Place · dzong & seat of government · Bhutan
Tashichho Dzong, Thimphu
The dzong above Thimphu, first built in 1641 on a site Ngawang Namgyal took over and rebuilt after a fire in 1870, and since 1952 the seat of Bhutan's government — the throne room, the ministries and the summer residence of the Je Khenpo, the country's chief abbot, in one walled fortress. Bhutan is the only state in the world where the government still sits inside a monastery, with monks and civil servants using the same courtyards.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.489, 89.635
Worth knowing
It was rebuilt in the 1960s without nails or written plans, in the traditional manner and under a master carpenter, which is why a working seat of government is also the largest demonstration of Bhutanese joinery.
Connections (1)
- Silsila lineageUrgelling Monastery, Tawang
Tawang and Thimphu belong to one religious geography that a border now runs through. Urgelling in Tawang is the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama, born in 1683 into a Monpa family of country that was culturally and at times politically tied to Bhutan; the Monpa still speak a Tibetic language close to Dzongkha's neighbours and build in the same idiom. Tashichho is where the Bhutanese side of that world is governed from, with the chief abbot in the same walls as the ministries.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Tashichho Dzong”. Bhutan Department of Culture records; Françoise Pommaret, Bhutan.
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