"A hilltop temple where Bhutan's Divine Madman dissolved the boundary between sacred and profane"
Chimi Lhakhang
Oomtekha, Punakha District, Bhutan
Chimi Lhakhang sits on a round hillock amid rice paddies in the Punakha Valley, reached by a twenty-minute walk through fields. Built in 1499 on the site where the unconventional saint Drukpa Kunley subdued a demon with his 'thunderbolt of wisdom,' the temple has been a place of fertility blessings for over five centuries. Monks tap visitors on the head with a wooden phallus in a gesture that is at once playful and deeply serious.
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Quick Facts
Location
Oomtekha, Punakha District, Bhutan
Tradition
Site Type
Year Built
1499
Coordinates
27.5271, 89.8781
Last Updated
Mar 9, 2026
Learn More
Built in 1499 by Ngawang Chogyal, the temple honors the unconventional saint Drukpa Kunley, whose use of sexuality, humor, and irreverence as spiritual teaching methods challenged orthodox religion.
Origin Story
Drukpa Kunley, known as the Divine Madman, wandered fifteenth-century Bhutan and Tibet teaching through behavior that deliberately violated religious convention. At this hillock in the Punakha Valley, he subdued a demoness from the Dochu La pass using what he called his 'Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom,' trapping the demon in a rock. His cousin Ngawang Chogyal, the 14th abbot of Ralung Monastery, built the temple in 1499. The fertility blessing tradition grew from Drukpa Kunley's broader teaching that the body and its powers are not obstacles to enlightenment but vehicles of it.
Key Figures
Drukpa Kunley
The Divine Madman — wandering saint whose unconventional methods blessed the site and established its character
Ngawang Chogyal
14th abbot of Ralung Monastery; cousin of Drukpa Kunley; built the temple in 1499
Spiritual Lineage
The temple belongs to the Drukpa Kagyu school. Drukpa Kunley's lineage represents the 'crazy wisdom' tradition within Vajrayana Buddhism, in which realized masters use shock, humor, and transgressive behavior to cut through spiritual pretension and transmit direct understanding.
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