Trashiyangtse

- Trashiyangtse (the “r” is silent) is remote in a way few other places are. Some 550 kilometers and three days' drive east of Thimphu, it shares wild borderlands with Tibet in the north and India's Arunachal Pradesh state in the east. If you like exploring places few foreigners have even heard of, let alone visited, this district should be on your itinerary. It's the Wild East, a trove of Bhutan's early history. Guru Rinpoche, the saint who introduced Buddhism to the country, left his body imprints in rock in the late 740s at the sacred site of Omba Ney. Bhutan's first fortress, Tshenkharla Dzong — built by an exiled Tibetan prince in the ninth century — lies near the district capital in splendid ruin. An ancient trade route with Tibet is now the Rodungla Trek that draws only one or two foreigners a year. Trashiyangtse's 3,760 households are a remarkably diverse lot that includes indigenous Yangtseps, majority Tshanglas, Kurtoeps from Lhuentse district to the west, and tribes who that share a history and language with the Dakpa tribe just across the border in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang district. Most district residents are farmers, but a smattering of artisans make their living by carving dapa (laquered wooden bowls and cups) and making desho (handmade paper), which are prized...