The Remote 14th-Century Bhutanese Fortress Steeped in Buddhist Heritage
"Ogyen Choling is a perfect microcosm of Bhutan," Brent Olson, founder of tour provider Ethos Bhutan, told me over the phone as we discussed my plans for a two-week trip to the tiny, landlocked Himalayan nation last year. Because of the country’s remoteness, sandwiched between northeastern India and the Tibetan plateau, and a newly increased tourism fee—$200 a night for international visitors—it’s an expensive destination to visit. "If a friend was traveling to Bhutan and could visit only one or two places, I’d tell them to visit Ogyen Choling," continued Olson, who has been leading tours in Bhutan for more than 30 years, becoming an expert on the country’s cultural heritage through his expeditions and other projects with local organizations and nonprofits.
Ogyen Choling’s four-story utse (central tower) anchors the inner courtyard, which is typical for traditional Bhutanese fortresses.
Bearing that guidance in mind, I embarked last fall on a pilgrimage to Bhutan’s isolated Tang Valley that spanned 36 hours of air travel and three days of driving on mountain-hugging roads. In the valley, I spent three days at the white-washed stone and painted timber manor, whose lineage stretches back to the 14th century, learning about the role of these sites in the area’s history and the people who live there today. Parts of the ancestral home have been converted into a guesthouse and a museum with preserved Bhutanese artifacts; overall the architecture has the same ancient, imposing magnificence as the surrounding peaks.
Located in Bhutan’s Bumthang District, Ogyen Choling dates back more than 650 years, serving first as a gompa (monastery), then as a dzong (administrative fortress that houses a local lord and family), and as a nagtshang (manor house) for centuries after. Many of the original structures were leveled in a June 1897 earthquake but were rebuilt to their present state in the years following. Bhutanese author Kunzang Choden, pictured here, marks the 20th generation of her family to live on the estate and care for its heritage; it was passed to her by her father, the complex’s prior landlord. She returned to Bhutan permanently in 1996 after yearslong stints in India, Nebraska, the Philippines, and Laos, starting in the ’60s. The mural behind her in the two-story tsug lhakhang (temple) is one of the manor’s many dedicated to figures like Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism; Guru Rinpoche, the Buddhist master credited with bringing the religion to Bhutan; Dorji Lingpa, the ancient religious leader of Ogyen Choling; and Gonpo Maning, a local protective Buddhist deity.
Ogyen Choling is surrounded by a village of 22 households with mostly farmers and herders. When viewed from the southern fields, it is said, the hill resembles the crest of an elephant, an auspicious Buddhist symbol. According to tradition, this was one of the reasons Tibetan Buddhist master and philosopher Longchen Rabjam founded the estate here. Experiencing life in the village can feel like a journey into the past: Modern amenities like electricity only reached the area in 2008, with sparse mobile network coverage following in 2010. Before 1984, when a bridge for cars was built over the Tang Chhu River, the only way to reach the village was by a seven-hour walk along a mountain path from Jakar, the district capital.
Central Bhutan enjoys cool year-round temperatures due to its high altitude. (The Tang Valley sits at around 9,186 feet above sea level.) To cope with the cooler temps, the Bhutanese have made chilies an integral part of their cuisine. Brave visitors can try Bhutan’s national dish, ema datshi, a fiery combination of spicy chilies and cheese made from goat, cow, or, more frequently, yak milk. Ogyen Choling guests gather for family-style meals served on a patio and its adjoining kitchen, where villagers who work on the property turn vegetables from the garden into hearty Bhutanese staples. Choden’s Swiss husband, Walter Roder, cultivates fresh produce in the garden, such as tibia-size carrots, tomatoes, leeks, and cauliflower.
In 2016, Choden and Roder repurposed the L-shaped shagkor enclosing the utse into a guesthouse to support the manor’s maintenance costs. The two-story building has eight guest rooms in addition to a dining room, kitchen, and common area. The Ogyen Choling Heritage House also includes four bedrooms in a separate guesthouse, as well as two in an adjoining hermitage. All of the rooms have attached bathrooms with toilets and showers imported from Switzerland. Water is heated by solar energy for every guest room except the two in the hermitage. Traditional Bhutanese architecture employs rammed earth construction, stone masonry, and intricate woodwork around the windows and roofs. All timber work relies on tight joins; structures are built without nails or screws.
The shagkor’s plastered-clay walls are painted a vibrant yellow ocher with traditional scenes of Bhutan’s four mythical animals: Snow Lion, Tiger, Dragon, and Garuda (an eagle-like bird). In Buddhist mythology, these creatures are the Four Guardians of the cardinal directions and some of Buddha’s earliest followers. They also represent the sacred qualities bodhisattvas develop on the path to enlightenment, including wisdom, generosity, power, and humility. Detailed frescoes depicting these four creatures commonly adorn the walls of temples and entryways within ancient Bhutanese fortresses.
Choden converted the utse into Bhutan’s first private museum in 2001. "We didn’t have a master plan. We just said, One room at a time," she says. "We opened it to the public and then went on repairing the rooms." The museum catalogs the history of the manor and feudal Bhutan with items almost exclusively from the ancestral home, including agricultural tools from the Tang Valley, objects from religious rituals, arms and armor, textiles, masks, and manuscripts, as well as restored family rooms. On the tower’s third level, in front of a contemporary artist’s mural, baskets of arrows sit alongside helmets and devices for making gunpowder. Ogyen Choling’s museum has one of the, if not the, most complete collections of Bhutanese manor life artifacts from the last few centuries.
About an hour and a half’s drive from Ogyen Choling, the Choekhar Valley is considered the spiritual heartland of Bhutan, where Buddhism first arrived in the country. A group of monks pose at the five-day Jambay Lhakhang festival, which celebrates the namesake temple’s founding in the seventh century. The festival launches around midnight with practitioners in decorative masks—and nothing else—performing Tercham, or the Naked Dance, in honor of Guru Rinpoche. Bhutan is known for its colorful religious festivals, where locals often share puffed rice, tea, and ara (a traditional alcoholic beverage made from rice or wheat).
The southern edge of the hill on which Ogyen Choling sits offers sweeping views of the Tang Valley and is bedecked with two types of prayer flags, lungdhar and manidhar. The former is composed of colorful squares commonly hung on a diagonal line from high to low between two objects, such as trees or stupas (Buddhist shrines). It’s believed the traditional mantras on prayer flags are passed on when the wind ruffles the fabric, which is why lungdhar flags are found blowing in the wind at passes, temples, and bridges in Himalayan nations. The vertical manidhar—most often white but sometimes red, as here—are raised to honor the deceased. A wooden dagger is affixed to their top to help those they commemorate "cut the knot of ignorance."
Light strikes the intricately painted frescoes at the temple at the Bumthang District’s Pema Choling nunnery. Here, women in the community study and devote their lives to Buddhism. Murals depicting religious themes and motifs—particularly stories of the life of Buddha and protective deities—cover the walls, and carved and painted wooden columns support the high ceiling.
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