To this day, Bhutan has remained a little known, geographically and politically isolated nation in the world. The nation has successfully protected its natural world and cultural uniqueness from the invasion of haphazard modernization. It opened to tourism in 1974, but its carefully designed policy to attract quality tourists (those visiting Bhutan are required to spend 200 US dollars per day) coupled with its small population, and more than 60% of land under the forest cover makes it a pristine tourist destination naturally and culturally. As a result, Bhutan treks and Bhutan tours live up to the visitors’ quests for natural purity and cultural originality.
Religiously and culturally, the nation belongs to a branch of Mahayana Buddhism, locally termed Drukpa Kagyupa. Most of its hills, valleys, and mountains are imbued with myths and mythology of Buddhism. The most popular among them relate to Guru Padmashambhava’s visit of Bhutan in the eighth century B.C. Padmasambhava is known as the founder of the earliest sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the Nyingmapa sect. With numerous majestic monasteries standing on mountaintops, ancient forts, fertile myths, and tantric Buddhism, it is a nation deeply steeped into own culture, traditions, and religious belief.