint of his body in the rock at Kurjey. In 1450 the saint and treasure-revealer Pema Lingpa was born in Bumthang; he recovered religious texts and objects at Membartsho and founded Tamshing Lhakhang in 1501, and several of Bhutan's noble lines, including the royal family, trace descent from him.

Trongsa rose in the 17th century when the Zhabdrung's government built a dzong there, controlling the only road between east and west. Its governors, the Trongsa Penlops, became the most powerful men in the country. In the 19th century Jigme Namgyal, the Penlop known as the Black Ruler, fought the British in the Duar War and became Druk Desi, and his son Ugyen Wangchuck, also Penlop of Trongsa, was chosen as the first hereditary king in 1907. Ugyen Wangchuck was born at Bumthang's Wangdicholing Palace, and each crown prince still becomes Penlop of Trongsa before taking the throne.

The southern districts of Sarpang, Tsirang and Dagana were settled largely by Nepali-speaking farmers, and were at the centre of the unrest and departures of the early 1990s. Gelephu, on the Indian border, was chosen in 2023 as the site of a planned special economic zone, Gelephu Mindfulness City.

Bumthang has its own language, Bumthangkha, and a sense of being Bhutan's religious core, with dozens of temples in a small area and families linked to Pema Lingpa's lineage. Its best-known festival is the Jambay Lhakhang Drup, held over five days each autumn in the temple courtyard in honour of Guru Rinpoche, who is said to have consecrated the temple.

Bumthang is known for weaving yathra, thick woollen cloth in bright geometric patterns made into jackets, blankets and scarves.

Further south, the Khengpa people of Zhemgang speak Khengkha, a language close to Bumthangkha, and are devout followers of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Sarpang, Tsirang and Dagana are home to Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa communities, largely Hindu, who celebrate Dashain and Tihar. Trongsa's tsechu in winter and the royal associations of its dzong make it a place of national ceremony; the five-day festival is held in the dzong's northern courtyard in December or January.

Central Bhutan is thinly populated. Jakar, Bumthang's main town, is a small bazaar of a few thousand people with shops, schools, a hospital and hotels. Trongsa is even smaller, strung along the road above its dzong. Gelephu, in Sarpang, is the region's largest town and a trading post facing Assam, and it is expected to grow if the planned special economic zone takes shape.

Bumthang's farmers grow buckwheat, barley, potatoes and apples in cold valleys. Yaks and sheep are herded in the higher pastures, and dairy farming and honey add to farm incomes. The valleys are also home to many monasteries.

Zhemgang has scattered villages reached by long roads, and the lowland districts of Tsirang and Dagana grow oranges, cardamom, rice and vegetables. Across the region, young people move to Thimphu or abroad, and new roads and hydropower projects are changing remote valleys.

Bumthang is buckwheat country, and its best-known dishes come from it. Puta are buckwheat noodles, often served with butter and chilli, and buckwheat also goes into dumplings and porridge-like dishes eaten with ema datshi, the chilli-and-cheese stew. Potatoes and turnips, often cooked with dried pork or beef, are the other staples of the cold valleys.

Bumthang's farms also produce wheat, dairy goods, honey and apples. As elsewhere in Bhutan, most milk is turned into butter and cheese, including soft datshi and hard, dried chugo.

In the south, the Lhotshampa kitchen follows Nepali patterns, with rice, lentils, vegetable curries and sel roti at festivals, and the lowlands produce oranges, cardamom and ginger. Across the region, butter tea (suja) and homemade ara are the traditional drinks, and villagers dry chillies on their rooftops in autumn.

Bumthang's valleys hold the greatest concentration of old temples in Bhutan. In the Choekhor valley around Jakar are Jakar Dzong on its ridge, Jambay Lhakhang, Kurjey Lhakhang, Tamshing Lhakhang with its old wall paintings, and the Wangdicholing Palace. The Tang valley has Membartsho, the Burning Lake; and Ura, over a high pass to the east, is a village of stone houses and cobbled lanes.

Trongsa Dzong, the largest dzong in Bhutan, sits above the gorge of the Mangde Chhu, and the Ta Dzong watchtower above it houses a museum. The road over the Pele La crosses dwarf bamboo and rhododendron forest in the Black Mountains, part of Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park, before descending past Chendebji Chorten, a stupa in the Nepali style, to Trongsa. The Yotong La then leads on to Bumthang.

In the south, Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan's oldest protected area, adjoins India's Manas National Park across the border and protects tropical forest and grasslands with tigers, elephants, rhinos and the golden langur. Gelephu is the southern entry point.