Preparing
LoadingPreparing
LoadingThe principal Bhutanese places
Bhutan is geography first — six principal valleys across the western and central circuits, twenty dzongkhags, several thousand metres of high pass between them, and the sacred peaks at the country's northern boundary. Below: the principal places in turn.
Featured
dzongkhag · Paro · 2,250 m
Paro is Bhutan's primary point of arrival, the country's only international airport, and the valley around which most first-time visitor itineraries are anchored. Home to Paro Taktsang (the Tiger's Nest) — Guru Rinpoche's most famous meditation site, and the image most strongly associated with Bhutan in the wider world. To arrive in Bhutan is, in nearly every case, to arrive in Paro, and to find the country composed in its very first valley with a kind of quiet completeness.
dzongkhag · Thimphu · 2,320 m
Thimphu is Bhutan's capital and the country's only city of any meaningful scale — the seat of the Royal Government, the Zhung Dratshang (the central monk body) in summer, the National Assembly, and the principal civic-cultural institutions. The city sits in the Wang Chhu valley at approximately 2,320 metres, an hour's drive from Paro. For a country its size, Thimphu carries an unusual register of unhurried civic life.
dzongkhag · Punakha · 1,200 m
Punakha is Bhutan's historical winter capital — the seat of the Royal Government and the Zhung Dratshang during the cold months from the 17th century until 1955, and the warmest of the major Bhutanese valleys at approximately 1,200 metres. The Punakha Dzong, at the confluence of the Mo Chhu and Pho Chhu rivers, is widely considered the country's most beautiful dzong. The jacaranda flowering in spring and the mild winter climate give the valley a distinct atmospheric register.
valley · Wangdue Phodrang · 2,900 m
Phobjikha is a broad U-shaped glacial valley in the central Black Mountains at approximately 2,900 metres — one of the principal protected valleys in Bhutan and the wintering ground for several hundred black-necked cranes that arrive from the Tibetan plateau each late October. The valley is famously quiet: no overhead electric lines (buried underground to protect the crane flight paths), a small farming population, the high-altitude clarity, and a stillness that has no equivalent in the broader Himalayan region.
region · Bumthang · 2,600 m
Bumthang is Bhutan's spiritual heartland — the four central valleys (Choekhor, Tang, Chumey, Ura) at approximately 2,600-3,200 metres, containing the country's most concentrated single area of important Buddhist sites and the seat of the Pema Lingpa treasure-revealer tradition. The dzongkhag carries the densest cultural-religious content per square kilometre of any region in Bhutan; for visitors with serious cultural-religious interest, Bumthang is the destination.
dzongkhag · Trongsa · 2,200 m
Trongsa sits on the central transverse spur between western and eastern Bhutan — the natural east-west road passes through here, and the strategic position made Trongsa Dzong the principal political seat from the 17th century onward. Trongsa Penlop (governor of Trongsa) was the most powerful provincial title in the country; His Majesty Ugyen Wangchuck, the first King of Bhutan, was Trongsa Penlop before his coronation in 1907. The dzongkhag remains the ancestral home of the Wangchuck royal dynasty.
All places — alphabetical