5 Jakar

GHiRT-1 > Bhutan-4 > Jakar-Bumthang, Thrumsing-La, NamlingWaterfall, Mongar, Trashigang

Jakar is an amazing and beautiful town and we stayed at the nice River Lodge here. There are many local sights to see in Jakar and we visited Wangdi Chong Palace, Kurjey Lakhang, Namche Nyingpo Gompa etc. before continuing further East past Ura, Shelthang-La, Thrumsing-La and further East past Namling Waterfalls, Mongar town and to finally to eastern most town of Trashigang.

Central Bhutan Jakar-Bumthang

We were lucky to have found this very nice hotel, River Lodge, in Jakar. It was the first hotel on our way into town (as per LP-Bhutan map), and so we went there first to see. The rooms looked luxurious and the owner so friendly that we decided to stay there.The rate of Rs 1250 for a DBL room was reasonable too. The rooms had very comfortable beds, nice Rajai and a working wood-heater (it was quite cold here at night). After 10 days of hectic touring (and considering the comfortable beds here) we decided on a late start, on the morrow.

River Lodge, Jakar

19th April 2009: Today we had a great breakfast of Toast/Butter and a variety of locally made "River Lodge" brand Jams and Honey. Thees bottles were available on sale too. We packed up and left at 7:30am to first do some local sightseeing in Jakar and then continue our eastward drive.

Another view of River Lodge

River Lodge at Jakar, Bumthang - a nice hotel we stayed in Jakar

Pema Dawa, owner of River Lodge, shows the bullet marks on the shield used by his great-grand-father

The beautiful woodwork setting of the Dining Hall, at River Lodge

The nice Room at River Lodge

Hari, Srinath & HVK . . pose in front of Wangdichoeling Palace in Jakar

First, we went to the historic Wangdichoeling Palace, built in 1857 by Trongsa Namgyal, the first Palace built not like a fortress. It was meant to be the residence of his son Ugyen, the first King of Bhutan. It is now a bit rundown, still showing signs of original beauty.

Courtyard view at Wangdichoeling

Another building on the grounds of Wangdichoeling Palace, Jakar

From the palace we went to the Khurjey Lhakhang complex; comprising three temples built adjacent to each other. The oldest to the right built in 1652 is built around a rock where Guru Padmasambhava left a body print while meditating. The third one, on the left is a recent one built in 1980 by the royal grandmother.

Mural Paintings at the Palace

A house in the Palace grounds

A wall of Chortens at Kurjey Lhakhang

Khurjey Lhakang

A tree in Khurjey Lhakang

******

Namche Nyingpo Gompa

Town of Jakar seen from lawns of Namche Nyingpo Gompa

View of Jakar Djong seen through the tree at Wangdi Chong Palace

Inside Wangdichoeling Palace

Young Monks at Wangdichoeling Palace in Jakar

*******

Kurjey Lhakhang, Jakar

Our Scorpio exiting Kurjey Lhakang

From Khurjey Lhakang we went to the 3rd site in Jakar that we wanted to visit, i.e. Namche Nyingpo Gompa.

Other Buildings in Khurjey

Namche Nyingpo Gompa at Jakar

View of Jakar valley from Namche Nyingpo Gompa

***********

After visiting the last Gompa in Jakar, we continued our Eastward journey climbing first Ura and then Shelthang-La (11,500ft) and Thrumsing-La (12,400ft). The route was very scenic as depicted in the following pictures.