Home / Bhutan / Bumthang Valley

Spiritual heartland · Bhutan

Bumthang Valley

Bhutan's sacred central valleys — ancient temples, buckwheat fields, and the road to the wild east.

Getting there

~3 hr drive (or short flight) east of Phobjikha, over high passes

Best for

Bhutan's oldest temples, valley walks, central-Bhutan birding, gateway east

The land

Four high valleys around ~2,600 m, patched with buckwheat and pine

Good to know

Bumthang is Bhutan's religious heartland — the density of sacred sites is the highest in the country

What it is

Bumthang is the spiritual core of Bhutan — four broad valleys thick with the country's oldest and holiest temples.

Remote and atmospheric, Bumthang holds Jambay and Kurjey Lhakhang, Jakar Dzong and the sacred Burning Lake. It is also the threshold of the wilder east — the last comfortable valley before the long birding road toward Yongkola, with good temperate-forest birds of its own.

PhotoBumthang Valley — spiritual heartland.

The reason to come

The sacred valleys

Bumthang combines Bhutan's deepest religious history with quiet valley walking and the start of the eastern wilds.

Ancient temples

Jambay Lhakhang and Kurjey Lhakhang, among the oldest in the land.

Jakar Dzong

The 'castle of the white bird' above the main valley.

Valley walks

Between temples through buckwheat fields and pine, with forest birds.

Worth knowing

The threshold of the east

Bumthang is the last of the easy valleys — beyond it the road drops into the subtropical forests that make Bhutan a birding legend.

PhotoA temple and buckwheat fields in the Bumthang valley.

When to come — honestly

Spring and autumn are best.

March – May

Best

Spring birding and blossom; comfortable valley walking.

September – November

Best

Clear autumn air and the famous Bumthang tsechu festivals.

December – February

Good

Cold and quiet; deep-winter snow can close the high passes east.

Bumthang sits behind high passes that can close in heavy winter snow — timing matters if you continue east.

Context

Heartland and gateway

Bumthang holds Bhutan's densest concentration of sacred sites and a strong sense of the old kingdom.

On longer journeys it is the pivot between the cultural west and the birding east.

We use Bumthang for its temples and as the staging post for the eastern birding circuit.

Beyond the obvious

More to Bumthang Valley.

PhotoTemple circuit

Temple circuit

Jambay, Kurjey and the Burning Lake.

PhotoJakar Dzong

Jakar Dzong

The fortress over the valley.

PhotoForest birding

Forest birding

Temperate-zone birds on the valley edges.

Why Wild Voyager

We make Bhutan's red tape vanish.

Bhutan must be travelled with a licensed operator — we handle the Sustainable Development Fee, the permits and the best naturalist guides, so all you do is travel.