Lhakhang Karpo & Nagpo

Lhakhang Karpo, the white temple, and Lhakhang Nagpo, the black one, stand at the southern entrance to the Haa valley about 280 m apart, and they are the fixed point of any day here. Both are attributed to the 7th-century Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo. Allow 45 minutes to an hour for both; entry is included in your tour.

The pigeons

Songtsen Gampo is said to have built 108 temples in a single day, each one pinning down part of a demoness lying across the landscape and obstructing Buddhism. In Haa the telling is more specific: he released two pigeons, one white and one black, and built where each came down. The white landed at the foot of Meri Puensum — the three peaks over the valley, read as compassion, wisdom and power — and the black settled at a lake.

Bhutanese sources normally name four of the 108 in Bhutan: these two, plus Kyichu in Paro and Jampey in Bumthang. The wider literature tends to single out Kyichu and Jampey as the best known of them. What nobody disputes is the consequence: if they were all built on the same day, none of them can be the oldest, whatever the signage at any of them says.

What you actually walk into

Old foundation, new building. Lhakhang Karpo was rebuilt between 2010 and 2017, after His Majesty visited in November 2009 and commanded that it be reconstructed from the base. The work was budgeted at around Nu 150 million and added monks’ quarters, a dining hall and a library, sized for roughly 180 monks. It ran through a three-year corruption investigation without ever stopping, and completion was announced in November 2017 — the year the temple was reconsecrated and Bhutan’s National Day was celebrated in these grounds with His Majesty present.

This is Haa’s monastic seat. The dzongkhag’s monk body lives here, reported at around 98 monks; the first Lam Neten of Haa was appointed with twenty-five. The Haa Tshechu is danced in this courtyard every autumn, and the Ap Chundu offering begins here before dawn, at the deity’s own shrine inside.

The black temple

Lhakhang Nagpo is a few minutes up the slope — sources disagree on the compass direction and agree on the climb — and it is the stranger of the two.

It is built over a lake, with an opening in the floor onto the water underneath. It is the seat of Da Do Chen, a guardian of the valley, and a tshomen — a mermaid spirit — is said to live below it. There is no monastic community here: a caretaker, and a dog with a reputation.

Whether you get inside depends on whether the caretaker is about, so ask us before you build a morning around it. The walk up is worth doing either way.

Visiting

Road access to the white temple, a level courtyard, and steps into the temples. The climb to Nagpo has no step-free alternative.

Dress as you would for a dzong: shoulders and knees covered, long sleeves rather than a T-shirt, no shorts. Hats and sunglasses come off in the precincts and shoes come off before you enter. Photography is welcome in the courtyard and not inside the temples.

Lhakhang Karpo is a working monastic seat rather than a monument, so what is open varies with the day. Nobody publishes hours and we are not going to invent them — your guide checks before you drive down.

How it fits a day in Haa

You will almost certainly arrive over Chele La from Paro, and these temples are the first thing in the valley worth stopping for. Pair them with the climb to Juneydrak and you have most of a good day; see things to do in Haa for how the rest of the district compares.

If you are here in the third week of September, this courtyard is the venue for the Haa Tshechu — 19–21 September in 2026.