Sample Itinerary

Itinerary varies from term to term and is subject to change. Program activities take place 6 days a week with one day free.

• Week 1: Welcome to Bhutan! Move into dorms, meet roommates and the SFS staff, and attend program orientation. Tour Paro Town. Head to Thimphu (capital city) – cultural performance, lecture on embodying cultural landscapes, visit to textile museum. Get fitted for kiras and ghos – the national dress of Bhutan. Visit the gigantic Buddha Dordenma. Lectures on Himalayan forest types, biodiversity, and land use. Visit a sawmill and learn about handmade paper.
• Week 2: Attend a tshechu (festival). Expedition to the Punakha Valley and the Wangdue Phodrang District. Stop at Dochula Pass. Visit numerous forests, temples, and archaeological sites with lectures on alpine life zones, forest management challenges, and natural resource conflict. Species ID activity and field exercise looking at Gross National Happiness and community forests. Raft the Punakha River. Traditional Bhutanese hot stone bath.
• Week 3: Continue expedition further west to Phobjikha Valley. Lectures on black-necked cranes, high-altitude forests, agrarian landscapes, and The Middle Path. Field exercise on forest resource inventories and socio-economic surveys to explore the link between forests and livelihoods. Return to Paro. Bhutanese cultural dance activity.
• Week 4: Explore the forests around the Center and learn about species interaction, biodiversity conservation, and climate change. Bhutanese cooking class. Final exam. Hike to famous Tiger’s Nest (Takstsang) Monastery. Re-entry exercises and room cleanup. Closing activities. Head home.

SFS 3580 Eastern Himalayan Forests and Biodiversity

The SFS-Bhutan summer program is a 6-week interdisciplinary, field-based course where students study a country and region characterized by dramatic mountain landscapes and rich flora and fauna. Traveling through Bhutan, our SFS group will learn about culture and history, religious traditions, environmental issues, and conservation policies. Students will stay in Bhutanese villages and trek across Himalayan landscapes to experience and understand local environments and rural livelihoods. Academically, students will also develop skills in assessing environmental problems, defining research questions, conducting field research, and communicating results. Students will learn camera trapping, forest measurement and landscape reading skills. Moreover, SFS students will come to appreciate the complexity of identifying and addressing conservation and development issues in a rapidly changing region.

SFS partners with the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment Research (UWICER), an international research and training facility in Bumthang, Bhutan and the Bhutan Ecological Society (BES), a Civil Society Organization promoting environmental sustainability in Bhutan. SFS students and faculty will collaborate with UWICER and BES to advance their research agenda in several priority areas, including forest management, community resource assessment, and development policy.

View Syllabus