A hillside monastery and stupa beneath snow peaks, a place of retreat

Wellness · Stillness

Meditation and monastery stays

Learn to sit still in a country that has practised it for twelve centuries.

Bhutan has been a place of retreat since Guru Rinpoche meditated in the cave at Taktsang. Hermitages dot the ridgelines above every valley, and the monks and nuns who live in them keep a rhythm of prayer that has not changed in generations. You are welcome to sit alongside it for a while.

We arrange guided meditation with a lama or a trained lay teacher, at a lodge, a hillside goemba or a nunnery above Thimphu, with instruction simple enough for a beginner and deep enough for a practitioner. Sessions are in English, unhurried and never performative.

For those who want more, a few nights in a guesthouse beside a monastery brings the day into focus: morning puja at five, butter tea, a walk, a long afternoon of silence. Nothing is required of you except to be there.

The ritual

How it unfolds.

01
Arrive before the morning prayers and take a cushion at the back of the shrine hall.
02
Thirty minutes of guided breath and shamatha practice with your teacher, then a short teaching.
03
A quiet walk, kora, around the temple with the prayer wheels on your right.
04
Butter tea and conversation with the monks, or silence if you prefer it.