Central Bhutan

Central Bhutan holds some of the most significant historical and religious sites in the kingdom. Trongsa has always mattered politically: whoever held its dzong, commanding the country's midpoint, held Bhutan. The Bumthang valleys keep the most ancient temples and monasteries.

The landmarks are worth the drive east on their own. Kurje Lhakhang stands at the cave where Guru Rinpoche meditated in the eighth century. Tamshing Lhakhang was built in 1501 by Terton Pema Lingpa, the great religious treasure revealer, and Mebar Tsho, the Burning Lake, is the sacred pool from which he drew treasures hidden by Guru Rinpoche. On the road in, Chendebji Chorten watches the four cardinal directions with painted eyes; legend says it was built to pin down the remains of an evil spirit that had taken the form of a giant serpent. The Ta Dzong watchtower above Trongsa is now a museum of the monarchy, and the best single hour of Bhutanese political history you can spend.

Alongside the annual tshechus, the region keeps newer festivals of its own: the Nomad's Festival, and the Matsutake Mushroom Festival in Ura, timed to the mushroom harvest.

It is also a region of great natural wealth. Miles of pristine alpine and broadleaf forest hold Thrumshingla National Park, famous for its rare and endangered birds (the rufous-necked hornbill, Satyr tragopan, beautiful nuthatch, Ward's trogon and chestnut-breasted partridge among them), and for the Bengal tigers and red pandas that live in its forests.