This inland mountain retreat, located on a 38-acre site atop a gently sloping blue pine tree-clad hill, overlooks the town of Paro in the valley below. At COMO Uma Paro, there are 20 rooms and nine villas (including one two-bedroom COMO Villa), fashioned by traditionally-trained Bhutanese artisans alongside Cheong Yew Kwan, architect of COMO Shambhala Estate in Bali. Cheong’s respect for indigenous styles accounts for the resort’s references to a local Bhutanese village. The landscaping is soft, with orchards, lawns and ramped pathways preserving the original contours of this rugged land. Each villa is loosely placed at different levels, in glades and clearings planted with azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and hydrangeas, giving the resort an organic, unstructured sensibility. Materials include stone, wood and tiles – handcrafted, using age-old techniques. The main building, formerly the home of a Bhutanese nobleman, forms the visual focus of the resort. Peach- flowering climbing roses decorate walls, and there are glorious magnolias. COMO Uma Paro is committed to developing wildflower meadows, organic gardens and more mixed species woodland, using oak, hemlock, fir and maple saplings. These measures are attracting an even greater number of birds than the existing blue pine forest.