Gom Kora

Gom Kora sits on a terrace above the Drangme Chhu around a large black rock where Guru Rinpoche is said to have meditated and pinned down a demon that had fled into it. A temple was built beside the rock in the seventeenth century, and pilgrims circumambulate the rock along a narrow path. Various features are pointed out: the impression of the Guru's hat and body in the stone, a footprint, and a narrow tunnel through the rock that pilgrims crawl through as a test of sin, which is genuinely tight. A cypress in the courtyard is said to have grown from the Guru's staff. The Gom Kora festival in spring is one of the liveliest in the east, and is known as a courting occasion for young people from the surrounding villages.

What you actually see

• The black rock - the meditation site with its pointed-out impressions.
• The sin tunnel - the narrow passage pilgrims squeeze through.
• The temple - the seventeenth-century building beside the rock.
• The spring festival - dances and a well-known courting gathering.

When to go

March to May and October to November. The Gom Kora festival falls in spring, usually March, and fills the site. Otherwise the visit is short and quiet.

Honest expectations

The tunnel is genuinely narrow and not for anyone claustrophobic or large; people do get stuck. Photography inside the temple is forbidden. The site is small and takes under an hour outside festival days. It sits beside a road in a hot low valley.

Nearby

Trashigang lies south; Chorten Kora is north at Trashiyangtse.