Phobjikha

Phobjikha is a wide glacial bowl below the monastery of Gangtey, treeless and open in a country of forested ridges — a rare U-shaped valley, its floor a marsh of dwarf bamboo grazed by cattle and, in winter, by cranes. It is a designated conservation area, and the village power lines were laid underground rather than strung on cables across the birds’ flight paths.

Those birds are the black-necked cranes, which fly down from the Tibetan plateau to winter here between late October and February. By local account they circle Gangtey Goenpa three times on arrival and again when they leave in spring, and their return is marked each 11 November by the Crane Festival in the monastery courtyard, with masked dances performed in their honour.

Gangtey Goenpa itself is the valley’s anchor, a large Nyingma monastery on a forested spur. The Gangtey Nature Trail is an easy couple of hours down through the villages and across the valley floor, and the Black-Necked Crane Centre at the edge of the marsh keeps scopes trained on the roosting grounds.

Come in winter for the cranes — it is the whole reason the valley draws visitors — and dress warmly, because at 3,000 metres the nights are hard and the open bowl holds the cold. Outside the crane season the valley is quiet, green and almost empty.