Thimphu Tshechu Festival Tour

We meet you at the airport and drive to Thimphu. The town is busy on the eve of the festival, with families arriving from the villages. We visit the Buddha Dordenma and the National Memorial Chorten and have an early dinner.

We go to Tashichho Dzong early to find a good place on the steps around the festival ground. The dances follow one another through the day. Among them are the Dance of the Four Stags, the Black Hat dance with its drums, and the story of the stag and the hounds.

Dress as you would for a formal occasion: long sleeves, and trousers or a long skirt. Your guide will be in national dress, with the ceremonial scarf that every Bhutanese wears to enter a dzong.

We spend the morning away from the crowds, at the National Institute for Zorig Chusum, the Textile Museum and the Takin Preserve. In the afternoon you can go back to the dzong for more of the dances or walk through the town, which is at its liveliest during the festival.

We return to the dzong for the final morning of dances. After an early lunch we drive over Dochu La, where October usually brings the clearest views of the year, and down to Punakha in time for an evening walk by the river.

We visit Punakha Dzong when it opens and walk to Chimi Lhakhang through fields of ripening rice. After lunch we drive up to Phobjikha. If the Gangtey Tshechu is under way we go straight to the monastery courtyard, where the dancers perform for an audience of valley farmers and their children.

We spend the first part of the morning at Gangtey Goenpa or on the nature trail across the valley, as you prefer, and then begin the drive to Paro. It is the longest day of the trip, broken by lunch on the road and tea at Dochu La.

We walk up to Taktsang in the morning. In autumn the air is dry and the monastery stands out sharply against the cliff. After lunch we visit Kyichu Lhakhang and Rinpung Dzong.

Your guide and driver take you to the airport after breakfast.