Zangto Pelri

Zangto Pelri stands in the middle of Phuentsholing, a few minutes from the border gate, with a garden around it. Twenty to thirty minutes covers it — it is a stop on a town walk rather than an excursion.

What is it?

A temple representing Guru Rinpoche’s paradise. That is what Zangdo Pelri means, and it is the one thing every source agrees on.

The square around it is where the town comes to sit in the late afternoon, which is the best reason to time your visit for the end of the day rather than the middle of it — in a town this hot, so does everyone else.

Who built it, and when?

We don’t publish an answer, and the reason is worth knowing.

The builder usually named for this temple is also the man credited with a different Zangto Pelri in Thimphu — the same person, the same decade, the same single sentence, attached to two buildings 176 km apart. The one encyclopedia that covers this district names no builder at all and dates it only to the century.

So the honest position is that we don’t know, and we would rather say so than repeat what is circulating. Ask us, and we’ll ask locally.

Is this the same Zangto Pelri I’ve read about elsewhere?

Probably not. Zangdo Pelri is a kind of temple rather than a single name — there is one in Thimphu, one in Samdrup Jongkhar at the other end of the country, and others besides. Travel sites mix them up constantly, sometimes inside a single page.

The one described here is the one in the centre of Phuentsholing.

See things to do in Chhukha for the rest of the district.