Mongar

Mongar is where the east begins. Every overland traveller heading from Bumthang to Trashigang passes through, and the town's real distinction is less what is in it than what it takes to get there.

The road from Bumthang

The Bumthang–Mongar highway is routinely described as one of the most dramatic drives in the Himalaya. It crosses Thrumshing La at 3,780 m — the highest pass on Bhutan's east–west road, and the boundary of Thrumshingla National Park — then loses more than 3,000 metres in a series of switchbacks cut into near-vertical cliff faces, with waterfalls dropping across the carriageway and long unfenced drops on the outer edge. The vegetation changes with every hour of descent, from fir and rhododendron through hemlock into warm broadleaf forest. Allow the better part of a day and take the front seat.

A dzong from the modern era

Mongar Dzong is unusual among Bhutan's fortresses in being young: it was completed in 1953, replacing an older dzong at Zhongar. It was nevertheless built entirely in the traditional way — no nails, no written plans, rammed earth and joined timber — which makes it a useful place to see how the medieval dzongs were actually put together, and it is one of the few where visitors can watch that craft in a building recent enough to be well documented. It sits at the top of the town rather than on a defensive spur, since defence was no longer the point.

Base for the northeast

At about 1,600 m, Mongar is mild, green, and has the eastern region's main referral hospital, which gives the town a busier, more everyday feel than its size suggests. It is the junction for the northern road to Lhuntse and the Khoma weaving villages, and the eastern road over Kori La to Trashigang. Most itineraries give it one night in transit — enough for the dzong at dusk and an early start on whichever road comes next.