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Bumthang, Bumthang · 27.5753°, 90.7336°
One of Bhutan's oldest temples, dedicated to Maitreya and ascribed to the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo in 659 CE, in the same group as the Jokhang at Lhasa and Kyichu in Paro. Padmasambhava is said to have visited it and King Sindhu Raja to have restored it; repaired and rebuilt many times since, it remains an active pilgrimage temple and hosts the Jambay Lhakhang Drup festival each October.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
The legend says Songtsen Gampo raised 108 temples in a single day across Tibet, Bhutan and the borderlands to pin down a supine ogress whose limbs were blocking the spread of Buddhism, this temple standing on one of those points.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Tibetan Empire
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…