Jomolhari Mountain Festival

Dangochong is a village of stone houses at about 4,000 m in the valley of the Paro Chhu, half an hour below Jangothang, the camp at the foot of Jomolhari. The people here and in the neighbouring villages of Soe are yak herders. No road reaches them: the nearest is two days’ walk down the valley.

The festival is theirs. It was started in the early 2010s by the communities of Soe together with the national park they live in, Jigme Dorji National Park, to mark what they share the mountains with. Snow leopards hunt on these slopes and take the herders’ young yaks, and the festival was founded to turn that quarrel into something closer to pride.

What happens

For two days in the middle of October the villages gather on the open ground beneath the mountain. There are songs and dances made for the occasion, with the snow leopard as their subject, and the sports of the high country: horse riding, yak riding, archery and khuru, the game in which heavy darts are thrown at a small target a long way off. Women sell what they have woven from yak hair, and there is butter tea and dried cheese.

On the second day people walk up to the lakes and the glaciers under Jomolhari and its neighbour Jichu Drake. It is a festival held for the people of the valley, and trekkers who are there for it are made welcome.

How to see it

The only way in is on foot. Our Jomolhari Trek walks up the valley from the end of the road near Paro and reaches Jangothang on its third day, and we time it so that you arrive as the festival begins. The trek then goes on over the high passes to Thimphu.

Practical notes

• This is a trek with nights in tents at up to 4,000 m and passes close to 4,900 m beyond. You need to be fit, and to have walked at altitude before.
• In mid-October the days are clear and the nights are well below freezing.
• A trekking permit is needed for the national park. We arrange it.
• The festival dates are fixed, so the trek must start on a set day. Book early.