Temple · Buddhist
Lhakhang Nagpo
Traditionally attributed to Songtsen Gampo·Traditionally 7th century CE·Haa
The Black Temple of Haa, dark-walled on the slope above its white counterpart.
Dedicated to
Traditionally attributed to Songtsen Gampo
Period
Traditionally 7th century CE
Neighborhood
Uesu gewog, lower Haa valley
Lhakhang Nagpo — the Black Temple — stands a short way uphill from Lhakhang Karpo on the wooded slope above the lower Haa valley. Where the white temple is broad and open, this one is small, dark-walled and half-hidden: banded courses of dark and red plaster, a tree growing hard against the building, and a terrace held up by a dry-stone wall.
The pair
The two belong to one story. Songtsen Gampo is said to have released two pigeons to choose the sites; the black one came to rest here. The temples are therefore always visited together, and the contrast between them is the reason.
The shrine inside is small and, like most Bhutanese interiors, not photographed.
Visiting
Fifteen to twenty minutes, on foot from Lhakhang Karpo. Both are on the road down the Haa valley from Haa town, and both fit the same day as the drive over Chele La from Paro.
Folio III
Nearby Sacred Sites
Places within a short walk that help turn this stop into a small sacred cluster.
Coda
Continue the Pilgrimage
Help us get it right
Know Lhakhang Nagpo better than we do?
We write from research and reporting, and the ground changes faster than we can keep up. If something here is out of date, or you have been and would tell it differently, we would rather hear it.