Running from Haa in the west to Trashigang, over four hundred kilometres to the east, the Trans Bhutan Trail is an epic month-long hike across the breadth of Bhutan. Anyone who walks it will climb the vertical equivalent of over 20 kilometres and descend an almost equal amount. Along the way the trail dips in and out of valleys, rises over wind blasted mountain passes, creeps through shadowy pine and deciduous forests, rambles along yak pastures and passes an almost unknowable number of monasteries, shrines and other holy spots as well as numerous towns, villages, farmsteads and even the edge of the capital itself.
To complete the trail as one single through hike takes huge physical commitment and the luxury of having several weeks holiday time available. This means that, since the launch of the trail in late 2022, only around twenty foreign visitors have completed the entirety of the Trans Bhutan Trail in one fell swoop. But, the beauty of the Trans Bhutan Trail is that it’s highly customisable which means that you don’t have to commit to an entire month of shouldering a backpack up and down mountain slopes. Instead, you can simply slot a day or several days into your overall Bhutan travel itinerary. So making your Trans Bhutan experience is easy or hard as you wish.
But, how to choose which sections are right for you. To help you decide we sat down with Tshering Dolkar, the Executive Director of the Trans Bhutan Trail, to get her thoughts on the best bits of the trail.
Why should a tourist hike the Trans Bhutan Trail?
For a start you get to really immerse yourself in nature, but maybe more importantly you also get to immerse yourself in Bhutanese culture. You really get the opportunity to interact with local communities. This makes walking the Trans Bhutan Trail a very immersive experience. On a trail deeper into the high mountains you wouldn’t get that immersive, cultural experience as much because there aren’t very many people up there. For reasons of scenery, cultural and historic interest and meeting local people, the Trans Bhutan Trail just has a lot charm.
Do many people walk it as a through hike and do you know what motivates them to do this?
Certain sections of the trail are walked more by tourists than others. Of course, the west and the centre is much more popular than the east for people who are just walking a few days because that’s where all the most famous attractions are. We have had a few people who have done it as a through hike. It’s a very challenging thing to do though. Add together all the elevation gain and loss over the course of the trail and it would be like climbing Everest a couple of times! It's hard to really keep track of how many people have hiked the entire trail because it’s a free to access trail so there’s no real official figures. That said, we know that at least twenty have done it as a through hike. The number is increasing every year. Whether doing it as a through hike or just walking a short part, everyone does it for their own reasons. One of the very first foreign tourists we had who did the entire trail was going through a period of transformation in his life and we have since found that many through hikers are doing it for similar reasons. For others though it’s just for the challenge.
You must know the trail inside out. Can you tell us which your favourite stage is please and your fondest memory from the trail?
Picking my absolute favourite stage is really difficult. I love the very end of the trail. It ends right in the dzong of Trashigang. Entering into such a majestic structure seems like a real validation for all the hard work. I also really like the section through Bumthang. My one special memory? I think that it was during one of my first times on the Trans Bhutan Trail. Just outside a village near Trongsa I met a lady who had just finished milking her cow. We walked down to the village together talking. When I left her she gave me a bottle of milk and said, ‘You know what I really like you. I’m going to make you my sister’. That was a special moment.
More specifically if someone only had time to walk a stage and two and their interest was wildlife then what sections would you say are best for the birds and the beasts?
In the east, near Mongar, there’s some really good birding sites so birdwatchers will like that section. In the centre, near Trongsa, is tiger habitat. You pass through national parks where, along with the tiger, there’s a lot of endangered species like the red panda. When we first launched the trail, we brought young people from each district in Bhutan to walk the whole trail. The young are the future of Bhutan so we wanted them to walk it after the present generation had restored it. Anyway, it was supposed to take 35 days in total, but we had to take a day off because as we got near to Trongsa there had been so many tiger sightings that we felt it wasn’t safe for us to walk it straight afterwards! The path goes through a lot of biological corridors so really throughout the trail you can see a lot of interesting wildlife and beautiful flowers and trees.
A side note from the interviewer here: When we walked from Chumey down to Jakar we noticed many wildlife camera traps strapped to trees. When we happened meet a forest ranger we asked him about the cameras and what they’d recorded. Among other things they had discovered several leopards living in this forest and at least two tigers. It was, frankly, something of a relief that we found this out just as we finished our days hiking rather than at the start…
And what about if you want a short, but challenging bit of trail?
If you want to challenge yourself then the trail that leads in and out of Thimpu is one of the hardest and highest parts of the trail. It’s a big climb up and down. On the way into Thimpu you pass right by one of the largest seated Buddha statues in the world and there are superb views of Thimpu from there. Then, climbing east back out of the Thimpu valley, to the Dochula pass, you cross beautiful rivers and forests to arrive at the 108 stupas at the Dochula. If you only want to do one shorter stage though then drive really early to the Dochula to catch a stunning sunrise and then hike steep downhill towards Punakha into a valley that at its base is sub-tropical. You start in an Alpine zone and finish in an area where tropical fruits are grown! That shows all the variety of Bhutan in one walk. If you’re lucky when you get to the Dochula it will be clear and you can see the entire Bhutanese Himalayan mountain range. It’s also a historic bit of trail because each spring and autumn the monastic body would walk it to get between Thimpu and Punakha. Winters are spent in Punakha where it’s warmer. Today though the monks drive rather than walk. If you drive along the road between Dolchula and Punakha then the scenery is good, but if you walk then you’re on the other side of the mountain and it’s just wonderful walking through the shaded pine trees and with the views into the valley.
Talking of scenery. Which bit of trail do you consider to have the single best scenery?
Oh my goodness! That’s hard. Can I have a couple of choices? Okay, okay if I had to just choose just one part of the trail then it would be the moment where the Trans Bhutan Trail crosses the Pele La and starts to drop down towards Trongsa, a former capital. When I stood on the pass I could feel the energy of the place. I looked down the steep valley and could imagine warriors from long ago marching towards Trongsa. It’s beautiful there. It’s also a part anyone can hike. It’s quite gentle climbing up to it and there are yak pastures and flowers and, when it’s clear, there are views over giant snow capped mountains. It’s so beautiful.
You mentioned the sense of history. Can you tell us the some of the key temples and monasteries that might be passed along the trail?
There are so many, but perhaps the most important actually on the trail is the Burning Lake at the entrance to the Bumthang Valley. This is where Guru Rinpoche is said to have hidden some religious treasures in the water and there’s a lot of magic about the place. From there the trail goes up the valley a bit past the new nunnery. It’s a lovely bit of trail and there’s a lot of legends and myths based around that area. But almost all the way along the trail you can just walk a few hundred metres off the main trail to arrive at a community temple or a monastery. Some of them get very few foreign visitors and people will make you welcome. And they all seem to have great stories associated with them. That’s the good thing about the trail. You can kind of customise it as you wish. If you do the entire trail, you will see a huge difference between the development of the west and the east. I also think that in the east the Bhutanese culture remains much stronger than in the more developed west.
