The four-day festival is being observed in honor of the deity Chador (Vajrapani) whose statue is said to have appeared miraculously in a wool container of an old woman after Guru Rinpoche visited her house in Ura village. Guru Rinpoche had come to Ura as a beggar after the villagers implored him to cure a leprosy epidemy.

This sacred statue is kept the whole year in the house of the Lama of Gadan outside the village proper. It is said that when the statue arrived at Gadan, a snake rose from the place and escaped the valley. As Vajrapani is known for subduing the subterranean beings which are believed to afflict leprosy, the villagers knew the valley was freed from the curse.

The whole community participate to the festival in different capacities: women prepare food and drinks, young girls dance, present offerings and serve alcohol, men perform the dances and rituals, play musical instruments.

The first day statue of Vajrapani is taken out of its house in Gadan and brought in procession to the old woman house in Ura village and goes back to Gadan the last day of the festival. During this time, the caretaker of the statue and a central figure of the festival is the Gadan Gathpo (“the old man of Gadan”) who is at the same time a bawdy jester and the host of the festival. With a black wrinkled mask, dressed in dark woolen cloth and waving a wooden phallus, this figure has the heavy responsability of the smooth running of the festival.

Every afternoon, there is a ritual community gathering, the choja, where tea and rice are served accompanied by traditional songs.

During three days, mask dances performed by the gomchen (religious laymen) of Ura. These include the dances of the three kinds of Ging, Pholay Molay and the dance of the Drums from Drametse as well as Raksha marcham, the dance of the Judgement of the Dead, which is on the 15th day. This dance is followed by a procession of people carrying offerings and singing around the Ura temple courtyard.
On the 16th day, the Yakchoe ends with a general blessing of the public by the statue of Vajrapani and then goes back in a procession to Gadan.

A thangka of Guru Rinpoche presented by His Majesty the 5th King in 2010 is shown on the 15th day of the festival.
The mask dances were added to the Yakchoe some 75 years ago.

The festival itself is said to have been established in the 14th century but there is no historical text so far.

Activities linked to tourism are becoming an important aspect of the life especially in spring and autumn, which are considered the best seasons and provide employment mostly in family-run guesthouses and hotels, which have mushroomed in Bumthang.

In May-June, people from northern Bumthang are allowed to collect at high altitudes the famous medicinal fungus, which is called Yartsa Gumbu (Cordyceps sinensis). This fungus fetches very high price on international markets and provide a welcome supplementary income to the people.