Lhuentse

With only a few hundred foreign tourists visiting annually, Lhuentse district in northeast Bhutan remains largely off the mental map of most outsiders. Yet this isolated region has a stark entrancing beauty, its deep-cut river gorges and steep cliff faces displaying nature at its most raw. Coniferous forests cover more than 87 percent of the land, much of it environmentally-protected parkland and wildlife sanctuaries connected by biological corridors. Its primary river system, the Kuri Chhu, originates in the Tibetan plateau to the north and bisects the district on the way to joining India's mighty Brahmaputra River. Lhuentse has just 7,400 households in its 1,944 sq km (751 sq miles) and is one of the least developed districts in the country. Electricity has yet to reach some remote villages and there are relatively few roads, the first gas station having arrived only in 2005. Most farming is subsistence level. But Lhuentse women — particularly the Kurtoeps of Khoma village — produce some of the most exquisite textiles found anywhere. Their distinctive style of weaving, known as kishutara, is famous throughout the country. Many of them spend months at a time on traditional back-strap looms weaving a single kira. Towering impressively over Tangmachu valley near Khoma is the wor...