Gomphu Kora

Gomphu Kora festival or also called Gom Kora Tsechu is held at Gom Kora temple.
Gom Kora lies in the heart of the agrarian belt of eastern Bhutan, about 23 kilometers from Trashigang Dzong. It is a sacred site where, around 800 AD, Guru Rinpoche subdued an evil spirit, that he had chased all the way from Samye in Tibet.

The Gomphu Kora festival at Gom Kora was initiated 400 years ago after the Lhakhang (temple) was built by Ngagi Wangchuck and consecrated by Terton Pema Lingpa. The place comes alive, once every year, when people from all over eastern Bhutan descend upon the narrow valley, dressed in fineries, to partake in the festivity, to worship and to reunite themselves with their illustrous past. Normally a desolate rock-scarred landscape, during the festival, the place comes alive with vibrant town. The main chore of this festival is that towards the evening, as dusk approach, thousands of people join in clockwise circumambulation of the temple and the holy rock, chanting prayers till dawn. The Gomphu Kora Tshechu is one of the biggest festivals in eastern Bhutan providing a welcome break for locals to trade, socialize, and celebrate before the start of the farming season. The festival draws people from remote villages, school children, village youths, businessmen, civil servants, and the Dakpa tribe in of Tawang, neighboring Arunachal Pradesh (India) who endure days of travel on foot amid rugged environs with entire families in town. Some say that Drakpas have done this for more than a millennium, beginning shortly after Guru Padmasambhava sanctified the place in the 8th century AD.