Nine days in central Bhutan for a small courtyard festival and long village afternoons
Ura Tshechu happens in a village courtyard with no seating and no ticket office, which means a small crowd and a festival that still belongs to the valley. Getting there is a full day of driving, so we break the road at Trongsa and keep the return slow through Chumey and Tang. Two nights in Ura let you watch the dances in the morning and drink tea with the same families in the evening.
Festival travellers who prefer small village crowds to city tshechus
Meet at the airport and take the river road over Dochula into Punakha, arriving in time for a walk below the dzong before dinner.
Climb past yak pastures at Pele La and stop at Chendebji Chorten before the long descent to Trongsa, where the dzong fills the ridge above the gorge. Walk the town and sleep early.
Visit the royal watchtower museum in the morning, then cross Yotong La into Chumey where wool is dyed and woven into yathra cloth. The last hour climbs through fir forest to Ura and its stone houses.
Spend the morning with the masked dancers in the village courtyard and the afternoon walking the fields above the houses. Lunch is a packed one from the guesthouse, eaten wherever you find a wall out of the wind.
Return to the courtyard for the final morning of the festival, then drive down the valley to Jakar. Walk the riverside path between Jambay Lhakhang and Kurjey before dinner.
Drive up the quiet Tang valley to Ogyen Choling manor above the buckwheat fields, then walk the farm track below it. Return to Jakar for a second night so the long drive west starts fresh in the morning.
Retrace Yotong La and Pele La to turn into the wide Phobjikha bowl, where the air is cold and the sky is clear. Walk a short stretch of the Gangtey nature trail before supper beside a wood stove.
Visit Gangtey Goemba on its forested hilltop in the morning, then drive the long road west with a lunch stop at Wangdue. A Paro hotel bed on the last night keeps the airport run short and unhurried.
Breakfast and the short transfer to Paro airport.
Travel insurance strongly recommended: cover mountain medical care, altitude evacuation, and Paro weather flight delays. Read the travel insurance note
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