Attend a tshechu festival in Bhutan

A tshechu is the annual religious festival of a Bhutanese district. The word means tenth day, and the festivals are held on and around the tenth day of a month in the lunar calendar, in honour of Guru Rinpoche, the master who brought Buddhism to the Himalayas in the 8th century. Every district has one. They are the great social occasions of the Bhutanese year, and for a visitor they are the best window into the country’s culture.

What the experience is

The festival takes place in the courtyard of the dzong, the fortress-monastery that serves as the seat of both the monastic body and the local government. Over three or four days, monks and laymen perform cham, sacred dances in brocade costumes and carved wooden masks. Each dance is a teaching in the form of a story: the subjugation of evil spirits, episodes from the life of Guru Rinpoche, the judgment of the dead. Some require great stamina, with leaps and spins sustained for an hour or more. Between the dances, the atsara, masked clowns, tease the crowd and keep order with jokes that are far from solemn.

The audience is the other spectacle. Families come in their finest dress, the men in the gho and the women in the kira, woven in silk in patterns particular to each region, and they spend the day on the flagstones with picnics, children and grandparents.

The climax comes before dawn on the last day, when a thongdrel is unrolled down the wall of the dzong. This is an enormous appliqué image of Guru Rinpoche, as tall as the building itself, which is shown for only a few hours and rolled up again before the sun strikes it. To see it is believed to free the viewer from sin, and people queue in the dark to touch its lower edge.

The largest festivals are those of Paro, in spring, usually in March or April, and of Thimphu, the capital, in autumn, usually in September or October. Smaller tshechus in valleys such as Bumthang and Punakha draw fewer foreign visitors and can be more intimate.

When to go

The dates follow the lunar calendar and change every year; the national tourism authority publishes them well in advance. Flights and rooms for the Paro and Thimphu festivals sell out early.

Getting there

All visitors to Bhutan travel on arrangements made with a licensed operator or their hotel and pay a daily sustainable development fee. Flights arrive at Paro. Modest dress is expected inside the dzong, with shoulders and legs covered.

Why OKYTO recommends it

Because a tshechu is a living festival held for its own community and not for visitors, and to sit among the families in the courtyard is a privilege. It combines well with a circuit of the valleys, staying at lodges such as Six Senses Bhutan, or with a section of the Trans Bhutan Trail. See OKYTO’s Bhutan guide.