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LoadingThe principal Bhutanese monuments
The Bhutanese dzong is the country's distinctive architectural form — a fortified administrative and monastic complex, set on a high point above a confluence or a river bend. Each dzongkhag has its principal dzong; each carries centuries of continuous religious and civic life. Below: the founding, the history, the visiting protocol for the principal monuments.
Featured — the principal sites
Paro valley (10 km north of Paro town) · Paro · 3,120 m · founded 1692
Paro Taktsang — known internationally as Tiger's Nest — is the most sacred site in Bhutan and the country's most-photographed monument. The monastery clings to a 900-metre cliff face above the Paro valley at 3,120 metres elevation. Guru Rinpoche is held to have meditated in the cave behind the monastery for three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours in the 8th century.
Punakha valley (confluence of Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu) · Punakha · 1,200 m · founded 1638
Punakha Dzong — known formally as Pungtang Dechen Phodrang Dzong, the Palace of Great Happiness — sits at the confluence of the Pho Chhu (father river) and the Mo Chhu (mother river) in the Punakha valley at 1,200 metres elevation. Founded in 1638 by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, it served as the capital of Bhutan until 1955 and remains the winter residence of the Je Khenpo (the Chief Abbot) and the principal venue for state ceremonies.
Thimphu (western bank of the Wang Chhu) · Thimphu · 2,330 m · founded 1216
Tashichho Dzong sits on the western bank of the Wang Chhu in Thimphu at 2,330 metres elevation. The original dzong was founded in 1216; the present structure was reconstructed under His Majesty the 3rd King in the 1960s as the seat of the central government and the summer residence of the Je Khenpo (the Chief Abbot). It is the principal civic and religious institution of modern Bhutan.
Paro valley (above the Pa Chhu) · Paro · 2,280 m · founded 1644
Rinpung Dzong — commonly called Paro Dzong by international visitors — sits on a low hill above the Pa Chhu in the Paro valley at 2,280 metres elevation. Founded in 1644 by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal on the foundations of an earlier 15th-century fort, the dzong is the administrative and monastic centre of Paro dzongkhag and the venue of the Paro Tshechu, the country's most-internationally-attended festival.
Kuensel Phodrang ridge, southern Thimphu · Thimphu · 2,500 m · founded 2015
The Buddha Dordenma sits at 2,500 metres on the Kuensel Phodrang ridge overlooking Thimphu — a 51.5-metre seated bronze Buddha Shakyamuni, gold-plated, completed and consecrated in 2015. The statue is one of the largest seated Buddhas in the world and houses 125,000 smaller Buddha statues within its interior chamber. The project was conceived to fulfil an 8th-century prophecy of Guru Rinpoche.
Lobesa, Punakha valley · Punakha · 1,280 m · founded 1499
Chimi Lhakhang sits on a low hillock above the Lobesa rice fields, a 20-minute walk from the road south of Punakha. Built in 1499 by Lam Ngawang Choegyel and dedicated to the great 'Divine Madman' Drukpa Kunley, the lhakhang is the country's principal fertility pilgrimage site and the source of the phallus iconography seen on Bhutanese village houses.
All monuments — alphabetical