New Delhi, Feb. 28 -- "Our food is hot but not spiced," Dechen Wangmo tells us gently, as we sit cross-legged on the wooden floor of her ancestral home. "It just uses chillies."

We are at a traditional Bhutanese farmhouse about half an hour from central Thimphu, along a winding mountain highway. The building, a manor of sorts, stands on a hillside overlooking the Thimphu Chu (river), opposite a steep escarpment. According to oral tradition, it was built in the 18th century and has been home to three Druk Desis-the secular administrative rulers of Bhutan-giving it a rare political lineage. For more than two centuries, it has sheltered generations of the same family. Today, Wangmo, the current matriarch, warmly hosts travellers like us for...