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Phil's All Embracing Bhutan Slide Show
The Punakha Festival

Our journey to Punakha intentionally coincided with the beginning of the Punakha "Tsechu" (festival), which commemorates and recreates a battle scene of one of the three major invasions of Bhutan by Tibet. In one of the invasions, the Tibetans reached as far east as Punakha, only to have once again been beaten back by the Bhutanese. They employed two tricks in Punakha; one to use the numerous underground pathways of Punakha Dzong to make it appear they were more numerous in number, and another to throw a fake replica of a Chenrezig statue in the adjacent river that the Tibetans were trying to steal.

Tribes of nomads from the mountains come down to the Punakha Festival. Their dress and appearance make it clear that they're from a tribe different than the local Bhutanese.

They try to sell their little hats to the western tourists for ten dollars apiece.


If you followed my travelogue, you may remember the "warrior boys". These are weekend warrior soldiers who re-enact the battle with the Tibetans. When the real battle was over, the king at the time gave the warriors three days to do anything they want, which to warriors usually means rape, pillage and general mayhem. The warrior boys also re-enact this event by getting drunk, goosing women (severely), blowing off firecrackers and generally making asses of them selves, the Bhutanese version of the yahoo.



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