Chimi Lhakhang

Chimi Lhakhang was built in 1499 on a hillock where Drukpa Kunley, the fifteenth-century saint known as the Divine Madman, is said to have subdued a demoness. His teaching method was deliberately outrageous, using drink, sex and obscenity to puncture religious pomposity, and the phallus is his emblem, which is why the walls of houses in the villages around are painted with them and why shops sell carved wooden versions. Couples come to the temple to be blessed for children, touched on the head with a wooden phallus and an ivory bow kept there, and many return with the child later. The walk in crosses rice terraces from Lobesa, twenty minutes each way, through the village of Sopsokha where the painted walls are most concentrated.

The main sights

• The hillock temple - the 1499 building above the rice fields.
• Painted house walls - phallus imagery through the surrounding villages.
• The blessing - couples receiving the ritual for children.
• The field walk - rice terraces on the twenty-minute approach.

When to go

March to May and September to November. The rice terraces are green in summer and gold before the autumn harvest, which makes the walk in more attractive then. The temple is open year round.

Things to know

The phallus imagery is religious symbolism rather than a joke, though souvenir stalls have made a business of it; treating it as comedy causes offence. Photography inside is forbidden. The walk is easy but muddy in wet weather. The site is one of the busier stops in the valley.

Nearby

Punakha Dzong lies northeast; Wangdue Phodrang is south.

Key facts