Juneydrak Hermitage

Juneydrak is a hermitage built onto a cliff above Katsho village, about a kilometre north of Haa, holding what is held to be a footprint of Machig Labdrön. It is a 40-minute to one-hour climb each way; allow 1.5–2 hours for the outing. Entry is included in your tour.

The walk

From Katsho the trail follows the stream past the Chorten Dangrim mani wall — about fifteen minutes — to a two-legged archway chorten, then crosses the water and climbs through rhododendron forest. A red sign marks where you turn left and go up to the chorten at the hermitage entry.

It is a genuine mountain path and it climbs the whole way, starting around 2,800 m and finishing near 2,980 m. Moderate rather than hard, but there is nothing step-free about it at any point.

Above the hermitage, exposed log ladders run up the cliff and the trail curves round a bluff. Whether a visit includes them is not something any source states, so we are not going to imply it — ask us what your day actually involves before you plan around it.

The footprint, and what it is for

The hermitage holds a footprint attributed to Machig Labdrön (1055–1149 — some accounts give 1132), the Tibetan yogini who founded the Tibetan lineages of chöd.

Chöd is worth a paragraph, because it explains the building. In it, the practitioner offers their own body — visualising it cut up and given away — in order to cut attachment to the self. It is traditionally done alone, in places designed to produce fear: charnel grounds, and cliffs.

So this is not a viewpoint with a relic in it. It is a cliff because the practice needs a cliff, and standing on the ledge is the shortest route to understanding a strand of Himalayan Buddhism a dzong tour will never show you. Guru Rinpoche is also said to have subdued a demon here, which is the older layer under the same idea.

Locally, it’s the Tiger’s Nest of Haa

That is a marketing line and it oversells the scale — this is one small building, not Taktsang’s stacked complex. It is fair about the siting, and useful in one respect: if you want the sensation of a cliff monastery without the crowds or the three-hour climb of Taktsang, this is where you get it.

The site is also written Juneydrag, and the dzongkhag administration lists it as Jungney Drag.

Visiting

Shoulders and knees covered, long sleeves, shoes off before you enter. Ask before you photograph — this is somewhere people have chosen to live in isolation, not an exhibit.

Nobody publishes opening hours for a hermitage, and we are not going to invent them. Whether there is anyone there to open the door on the day you climb up is a question your guide asks before you set out.

March to May and September to November are the windows. The monsoon makes the climb greasy and the valley grey.

Carrying on to Katsho Goenpa

From below the hermitage a trail continues west along the hillside to Katsho Goenpa, a few hundred metres away, with the best views back over Katsho village on the way. It is a short extension and worth taking if the legs are willing.

How it fits a day in Haa

Juneydrak is the walk in a district otherwise made of temples and roadsides. Pair it with the white and black temples at the valley’s southern entrance and you have a full, well-balanced day, most likely arriving over Chele La from Paro that morning.

See things to do in Haa for how it compares with the rest of the district, and Bhutan for seniors and less-mobile travellers if anyone in the group would rather sit this one out — Haa has plenty that needs no climbing.