Bumthang is the collective name for four valleys in central Bhutan — Chokhor, Tang, Ura and Chhume — and it holds a greater concentration of ancient temples than anywhere else in the country. If Paro is where you arrive and Thimphu is where the state lives, Bumthang is where Bhutanese Buddhism is oldest.
Kurjey Lhakhang
Kurjey Lhakhang is built around a cave containing the body imprint of Guru Rinpoche, left when he meditated here in the eighth century — kurjey means 'body print'. Three temples now stand in a row, built in 1652, 1900 and 1984, which makes the complex a visible timeline of Bhutanese religious architecture. A large cypress behind is said to have grown from the Guru's walking stick.
Jambay Lhakhang
Jambay Lhakhang is, with Kyichu in Paro, one of the two temples traditionally attributed to the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century — among the oldest buildings in the country. Its autumn festival, Jambay Lhakhang Drup, includes the mewang fire ritual and a naked midnight dance performed to bless childless couples, and remains one of the least touristic of the major festivals.
Jakar Dzong and the valleys
Jakar Dzong, the 'castle of the white bird', sits on a ridge above Chokhor valley and is the administrative centre. Below it, Chamkhar town is a single street where much of central Bhutan does its shopping.
The Tang valley is remoter and holds Ogyen Choling, a manor house converted into an excellent private museum of aristocratic and rural life. Ura, the highest of the four at around 3,100 metres, is a tight cluster of shingled houses that looks unchanged, and its Yakchoe festival in spring is small and local. Membartsho, the 'burning lake' — actually a pool in a gorge — is where the treasure-revealer Pema Lingpa is said to have dived in holding a lamp and emerged with it still burning.
What grows here
Bumthang is too high for much rice, so buckwheat dominates, along with potatoes, apples and dairy. That produces a distinct local cuisine — buckwheat noodles and pancakes — and a small cluster of Swiss-influenced industries founded in the 1970s: a cheese dairy, honey production and the Red Panda brewery, the country's first, making an unfiltered wheat beer.
Getting there
Bumthang is roughly eight to ten hours by road from Thimphu, across several passes, or a short domestic flight to Bathpalathang airstrip. The drive is long but crosses Trongsa and the Pele La pass, and is one of the better road journeys in the Himalaya.