Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [154]
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ZORIG CHUSUM
This red-roofed institute ( 781141; fax 781149; 9am-noon & 1-3.30pm Mon-Fri, to 12.30pm Sat) was opened in June 1997 to provide opportunities in vocational training for those who do not continue in the system of higher education. The school strives to produce technically proficient craftspeople, while providing them with a basic educational foundation. Six of the Zorig Chusum (13 arts and crafts) are studied here, including thangka painting, sculpture, metalwork and woodcarving. You can visit the school, watch the 96 students at work and take photographs, though the selection of crafts for sale was disappointing during our recent visit. The students are on holiday from December to March and for two weeks in July.
Sleeping & Eating
Dzongkhag Guest House ( 781148; r Nu 300-500) If you have connections, you might be able to stay at this tin-roofed government guesthouse, just below the dzong and Royal Guest House (off-limits to visitors). All rooms have a bathroom but only half have hot water.
Karmaling Hotel and Bakery ( 781113; s/d Nu 600/800) With attached western bathrooms, a veranda and a bakery restaurant, this place could be nice if it weren’t for the hard beds and bare concrete walls.
Sonam Chhoden Hotel ( 781152; s/d Nu 120/160) This hotel has basic rooms and you can get a simple meal here, but don’t upset the owner – he’s the school’s tae kwan do instructor.
The Bomdeling Wildlife Sanctuary office (see below) has a couple of basic rooms in its guesthouse (r Nu 300-400), which you could use as a base to visit the sanctuary. Upper-floor rooms are the best. It’s also possible to camp near Chorten Kora.
Transport
Public buses run to Thimphu on Monday and Friday and to Trashigang on Wednesday and Saturday.
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AROUND TRASHI YANGTSE
Bomdeling Wildlife Sanctuary
Bomdeling is a two- to three-hour walk or a 13km 4WD drive north of Chorten Kora. It is the winter (November to early March) roosting place of a flock of black-necked cranes (Click here). The flock of 141 cranes, smaller than the flock in Phobjikha, returns here year after year, though the recent flooding of roosting habitat reduced crane numbers considerably in 2006. The sanctuary is also home to red pandas, tigers and snow leopards.
The visitor centre ( 781155; bws@druknet.bt; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri) in Trashi Yangtse has some good displays on the 1445-sq-km sanctuary and the manager can advise on hiking and camping options (in the central part of the sanctuary only). Apart from crane-watching, there are possible hikes up to the Buddhist sites of Rigsum Goempo, Dechen Phodrang and Minkhar Goemba.
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SAMDRUP JONGKHAR DZONGKHAG
The only reason to make the tortuous drive into southeastern Bhutan is to leave it, at the recently reopened border crossing with India at Samdrup Jongkhar.
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TRASHIGANG TO SAMDRUP JONGKHAR (180KM)
The winding drive from Trashigang to Samdrup Jongkhar takes at least six hours.
Trashigang to Kanglung
22km / 45 mins
Three kilometres from Trashigang bazaar the southern road turns off the Mongar road and climbs past the petrol station.
Climbing around a ridge and heading south the road passes the settlement of Pam. There are few houses near the road, but there is an extensive settlement and a lhakhang on the hillside above. The narrow unpaved road that leads uphill from here goes to Rangshikhar Goemba.
Descend into a side valley, cross a stream and climb through rice terraces to the prosperous farming community of Rongthung, 17km from Trashigang. The road then climbs to a ridge and enters Kanglung (1870m), where you can see the clock tower and extensive campus of Sherubtse College.
The late Father William Mackey, a Jesuit priest, was instrumental in setting up Sherubtse (Peak of Knowledge), Bhutan’s only college, in the late 1970s. India aided the construction of the original school in 1964 as part of the construction of the road from Trashigang to the Indian border.