Genekha Matsutake Mushroom Festival

Genekha, an hour's drive from Thimphu, is often called the birthplace of Bhutan's mushroom culture, and its August matsutake festival, locally known as Sangay Shamu, was created to promote sustainable foraging alongside tastings of the prized matsutake and chanterelle mushrooms that grow in the surrounding forest. Organized with Bhutan's Department of Agriculture and the National Mushroom Centre, the two-day event mixes produce stalls with school performances and traditional games rather than temple ritual.

Genekha village, roughly an hour outside Thimphu, has built its identity around a mushroom most visitors have never heard of: matsutake, a wild forest fungus so prized in Japan that it commands high export prices, and one that grows abundantly in the pine forests surrounding this Thimphu-district village.