Haa Summer
Festival

The Valley & Its People

Haa Valley — Bhutan’s Last Opened District

Haa District was the last in Bhutan to be opened to foreign tourists, only becoming accessible to international visitors in 2002. Before that, its position on the border with Tibet and its strategic military significance kept it closed. The result is a valley that retains a quality of pristine isolation not found anywhere else in western Bhutan. The valley floor sits at around 2,700 metres and is flanked by ridges rising to over 4,000m, with the sacred peak of Jomolhari (7,326m) visible to the north on clear days. The road over Chelela Pass (3,988m) that connects Haa to Paro is Bhutan’s highest drivable road. The pass itself — draped in thousands of prayer flags, with panoramic views of Jomolhari and Jichu Drake — is one of the most spectacular road crossings in the Himalayas.

The people of Haa — known as Haaps — are strong-boned, resilient yak herders and high-altitude farmers who cultivate wheat, potatoes, barley, and millet on the valley slopes. Their culture is distinctive within Bhutan: it blends the mainstream Drukpa Buddhist tradition with older Bon shamanic practices, and their guardian deity, Ap Chhundu, is unique to the valley. The shamanistic rituals associated with Ap Chhundu, the oral legends of the valley, and the specific material culture of the Haaps — their food, their textiles, their yak economy — are what the Haa Summer Festival was created to preserve and share.

The Full Festival Programme

The Haa Summer Festival runs for two days and is structured around interaction as much as observation. Visitors are not seated spectators — they are invited to try the food, pick up a bow, ride a yak, and handle the tools of highland pastoral life. This distinguishes it from every other major festival in Bhutan.

The yak demonstrations are the centrepiece: handlers show the full cycle of nomadic yak management — shearing the thick double coat, processing the fibre into wool, and weaving the traditional black yak-hair tent that has sheltered highland families for centuries. A single yak tent can take months to complete. Watching the demonstration, visitors understand immediately that this is a skill at serious risk of disappearing.

Sports competitions run throughout both days. Archery — Bhutan’s national sport — is taken very seriously, with competitive tournaments between local teams. Khuru, the traditional dart game played with heavy darts thrown at a target 20 metres away, is one of the most accessible for visitors to try. Soksum (javelin throw) is a highland sport less common at other festivals. Yak riding is available and enormously popular with visitors and children alike.

The food stalls are among the best reasons to attend. Hoentey — Haa’s signature dish, a buckwheat dumpling filled with a mixture of soft cheese, turnip greens, and spices — is one of the finest things to eat in Bhutan and is almost impossible to find outside the valley. Khuley (buckwheat pancakes), Puta (buckwheat noodles), and Yaksha Kam (sun-dried yak meat seasoned with chilli) are all on offer, along with Ara, the locally distilled grain spirit. A photography competition runs in parallel with the main programme, with participants judged on images taken in and around the festival.

Getting to Haa for the Festival

Haa is reached by road from Paro via Chelela Pass. The 65km journey takes approximately two hours in good conditions, though the mountain road requires a capable vehicle and an experienced driver. The pass itself — at 3,988m — is the highest drivable point in Bhutan and is worth the journey alone. On a clear day, Jomolhari dominates the northern horizon from the pass, and the descent into the Haa Valley reveals a landscape of pine forest and river meadow entirely unlike the western valleys.

Accommodation in Haa town is limited compared to Paro and Thimphu. The festival draws visitors from across Bhutan and a growing number of international tourists — rooms fill up several weeks in advance. Found Bhutan can arrange accommodation, the Chelela drive, and a full programme around the festival including hikes to Katsho village, the white and black Lhakhangs, and day walks in the high alpine meadows above the valley.

Things to Do in Haa Beyond the Festival

• Chelela Pass — at 3,988m, Bhutan’s highest drivable road. The pass is thick with prayer flags and offers views of Jomolhari and Jichu Drake on clear mornings. Worth arriving at dawn.
• Lhakhang Karpo and Lhakhang Nagpo — the White Temple and Black Temple in Haa town are two of the oldest religious sites in the valley, associated with the three brothers who are said to have introduced Buddhism to Haa.
• Katsho village — a traditional Haaps village about 30 minutes above Haa town, with farmhouses unchanged for centuries and views across the whole valley.
• High-altitude hiking — the ridges above Haa offer some of the finest day-hiking terrain in western Bhutan, through alpine meadows filled with wildflowers in summer. Routes connect to the Haa-Paro trek, a multi-day journey through high passes.
• Wangchulo Dzong — the small dzong in Haa town that serves as the festival’s main venue. A modest but atmospheric fortress with a quiet interior away from festival crowds.