Bhutan: A Journey With Inspiring Women 💛

Dawa: The guide who felt like a friend 🙏🏽✨

Our guide, Dawa, was one of those people you instantly warm to. She is a similar age to me, and very quickly it stopped feeling like a “guide and client” relationship and started to feel like travelling with a friend who just happens to know everything.

Her faith really struck me. Every time we visited a monastery or temple, she would quietly step aside to pray. She never made a big deal of it, but you could see how genuine it was: spinning the prayer wheels, bowing her head, whispering mantras. Watching her, I found myself slowing down too and really taking in where we were.

She is fairly new to guiding, but her passion made it feel as though she'd been doing it forever. She explained things so clearly, answered all our questions and did it all with this lovely mix of humour and warmth. She was always checking we were OK, topping up water, translating, making sure no one got left behind.

One of my favourite moments of the whole trip was on our last night. All week I had been telling her how much I loved her traditional Bhutanese outfit and how I really wanted to try one. That evening she turned up with a kira for me and patiently showed me how to put it on properly. There was a lot of wrapping, unwrapping and re-pinning involved!

Standing there, fully dressed in traditional Bhutanese clothing, with her fussing over the final details, felt really special. It was not just “trying on an outfit”, it felt like being invited into her world for a moment.

If I have a group travelling to Bhutan, I would absolutely love to send them her way. She is caring, funny, and her love for her country shines through. I really do hope our paths cross again.

Aum Karma: Land, textiles and a home full of heart 🌾🧵

In Punakha we visited a woman called Aum Karma. “Aum” is a respectful title in Bhutanese, like Madam or Mrs, and it fits her perfectly. She has this calm, grounded presence that makes you feel at home straight away.

Her place is called Gatshothang Happiness Fields Homestay, which already sounds like somewhere you want to be. To reach it, you cross a beautiful suspension bridge, with prayer flags fluttering and the river running below. By the time you walk up to her house, you already feel like you have stepped into a quieter, simpler world.

In Bhutanese tradition, it is often the daughter who inherits the land and property, and Aum Karma has taken that responsibility and turned it into something really special. She has opened her home as a homestay, welcoming travellers in, not in a polished “hotel” way, but in a genuine “this is my home, come and share it” way.

She cooked us a traditional Bhutanese meal and it was absolutely delicious: proper comfort food, full of flavour and warmth. 

On top of that, she is a respected expert in textiles and organic dyes. Her knowledge of colours, patterns and natural materials is incredible. She is so highly regarded that she has even catered for the current Bhutanese royalty, which gives you an idea of just how good she is at what she does.

What I loved most, though, was how much she cares about the next generation. She is not just keeping these skills to herself; she wants young people to learn them too. She runs classes and shares her knowledge so the traditions do not just disappear as the world modernises.

Time with her felt like a glimpse into Bhutan’s past and future at the same time, all held together by one very inspiring woman and her fields of “happiness”.

RENEW: Quietly changing lives in the background 💚

The third piece of the puzzle came through an organisation called RENEW, which supports vulnerable women in Bhutan. I found out about them when we visited the &Beyond Punakha River Lodge.

In the lodge lobby there were these beautiful woven baskets that immediately caught my eye. At first glance, they are just lovely decorative pieces. Then I learned that they are made by women supported by RENEW, and suddenly they meant something more.

It is such a simple idea on the surface: women create baskets, which are then sold or used in beautiful properties like the lodge. But behind each one is a story of someone rebuilding her life, gaining skills, earning an income and regaining confidence.

Even down to the headboards in the bedrooms, the women of RENEW had their craft seen around the property.

I really liked that it was not shouted about in a big, showy way. It was just quietly there, part of the space, doing good. For me, it summed up a lot about Bhutan: values are woven into everyday things.

What I brought home from Bhutan

I came back with the usual things: photos of mountains, monasteries in the mist, colourful prayer flags. But will also never forget the memories of these inspiring women:

✨ Dawa, whose faith and humour made the trip feel deeply personal.
✨ Aum Karma, who turned her inheritance into a home full of warmth, food and beautiful textiles.
✨ The women of RENEW, whose woven baskets carry stories of resilience.

Bhutan really stole my heart, not just for how it looks, but for how it feels and what it stands for. I fell in love with the country’s ethos, its calm confidence, and the way women are woven into every part of that story. 💛

If you would like to experience this side of Bhutan; meeting locals, walking over those suspension bridges and maybe even being wrapped into a traditional kira yourself, I would love to help you plan a trip that goes beyond the usual sightseeing and really connects you with the people of Bhutan.

Get in touch today to start planning an adventure you won't regret!

✉️ suvira.riza@travelcounsellors.com