When it happens
Rongtse Nye Tshechu falls on a single day every year, the 10th day of the 10th month of the Bhutanese calendar.
Where it happens
Rongtse Nye is a nye (sacred site), not a dzong (fortress) or a public ground. It lies in Gakiling Gewog, in Sangbaykha Dungkhag in southern Haa, on a hill beside a river.
The nye is believed to be a secret abode of Guru Rinpoche and Khandro Yeshey Tshogyel.
It is a different place from the Sangbaykha Dungkhag ground, where the Rongtse Nye Festival is held.
History
After the pandemic lockdowns, Rongtse Nye became a destination for pilgrims from within Bhutan. In 2022 a guesthouse for more than 50 guests was built on leased land near the site, because visitors had camped there and left waste behind. Over 500 people from Thimphu and nearby districts were reported to visit the nye within a week.
By early 2023 the Organisation for Youth Empowerment, a civil society organisation, had employed over 20 mostly young workers to improve the nye’s surroundings, with support from the government and the United Nations Development Programme. They had already finished a trail between the Haa–Samtse highway and the nye, and were renovating an ancient trail to it. A cafeteria, a hot stone bath, a farm produce counter and a homestay were planned, to be handed over to those workers.
By April 2023 the rising number of devotees had helped Gakiling Gewog’s local economy and inspired locals to develop a second sacred site in Gakiling Gewog, the Khandro Dorji Phagmoi cave, about 20 km north of the nye.
By April 2024 a nine-member cooperative had formed to farm three greenhouses, funded by the same organisation with the Dungkhag Agriculture Section.
Being there
The nye is about three to four hours’ drive from Haa.
The road serving Sangbaykha Dungkhag is the Samtse–Haa Secondary National Highway. In June 2024 the road’s final 20 km, from Sangbaykha Dungkhag to Namchu Bridge in Samtse, was rough and passable only by four-wheel-drive vehicles during the monsoon.
Access to the area is fragile in heavy rain. In October 2025 five bridges on roads serving communities in Gakiling Gewog were washed away, and the area could be cut off again when heavy rains return.