Remote & eastern Bhutan
Mongar
Over the highest pass into the east.
Overview
Mongar is where the east begins. The road from Bumthang climbs to the Thrumshing La at 3,780 metres and then drops almost three vertical kilometres through cloud forest, waterfalls and orchid-hung cliffs to the Kuri Chhu, one of the most spectacular road journeys in the Himalaya. Mongar town sits on a ridge above the valley at around 1,600 metres, warm and lemon-scented.
The district is the home of the Dramitse Ngacham, the drum dance recognised by UNESCO, and of a dzong that was rebuilt in the 1950s entirely by hand, without drawings or nails, in the traditional way. Its hillsides are stepped with maize and citrus, and the villages speak Sharchopkha and Kurtoep.
Mongar is the halfway house between Bumthang and Trashigang, and we give it a night: the drive deserves to be done in daylight, and the town is a gentle introduction to the slower, warmer east.
- Altitude
- 1,600 m
- From Paro
- About two days by road via Bumthang and the Thrumshing La (3,780 m).
- Best months
- October, November, December, March, April
- Region
- Remote & eastern Bhutan
Best time to visit
Four seasons, two of them famous.
Spring and autumn are peak. Monsoon is green and quiet. Winter is cold, clear and empty.
Spring
March to May
Orchids and magnolia in the Thrumshing La forest, warm days in the valley. A fine time to drive the pass; the Mongar Tshechu falls in late autumn, not spring.
Monsoon
June to August
Heavy rain, cloud and the risk of landslides on the pass road. The east is best left for drier months.
Autumn
September to November
Clear views from the Thrumshing La, harvest in the terraces and the Mongar Tshechu in November. Peak season for the road east.
Winter
December to February
Mild and sunny in Mongar itself; the pass can hold snow for a day or two after a storm. Good travelling weather on the whole.
Highlights
What Mongar does better than anywhere.
The Thrumshing La road
From alpine fir at the pass through a kilometre of rhododendron, then into subtropical forest hanging with moss and orchids, with Namling waterfall crashing beside the road. Six hours you will not forget.
Dramitse and the drum dance
The Ngacham of Dramitse, a sixteenth-century masked drum dance, is on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage. The monastery is a two-hour detour above the Trashigang road and worth every bend.
Lhuentse and the royal weavers
A long day north up the Kuri Chhu reaches Lhuentse, ancestral home of the royal family and source of the finest kishuthara weaving in the kingdom. For travellers who want the farthest corner.
Dzongs & temples
Whitewashed walls, red roofs, and the people still inside them.
Mongar Dzong
One of the youngest dzongs in Bhutan, built in the 1930s and rebuilt in 1953 by traditional methods, without plans or nails, after the earlier fortress at Zhongar fell. Smaller and simpler than the great western dzongs, with a working monastic community and a quiet courtyard.
Long sleeves and trousers in the dzong; no photography inside shrine rooms.
Dramitse Lhakhang
Founded in the sixteenth century by Ani Choeten Zangmo, a descendant of Pema Lingpa, on a ridge with views across half the east. The monastery is the home of the Dramitse Ngacham drum dance, performed at its own festival each autumn.
Long sleeves and trousers in the dzong; no photography inside shrine rooms.
Journeys
Journeys that pass through Mongar.
Questions
Before you go.
Because the drive from Bumthang is long and the descent from the Thrumshing La is one of the great road journeys in the Himalaya. A night in Mongar breaks the journey east and lets you do it in daylight.
It is paved and driven daily by our partner's drivers, but it is narrow and the monsoon brings landslides. We avoid it from June to August and travel in the morning the rest of the year.
Yes. A licensed guide is required for all travel outside Thimphu and Paro, and in the east, where few people speak English and the roads are long, a good one is the whole journey. Verify against https://www.bhutan.travel before launch.
Verify against bhutan.travel before travelling. Fees verified as of 2026-10-14.
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