Konchogling: a hilltop within a living landscape.

Gelephu Mindfulness City is being established in southern Bhutan as a new model in which economic transformation and mindful living reinforce one another. Dewachen gives this ambition a sacred and cultural centre of gravity.

The Centre is conceived as a major sacred landscape institution, not only a temple. It will serve devotees, practitioners, residents, spiritual seekers and learning communities while giving physical form to GMC's spiritual dimension.

The site combines a hilltop and gently sloping land with extensive views across the valley. Existing cultivated plots, areca nut trees and forest edges give the master plan a living structure to work with rather than erase.

The subtropical monsoon climate makes water management, shade, natural ventilation and resilient planting central design matters. Padma Lake, streams, swales and recycled water are intended to work as ecological infrastructure as well as spiritual landscape.

The visitor sequence is planned as a gradual movement from active arrival and orientation areas to learning spaces, a sacred threshold, the central temple and increasingly quiet places of contemplation and retreat.