Buddhism cultural holiday in Bhutan
Highlights
Paro | Rinpung Dzong | Thimphu | Tango Monastery | Punakha | Nalanda Buddhist Institute | Talo & Nobgang villages | Taksang-Tiger’s Nest |Description of Buddhism cultural holiday in Bhutan
Focussing a trip to Bhutan on Buddhism opens up the cultural core of the country with visits to monasteries, museums and temples all adding to the excitement of travelling in one of Asia’s most revered hidden kingdoms.This nine day trip to Bhutan can be tailor made to meet your travelling wishes with suggested itineraries enabling you to envelope yourself within the spirituality, peace and Buddhist traditions of Bhutan as you follow in the footsteps of pilgrims past.
Find out more about Buddhism in Bhutan as you spend time amongst the Himalayas and meet local people and Buddhist scholars who will be more than happy to aid you on your nine day cultural quest for enlightenment.
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about this holiday or need help finding one we're very happy to help. The Travel Team.
01273 823 700 Calling from outside the UK? rosy@responsibletravel.comDeparture information
Responsible tourism
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we screen every trip so you can travel knowing your holiday will help support conservation and local people.
Our role in promoting Responsible Tourism is small but meaningful and adds much to the preservation and promotion of our country’s unique cultural heritage, environmental preservation, promotion of sustainable development and establishment of good governance which are the four main pillars of Gross National Happiness, the sole guiding development principle of our country. It is our aim that visitors will appreciate Bhutan through its living culture and pristine environment and the people of Bhutan will in turn benefit from their interaction with our visitors.
Our walking tour programs are popular and have always been environmentally friendly. Our hiking trails fall within the Jigme Dorji National Park, the second largest protected area in Bhutan. Park fees generated from our walking trails received from each individual person on the hike goes to the Nature Recreation and Eco-tourism Division for the Department of Forestry to help manage and implement several conservation and livelihood development initiatives within and around the park.
The vehicle used for your transfer points will also transport food and equipment. We ask our guests understanding since in this way we can avoid using a separate car to transport food and equipment thereby reducing the gas used and the emissions from the vehicles.
We avoid using plastics that only have a short-term use. If plastic is necessary, like plastic bags to keep clothes dry in for example, we buy bags that can be used again, by the next tourist.
Whenever possible, we don’t buy any drinks in plastic bottles, opting instead for glass bottles or local paper packages. If buying plastic bottles can’t be avoided, we make sure the bottles are handed back to us for recycling and correct disposal.
We do not have a place to recycle batteries, therefore, we request our guests to take back batteries so that it can be recycled if the facility is available to them back home.
We prefer to boil and cool water for drinking rather than buying lots of plastic water bottles that will only increase the amount of waste.
We ensure that all our vehicles have an exhaust-gas analysis (emissions inspection) done. We walk to close by destinations instead of driving. Our itineraries adopt walking culture because walking tours are the best way to really explore and discover an area. By minimizing the use of vehicles, we can contribute in saving fuel and maintaining a sound environment, besides keeping ourselves in sound health.
I walk to office every day and use public transport to travel out of town. My contribution is small but nonetheless worthwhile and enjoyable
The Impacts of this Trip
We have a dedicated team of well trained local staff. Two guides, two drivers, one office manager, one office assistant, one cook and a camp assistant all of whom can perform their job at the office and in the field professionally and safely. We offer good salaries to our staff plus an exceptional new year bonus. All are staff have “personal accident insurance” against possible accidents at the office and in the field. We also have a Group Insurance scheme in place for staff medical/health emergencies. We have a retirement benefit scheme in the form of a Provident Fund account with the Royal Insurance corporation of Bhutan. We ensure that our staff our appropriately equipped for harsh weather conditions. We also make available a yearly clothing allowance because we require that everyone working on our tours is properly outfitted. Our guides and staff are the backbone of the organization and we could never run successful trips without their support.
We support our local organic producers by purchasing as much food for our tours as possible from the Centennial Farmer’s market and local groceries. We also support local advocacy groups by donating time and money to their good causes, especially with programs related to youth development in the country.
Our guided tours follow strict cultural procedures. Our groups are briefed on suitable behavior earlier to the tour departure. We want to preserve the culture of Bhutan that you've read about!
Many of the children who become monks come from economically disadvantaged homes, have a single or no living parent, or live with either their grandparents or other relatives. Therefore, the clergy is almost totally financed by the government. Limited resources spread thinly among all the institutes and monasteries pose a challenge in the provision of nutritious meals, hygienic and adequate living conditions, and quite often, even clothes. Our Buddhism Tours provide contributions in form of Monastery donations and offerings to spiritual leaders. The donations offered help in the provision of nutritious meals, hygienic and adequate living conditions and clothes.
Our role in promoting Responsible Tourism is small but meaningful and adds much to the preservation and promotion of our country’s unique cultural heritage, environmental preservation, promotion of sustainable development and establishment of good governance which are the four main pillars of Gross National Happiness, the sole guiding development principle of our country. It is our aim that visitors will appreciate Bhutan through its living culture and pristine environment and the people of Bhutan will in turn benefit from their interaction with our visitors.
Our walking tour programs are popular and have always been environmentally friendly. Our hiking trails fall within the Jigme Dorji National Park, the second largest protected area in Bhutan. Park fees generated from our walking trails received from each individual person on the hike goes to the Nature Recreation and Eco-tourism Division for the Department of Forestry to help manage and implement several conservation and livelihood development initiatives within and around the park.
The vehicle used for your transfer points will also transport food and equipment. We ask our guests understanding since in this way we can avoid using a separate car to transport food and equipment thereby reducing the gas used and the emissions from the vehicles.
We avoid using plastics that only have a short-term use. If plastic is necessary, like plastic bags to keep clothes dry in for example, we buy bags that can be used again, by the next tourist.
Whenever possible, we don’t buy any drinks in plastic bottles, opting instead for glass bottles or local paper packages. If buying plastic bottles can’t be avoided, we make sure the bottles are handed back to us for recycling and correct disposal.
We do not have a place to recycle batteries, therefore, we request our guests to take back batteries so that it can be recycled if the facility is available to them back home.
We prefer to boil and cool water for drinking rather than buying lots of plastic water bottles that will only increase the amount of waste.
We ensure that all our vehicles have an exhaust-gas analysis (emissions inspection) done. We walk to close by destinations instead of driving. Our itineraries adopt walking culture because walking tours are the best way to really explore and discover an area. By minimizing the use of vehicles, we can contribute in saving fuel and maintaining a sound environment, besides keeping ourselves in sound health.
I walk to office every day and use public transport to travel out of town. My contribution is small but nonetheless worthwhile and enjoyable
The Impacts of this Trip
We have a dedicated team of well trained local staff. Two guides, two drivers, one office manager, one office assistant, one cook and a camp assistant all of whom can perform their job at the office and in the field professionally and safely. We offer good salaries to our staff plus an exceptional new year bonus. All are staff have “personal accident insurance” against possible accidents at the office and in the field. We also have a Group Insurance scheme in place for staff medical/health emergencies. We have a retirement benefit scheme in the form of a Provident Fund account with the Royal Insurance corporation of Bhutan. We ensure that our staff our appropriately equipped for harsh weather conditions. We also make available a yearly clothing allowance because we require that everyone working on our tours is properly outfitted. Our guides and staff are the backbone of the organization and we could never run successful trips without their support.
We support our local organic producers by purchasing as much food for our tours as possible from the Centennial Farmer’s market and local groceries. We also support local advocacy groups by donating time and money to their good causes, especially with programs related to youth development in the country.
Our guided tours follow strict cultural procedures. Our groups are briefed on suitable behavior earlier to the tour departure. We want to preserve the culture of Bhutan that you've read about!
Many of the children who become monks come from economically disadvantaged homes, have a single or no living parent, or live with either their grandparents or other relatives. Therefore, the clergy is almost totally financed by the government. Limited resources spread thinly among all the institutes and monasteries pose a challenge in the provision of nutritious meals, hygienic and adequate living conditions, and quite often, even clothes. Our Buddhism Tours provide contributions in form of Monastery donations and offerings to spiritual leaders. The donations offered help in the provision of nutritious meals, hygienic and adequate living conditions and clothes.
3 Reviews of Buddhism cultural holiday in Bhutan
Reviewed on 31 Mar 2019 by Takashi Otani
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The people are amazing, not just those who work in the tourism or service
industries, but those you encounter at the local restaurant, bar or karaoke/snooker hall. The people are humble but proud of their country, kind
and generous while at the same time being strong and confident, and both
steeped in a Buddhist tradition while at the same time curious of what is happening all over the world as they have one hand on a smartphone.
Although I took the most pictures at Tigers Nest, what I remember the most
are the people I met in each city or village during my travels. As for the operator, this family run business took care of me like an extended family member and I was lucky enough to be invited for a home cooked family dinner.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you do not have a passport from India, Nepal or Bangladesh, then you will
need to use an official travel agency and the overall process is very much full service. However, if you are the individual with particular opinions and tastes with preferences on how to spend your days, as I do, then you should identify and communicate them during the reservation process. Although these travel agencies have standard packages advertised, there is room to make it very individualized. On my trip, although we kept the days and site visits the same, we changed up where we were eating and in one place, we switched where I would be staying.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
I went on a culture tour of Bhutan most interested in the influence of
Bhuddism in their society. I would say that the tourism and activities I participated in were beneficial to those supporting the industry, supportive to
the country as they receive a material portion of the daily rate a foreigner
must pay to be in the country, and the activities I participated in were rather
low impact to the environment. I did not do any trekking and I have heard
from other travelers who have trekked in other countries that those routes are
often littered with trash.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
This was a great trip and one I would like to do again in the next several
years. Bhutan received television and the internet in 1999 and so obviously
the amount of information flowing into the people over the last 20 years has
been unprecedented. For my next trip there, I will be as hands on as I am on
my other travels even though I will be going through a full service travel
agency. And for that trip, I will use the same operator again.
Reviewed on 12 Jul 2017 by Glenda Izumi
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The entire trip was simply awesome! It's difficult to choose a most memorable part. I completely appreciate the service and attention I received from my guide, Ugyen and my driver. I couldn't have asked for a more awesome two weeks. Every days was terrific, serene, and beautiful!
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
I whole heartedly recommend our tour operator. Be sure and let them know what you'd like to do, and I'm confident they will exceed your expectations!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Clearly, there was utmost respect for culture.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Couldn't have hoped for anything better!
Reviewed on 31 Mar 2017 by Myka Reinsch Sinclair
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The hikes outside Punakha!
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
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