Trongsa Dzong — monastery
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Trongsa Dzong

  • 2 min read
  • 27.517° N 90.500° E

Interesting facts

  • The founder thought the rocky spur resembled a conch shell spiralling clockwise, and the dzong's name evokes a temple set firmly at the tip of the wheel of dharma.
  • According to legend, the founder also found a spring nearby where the protective goddess Palden Lhamo bathed with other dakinis.
  • Two British soldiers are said to have been held in the dungeon of the Ta Dzong watchtower during the Duar War of the 1860s.
  • The Ta Dzong was originally a heavily fortified six-storey tower with defensive galleries built into its thick walls.
  • Among the dzong's murals is a painted replica of Nepal's Swayambhunath stupa and a pictorial map of Lhasa.
  • The Temple of Chortens, on the site of the first 1543 shrine, holds sixteen paintings of the Arhats, the early disciples of the Buddha.
  • In 1853 Jigme Namgyal, father of Bhutan's first king, built the Demchog Lhakhang at the centre of the complex.
  • The monk community often moves for the summer to Kurje Monastery in the Bumthang Valley.
  • Bhutan's third king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, was born in 1928 in a small palace just above the dzong.
  • The dzong is on Bhutan's Tentative List for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Why it is worth it

Trongsa Dzong stretches along a narrow spur high above the gorge of the Mangde Chhu in central Bhutan, its buildings stepping down the ridge toward a sheer drop on the south that often disappears into cloud. It is the largest dzong in the country, a fortress, monastery and seat of district government in one, and for long periods it was the place from which Bhutan was, in practice, governed.

Tradition explains the choice of site. In 1543 the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuk, meditating in a nearby village, saw a light shining at the far end of the spur; taking it as an auspicious sign, he built a small meditation house there, and a settlement grew around it that was called Trongsa, "new village". His great-grandson, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the unifier of Bhutan, raised the first fortress on the spot in the 1640s and named it Chökhor Rabtentse Dzong. It kept growing: a Chenrezig temple was added in 1715, and in 1771 a whole complex including a temple of Maitreya.

Its position gave it power. The only road between eastern and western Bhutan once ran straight through the dzong's courtyard, so whoever held Trongsa controlled trade between the two halves of the country. Its governors, the penlops, came to dominate central and eastern Bhutan, and in 1907 the penlop Ugyen Wangchuck became the first King of Bhutan; by custom a future king still holds the title of Trongsa Penlop before he becomes Crown Prince. Badly damaged in the Assam earthquake of 1897, the dzong was repaired under the first two kings and restored again from 1999 with Austrian funding.

Inside is a maze of courtyards, passages and stairways on many levels, with as many as 25 temples, among them shrines to the tantric deities Yamantaka, Hevajra, Chakrasamvara and Kalachakra. The Maitreya temple keeps a clay statue of the Buddha of the Future given by King Ugyen Wangchuck, and the Temple of Chortens occupies the spot of the first temple of 1543, holding its founder's funerary stupa. Around 200 monks live here, and a printing house still produces religious texts from woodblocks. Above the dzong stands its watchtower, the Ta Dzong, now a museum. In December or January the northern courtyard hosts the Trongsa tsechu, a five-day festival of masked dances.

Getting there

The dzong stands in the town of Trongsa, capital of Trongsa District, on the main road across central Bhutan; the drive from the capital, Thimphu, takes about seven hours. The nearest airport is the domestic Bathpalathang Airport (BUT) at Jakar in Bumthang, about 25 km away in a straight line. The nearest international airport is Paro International Airport (PBH), about 107 km away.

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From the encyclopaedia

Trongsa Dzong is the largest dzong fortress in Bhutan, located in Trongsa in Trongsa district, in the centre of the country. Built on a spur overlooking the gorge of the Mangde River, a temple was first established at the location in 1543 by the Drukpa lama, Nagi Wangchuk son of Ngawang Chhojey. In 1647, his great-grandson Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, constructed the first dzong to replace it, called Chökhor Rabtentse Dzong with a shorter version of Choetse Dzong. It was enlarged several times during the 18th century; the Chenrezig Lhakang was built in 1715 and a whole complex, including the Maitreya (Jampa) temple, was added in 1771. The dzong has since been repaired on several occasions; it was damaged during the 1897 Assam earthquake and underwent extensive renovation in 1927 and 1999.

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27.51681, 90.50000per Wikidata