Eastern Promises
The river below thrashes with snowmelt as our car winds along Bhutan’s east-west highway, here a narrow road carved into the side of a steep valley. About 20 kilometers out from the pretty market town of Trashigang—the largest settlement in far eastern Bhutan—we turn off onto a country lane, navigating switchbacks through maize fields and pine forest en route to the mountaintop monastery of Drametse Lhakhang.
The rugged terrain and rough, stony stretches of road make for a heart-thumping
