Most Bhutan itineraries describe dzongs and temples as simply “sacred” without explaining why. This pilgrimage is built around a specific, documented narrative: Guru Rinpoche’s three visits to Bhutan in the 8th century, beginning with his journey to save the life of King Sindhu Raja of Bumthang. According to the account preserved in Bhutanese tradition, the local deity Shelging Karpo had taken hold of the dying king’s life-force. Having exhausted every local remedy, Sindhu Raja sent for the renowned tantric master from across the mountains. Guru Rinpoche travelled to Bhutan, entered into deep meditation in a cave, subdued Shelging Karpo — transforming the deity from a malevolent force into a protective one, as he did at many of the sites he visited — and restored the king to health. So impressed were the local rulers that they ordered their subjects to convert to Buddhism. That cave, now enclosed within the walls of Kurjey Lhakhang in Bumthang, remains the single most historically important Buddhist site in the entire kingdom.

This was not Guru Rinpoche’s only visit. According to tradition, he travelled extensively through Bhutan’s valleys, blessing dozens of specific locations now known as Neys — sacred sites where he meditated, subdued local spirits, and concealed spiritual treasures (Ter) for future generations to discover. In Bumthang alone he is said to have blessed Tang Rimochen Lhakhang, Thowadrak Monastery, Kunzangdrak Monastery, and the Burning Lake of Membartsho, where centuries later the great treasure-revealer Pema Lingpa would retrieve hidden relics. From Bumthang, tradition holds that he and his consort Yeshe Tsogyal flew on the back of a tigress to a cliff above the Paro Valley — the site that would become Paro Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest, where he meditated for what tradition records as four months.

Bhutanese Buddhist cosmology organises the most significant of these sites into a framework of Five Bodies — sacred locations representing the body, speech, mind, qualities, and activity of enlightened wisdom. Four of the five lie in Tibet; the fifth, representing activity, is Singye Dzong in the remote east of Bhutan, considered by many serious pilgrims to be the most sacred site in the country, reachable only by a multi-day trek.