Merak ( dz, མེ་རག་, me rag, size=150%) is a settlement and the headquarters of an eponymous gewog in the far east of
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...
. Merak is part of the Mera-Sakteng subdistrict (dungkhag) in the
Trashigang District
Trashigang District (Dzongkha: བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bkra-shis-sgang rdzong-khag''; also spelled "Tashigang") is Bhutan's easternmost dzongkhag (district).
Culture
The population of the district ...
. The people are widely known as ''
Brokpa
The Brokpa (), sometimes referred to as Minaro, are a small ethnic group mostly found in the union territory of Ladakh, India around the villages of Dha and Hanu. Some of the community are also located across the Line of Control in Baltis ...
'', meaning 'highlander'. The main activities of these highlanders are raising of the domestic animals. Until 2012, Merak could only be reached by a two-day hike. In 2012 a new road was constructed that shortened the hike to one day. According to local legend, the surrounding valley is inhabited by