According to tradition still told in Trashiyangtse, the 18th-century lama Tshering Gyamtsho — a disciple of the 9th Je Khenpo, based at Punakha Dratshang — discovered a cave bearing clear body imprints believed to be those of Rigsum Goenpo while travelling north of Trashiyangtse to a place called Pemaling. A powerful local deity, Genyen Phanbu, guarded the sacred cave. Rather than confronting the deity, Lama Tshering Gyamtsho befriended him through spiritual power, and built a small lhakhang for his own meditation at the site, which became known as Rigsum Goenpa Lhakhang. After the lama’s death, his nephew and spiritual heir, Lama Jangchhub Gyeltshen, renovated and extended the temple, adding murals depicting the life history of the Buddha. The temple today houses a Jowo Shakya Muni statue — depicting Buddha as a young prince — brought specifically from Punakha Dzong, the historic seat of Bhutan’s government.

This is a genuinely short, scenic circular trek — three days in total, beginning and ending in Trashiyangtse, the remote far-eastern district seat. The route passes through villages and forest at altitudes ranging roughly between 1,750 and 1,880 metres, genuinely modest compared to the high-altitude treks of western Bhutan, making this a culturally rich but physically accessible journey.

We want to be completely clear about something many travel pages get wrong: this is not the same as the three hills called “Rigsum Gonpo” near Haa, associated with the Lhakhang Karpo and Lhakhang Nagpo temples in the west of the country. Both share a name rooted in the same Buddhist concept — Rigsum Gonpo refers to the three principal bodhisattvas of compassion, wisdom, and power (Chenrezig, Jambayang, and Chana Dorji) — but they are entirely separate places, hundreds of kilometres apart, with completely different histories.