Bhutan
Spiritual Retreat

No prior meditation experience is required. Comfortable, loose clothing suitable for yoga and trekking is recommended. The physical demands are easy to moderate — you will walk 2–4 hours on most days on well-maintained trails. Altitude acclimatisation is built into the first two days. Your Sowa Rigpa consultation occurs on Day 2 in Thimphu.

• Arrival & Welcome: Land at Paro International Airport (2,235m) and be received by your guide with a traditional khadar. The drive to your lodge passes farmhouses, prayer flags, and the first willow-lined stretch of the Paro Chhu river.
• Gentle Orientation Walk: A 45-minute acclimatisation walk along the Paro Chhu riverbank — introduced mindfully, with attention to breath, sound, and the quality of Himalayan light.
• Kyichu Lhakhang Visit: Visit one of Bhutan's oldest and most sacred temples — built in the 7th century during the reign of Tibetan Emperor Songtsen Gampo. Sit quietly inside. Light a butter lamp. Begin.
• Introductory Evening Session: A 45-minute introductory session on the week ahead — the meditation practices, the healing tradition, and the intention-setting exercise that begins every Found Bhutan retreat.

• First Morning Meditation: A 30-minute guided Shamatha session at dawn — breath-focus and body-scan. The first formal sitting of the retreat.
• Sowa Rigpa Consultation: A full consultation with a licensed Drungtsho physician at Thimphu — pulse diagnosis, constitution assessment, and a personalised herbal prescription. The most important appointment of the retreat.
• National Institute of Traditional Medicine: A guided visit to understand how Bhutanese healing medicine is produced, classified, and prescribed — one of the most illuminating hours available in Bhutan.
• Memorial Chorten Kora: Walk the circumambulation path around the National Memorial Chorten in Thimphu — joining local Bhutanese completing their daily devotions, turning prayer wheels, and reciting mantras.
• Evening Dharma Talk: First nightly Dharma conversation — the Buddhist concept of impermanence (Anicca) and why it is the most practical philosophical teaching for modern life.

• Dochula Dawn Vigil: Depart Thimphu before first light. Arrive at Dochula Pass (3,100m) as the sun rises over the 108 Druk Wangyal Chortens. On clear mornings, the entire eastern Himalayan range — including Gangkar Puensum at 7,570m — is visible. A full guided meditation session here, in the open air at 3,100m.
• Punakha Dzong Morning Kora: Walk the sacred circumambulation path around Punakha Dzong — built in 1637 at the confluence of the Mo Chhu and Pho Chhu rivers. The kora is walked by Bhutanese each morning as a devotional practice.
• Chimi Lhakhang Walk: A 30-minute walk through rice paddy fields to Chimi Lhakhang — the temple of Drukpa Kunley, the Divine Madman, a 15th-century Buddhist master whose unconventional teachings remain deeply relevant.
• River Meditation: An unstructured hour beside the Mo Chhu — sitting in silence, listening, watching. The simplest and often most powerful session of the retreat.
• Evening Dharma Talk: The Buddhist concept of interdependence (Pratītyasamutpāda) — how everything that exists arises in dependence on conditions, and why this understanding changes how we relate to suffering.

• Gangtey Monastery Morning Prayers: Arrive at Gangtey Monastery (home to Gangtey Trülku, the ninth reincarnation) for the morning prayer session with resident monks — conch shells, thighbone trumpets, and the extraordinary deep-register chanting of the Nyingma tradition.
• Butter Lamp Offering Ceremony: Offer 1,000 butter lamps inside the monastery as a traditional Buddhist dedication for peace, the alleviation of suffering, and the benefit of all sentient beings. One of the most profound ritual experiences in Bhutan.
• Buddhism Teaching Session: A one-hour teaching on the foundations of Vajrayana Buddhism at Gangtey's monastic college (shedra) — conducted by a senior monk in English with your guide translating Dzongkha passages.
• Phobjikha Valley Silence Walk: An entirely silent 90-minute walk through the wetlands of the Phobjikha Valley — no speaking, no devices, no music. One of the most extraordinary hours available anywhere in the Himalayas.
• Evening Sound Healing: A full Tibetan singing bowl sound healing session in your lodge — vibration therapy using traditional bowls tuned to different frequencies, combined with breathwork.

• Drive via Chele La Pass (3,988m): The highest motorable pass in Bhutan — dense forest of fir and rhododendron, prayer flags strung across the ridge, and views across into the Haa Valley below.
• Lhakhang Karpo & Lhakhang Nagpo: Visit the White and Black Temples of Haa — two of Bhutan's oldest sacred sites, built during the reign of Songtsen Gampo. These are among the least-visited and most atmospheric places of worship in the country.
• Forest Meditation: A guided 45-minute walking meditation through the ancient forests above Haa town — pine, fir, and birch, with the sound of the Haa Chhu river below.
• Traditional Hot Stone Bath — Session 1: The first Dotsho of the retreat — fire-heated river stones, spring water, wormwood, juniper, and medicinal herbs. After the day's elevation and walking, the physical effect is profound.
• Evening Dharma Talk: The Buddhist understanding of suffering (Dukkha) — not as pessimism but as the most honest acknowledgement of the human condition, and the path through it.

• Dawn Yoga & Meditation: Final morning session of the formal meditation programme — 60 minutes combining pranayama, yoga, and seated Metta practice. The integration session where the week's practice is brought together.
• Bumdra Mindful Trek: A guided mindful trek on the Bumdra trail above Paro — ascending through rhododendron and pine forest, past prayer flag ridges, to the ancient Bumdra Lhakhang hermitage at approximately 3,800m. Walked in near-silence with attention to breath, foot placement, and the quality of the forest. This is the physical peak of the retreat — challenging enough to be meaningful, accessible enough to be achievable.
• Descent to Taktsang: The trail descends past a viewpoint of Taktsang Monastery (Tiger's Nest) — the most sacred site in Bhutan, where Guru Padmasambhava meditated in the 8th century and brought Vajrayana Buddhism to the Himalayan world. Sit here for as long as you wish.
• Evening Dotsho — Session 2: The final hot stone bath of the retreat — after the day's trek, this is the most restorative session. Taken in complete silence.

• Early Start: Depart the lodge before other visitors. The trail to Taktsang Monastery begins in pine forest, ascends via switchbacks, and reaches the viewpoint — the most photographed view in Bhutan — typically by 9am, before the crowds.
• Taktsang Monastery: Paro Taktsang (Tiger's Nest) is not merely a beautiful building on a cliff. It is the site where, in the 8th century, Guru Padmasambhava (Rinpoche) flew here on the back of a tigress and meditated in the cave for three months and three days, subduing the demons that prevented the Dharma from taking root in the Himalayan world. To sit inside the meditation cave where this happened is the culminating spiritual experience of the retreat.
• Closing Reflection: An unstructured hour at the viewpoint for personal reflection, journaling, and the integration of the week's experience.
• Farewell Dinner: A traditional Bhutanese dinner with your guide — ezay, kewa datshi, jasha maru, red rice — and a conversation about what you will take home and how you might continue practising.

• Final Morning Practice: An optional 20-minute sitting before breakfast — the first independent session, unguided, as a bridge to continued practice at home.
• Departure Preparation: Your Sowa Rigpa herbal prescription and any remaining remedies are packaged for travel. Your guide provides written guidance on continuing your meditation practice and the diet recommendations from your Drungtsho consultation.
• Transfer to Paro Airport: The drive to the airport passes the fields and farmhouses of the Paro Valley — the same landscape you arrived in eight days ago, seen now with different eyes.

No experience of any kind is required — Buddhist, meditation, or yoga. This retreat is designed for any traveller seeking stillness, renewal, and a genuine encounter with Bhutan's living contemplative tradition. The meditation sessions begin gently and progress at the pace of the group. Many participants have never sat in formal meditation before arriving.

A Dotsho is a traditional Bhutanese therapeutic bath using river stones heated in fire and placed in a wooden tub filled with spring water and medicinal herbs — wormwood (Artemisia), juniper, wild sagebrush, and other plants harvested from Bhutanese hillsides. The stones release minerals as they cool, and the herbs steep in the water. You soak for 30–45 minutes while fresh hot stones are periodically added. The practice is centuries old and is used in Bhutan to treat joint pain, arthritis, skin conditions, and physical exhaustion. Two sessions are included in this retreat.

Sowa Rigpa is the traditional Himalayan science of healing — a 2,500-year-old medical system using herbal medicine, dietary guidance, and therapeutic treatment to restore physical and mental balance. In Bhutan, Sowa Rigpa practitioners (Drungtshos) are trained at the National Institute of Traditional Medicine in Thimphu to government medical standards. A consultation involves pulse diagnosis (reading the radial artery with three fingers to assess the state of the three humours), urine analysis, and a detailed health history interview. From this, your constitution (predominant humour type) is identified and a personalised herbal prescription formulated.

The retreat introduces two primary forms of Buddhist meditation. Shamatha (calm-abiding) develops single-pointed concentration and mental stillness through breath-focus or visualisation. Metta (loving-kindness) systematically cultivates compassion — beginning with oneself, extending outward to loved ones, neutral persons, difficult persons, and finally all sentient beings. Sessions are guided in English by a local practitioner with genuine monastic training, with your guide providing any necessary context. Walking meditation on the Bumdra trail and sitting in monastery prayer sessions are also included.

Easy to moderate. Most walking days involve 2–4 hours on well-maintained trails at altitude (2,200–3,988m). The most demanding day is the Bumdra trek on Day 6 — a 4–5 hour walk with 600m of elevation gain. This is achievable by anyone in reasonable general health. The Dotsho sessions, yoga, and meditation require no physical fitness. Altitude acclimatisation is built into the first two days. If you have specific health concerns, please share them with us when enquiring and we will adjust accordingly.

Yes — completely. The 8-day programme is a well-tested foundation, but we build every retreat around the specific intentions, physical conditions, and interests of the person taking it. Possible extensions include Bumthang Sacred Valley (Day 9–10), overnight camping at Bumdra under the stars, deeper Sowa Rigpa treatment (3–5 sessions), or a structured silent day in the Phobjikha Valley. Contact us and describe what you're looking for — we'll design accordingly.