Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Lhakhang (Nunnery)

Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Lhakhang is a temple and nuns’ college on a ridge above Wolakha, near the Lobesa junction in Punakha. You drive right up to it, and it looks out over three valleys. Inside is the largest bronze Avalokiteshvara in Bhutan; outside, a chorten ringed with carved black marble.

What to see

The Avalokiteshvara. The temple’s central image is a 14-foot bronze of Chenrezig in his thousand-armed, thousand-eyed form — the largest bronze of its kind in the country — cast by local artisans. Around it stand Guru Padmasambhava, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, Tsepamay the Buddha of Longevity, the 21 Taras and Tsela Namsum.

The black marble chorten. Ringing the stupa are carved black marble panels depicting the 84 Mahasiddhas, the 16 Arhats and the great lamas of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage. This is the complex’s signature and there’s nothing quite like it elsewhere in Bhutan — walk round it slowly rather than photographing it once.

The nuns’ work. This is a working college. Alongside religious study the nuns are taught thangka painting, embroidery, tailoring and statue-making, the trades that keep Bhutanese religious art alive. The community opened with 41 nuns and has grown past a hundred since.

And then the ridge itself, looking out over the Toebesa, Punakha and Wangdue Phodrang valleys — the reason it was built up here.

Getting there and when to go

It’s a short drive up from the Wolakha area near the Lobesa junction, on the road towards Drolay Goemba. Unlike almost everything else in Punakha, this one asks nothing of your legs: the road goes to the complex, with steps only between the temple levels.

February–March and October–November are the best months, as everywhere in the valley. Dress covers shoulders and knees, and shoes come off inside. Entry is included in your tour.

How it fits your day

The nunnery sits on the Lobesa side of the valley, close to Chimi Lhakhang — the two make a natural half-day, with Punakha Dzong and the suspension bridge filling the other. It’s also the obvious substitute if the walk to Chimi Lhakhang is more than someone in your group wants to take on.

A little history

Yab Ugyen Dorji, father of Bhutan’s four Queen Mothers, asked for land on the highest scenic hill above the Punakha valley to build a Buddhist university for nuns. The complex — a two-storey temple, the chorten and the nunnery — was consecrated by His Holiness the Je Khenpo at a ceremony attended by His Majesty the King, the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, members of the royal family and hundreds of people from Punakha. Sources put the building work in the late 2000s.