Five days of practice with the lamas of the capital — morning kora at the Tango Chorten, teachings at Thrangu Tashi Choling, and instruction from a resident teacher.
Highlights
Kora at the Tango Chorten, the largest memorial chorten in the world
Two days of teaching at Thrangu Tashi Choling monastery
Drukpa Kunley heritage house and the history of the Kagyu school
Closing puja and a blessing from a resident lama
What is included
Licensed guide and a resident meditation teacher
Private vehicle and driver for all five days
Four nights in a Thimphu hotel and a monastery guest house
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners, vegetarian on retreat days
All permits, SDF and entry fees
Two days of guided retreat with instruction in English
Airport transfers and a closing puja attendance
Day-by-day itinerary
Day 1 — Arrival in the valley Paro to Thimphu, and an afternoon to settle into a capital that is easier to walk than most. Before dinner your teacher, a lama from the Thimphu lineage you will be studying with, comes to the hotel to meet the group and explain the shape of the next four days. No chanting on day one and no pressur…
Day 2 — Kora at the Tango Chorten Awake at five for the walk up to the Tango Chorten, a 15th-century stupa on the hillside west of the city, which is the largest kora in Thimphu and the one the capital's residents actually walk. The circuit is anticlockwise by convention, and there is no conversation. Around a hundred people go rou…
Day 3 — Thrangu Tashi Choling A full day at the Thrangu Tashi Choling monastery above the city, founded in the 1990s specifically as a place for laypeople to study. You join the monks' morning practice, sit through teaching sessions on the lamrim, and spend the afternoon in small group instruction with a resident teacher. The l…
Day 4 — Sangye Chentro and the hermitages The teaching valley day. Sangye Chentro Lhakhang, the blessing place in the valley north of Thimphu, where butter lamps have been kept lit for two centuries, followed by the walk up to the Cheri Drakpo hermitage above it, whose path is cut into the cliff and passes a hundred and six chortens. After…
Day 5 — Closing practice and departure A final morning session and a dedication of practice rather than a certificate of completion, which is how it works in a tradition without either. Breakfast, then a slow walk through the craft quarter if you have time, and the drive to Paro.