Trekking, Himalaya, Environment

The Bhutanese Himalayas with their ice peaks reaching up to 7.500 meters ( about 25.000 feet) offer ideal possibilities of alpine trekking but also less strenuous lower altitude treks through untouched Himalayan forests. Besides experiencing the wonderfully preserved Himalayan nature, treks offer, as a special attraction, the visits of traditional villages, monasteries, temples as well as the different ethnic groups with their specific culture. In many of the large valleys, separated by steep mountain ridges and high passes, there lives a different ethnic group with distinguished physiognomy and language, housing and clothing. In these villages, the foreign trekker is a welcome guest as long as he or she shows the necessary respect for the culture and religion of the villagers.

One very particular and admirable feature of Bhutan is the exemplary preservation of the Himalayan forests. On adamant and energetic initiatives undertaken by H.M. the King of Bhutan, the protection of the Himalayan environment is rigorously implemented by the Bhutanese Government. Without this decisive policy, the Bhutanese forests would long have been cut down, the wood would have been exported mainly to India with her unlimited needs for this natural resource. Other Himalayan countries, with less or no determined policy for the protection of their environment, today only can dream nostalgically of their disappeared forests. The Bhutanese environment policy, in particular the effective protection of the Himalayan forest, has earned internationally high recognition and praise.