Things to do
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Burning Lake
A deep green pool in a river gorge, hung with prayer flags and small clay offerings, marks where Pema Lingpa is said to have dived holding a lamp and surfaced with a treasure chest and the flame still burning. Steps lead down from the road into the Tang valley. Rock turns slick near the water, and the visit is short.
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Jakar Dzong
Perched on a spur above the valley, the fortress of the white bird takes its name from a roosting that chose the spot for its builders in the sixteenth century. A long covered stairway once carried water up from a spring. District offices and monks share it now, and the walls give the clearest overview of the valley floor.
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Jambay Lhakhang
Butter lamps burn all day in the dim assembly hall of a temple attributed to a seventh century Tibetan king, one of the pair he is said to have founded in Bhutan. Each autumn the courtyard fills for a fire ceremony and a naked dance held around midnight. Cold is severe at that hour, and the valley books out.
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Kurjey Lhakhang
Three temples stand in a walled compound around the cave where Guru Rinpoche left a body print in the rock, the earliest of them raised in the seventeenth century over that stone. A cypress said to have grown from his staff stands behind. Kings of the dynasty are cremated nearby, and the compound stays quiet outside festival days.
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Tamshing Lhakhang
Pema Lingpa, the treasure revealer of this valley, founded the monastery in 1501 and painted some of the murals himself, which makes them among the older wall paintings surviving in the country. Pilgrims lift a coat of iron chain mail he forged and carry it around the hall three times as penance. Photography inside is restricted, and the light is dim.