The Paro Tsechu

Overlooking most towns in Bhutan there is a Dzong or fortress. In the old days they served the same purpose as castles in Europe. They were built at strategic points in the landscape and were to guard the surrounding area. The local area warlord has his headquarters there and the dzong was bristling with soldiers. Today Bhutan doesn’t need defensive dzongs (unless China decides to exercise its military might like they did in Tibet – but then India may have something to say about that!) Dzongs now are part-administrative centre for the local area and part-monastery.

Paro has quite an impressive dzong sitting up on the hill so we walked up the long, steep path to the fortress. It was our first taste of being in the Himalayas and walking uphill at altitude. It was the 4^th day of the Paro Tsechu or festival and all the locals were out in force in their best national dress. Lots of people were already there but we managed to get a good view in the first row of the standing section. I decided I preferred to stand rather than sit as I can’t sit cross-legged with no back support and there wasn’t room for western legs to spread out in the crowd.

The first few dances were quite boring with only a few dancers or just some singers singing tuneless and uninspiring songs. The costumes of the dancers were interesting though and all wore elaborate masks. There were 3 ‘clowns’ wandering around who were amusing the crowd with their antics. There was another macabre-looking figure dressed in black with a fearsome mask. He was collecting money from the audience, including westerners. He was so intimidating in his garb that you had to give him a little note to make him go away. Our guide said that he was driving away the evil spirits but got to keep the money he collected!

It was almost as interesting ‘crowd-watching’, as there were lots of extended family groups and little children around. Even the little kids were in national costume and they looked so cute. One thing I noticed was the lack of smoking and discovered that smoking is illegal in public places in Bhutan. Anyone caught smoking is liable to 3 years imprisonment. It is very difficult to buy cigarettes in Bhutan and you can only import a small number when you come in to the country.

After about 2 hours of standing the Dance of the Dead started and that was far more interesting with musicians, a lot more dancers and an elaborate effigy of the God of the Dead brought out to much fanfare. This dance was more like a play and told an elaborate story, although it was hard to follow from the guide we had and the dance went on for 2 hours.

There were a number of officials present sitting in the VIP room. Cloth sashes denoted their seniority eg red + sword for a government minister and green for a judge. High up in a window overlooking the arena was the local llama presiding over the festival. Apparently we missed the King (yellow sash) who had turned up the day before. He is quite young, in his early 30s, and not yet married, although he has a girlfriend that he will marry soon. He’s the 5^th king. The King believes in meeting his people and he went and sat in the crowd and talked to the locals.

We broke for lunch and went back down the long climb to the car and the hotel. The food isn’t that great at the hotel. There’s enough of it and very nicely cooked and flavoursome but the protein element leaves a lot to be desired. The meat is tough and of poor quality and the chicken and the fish is full of bones. I think with the latter two they just cut up the meat haphazardly and cook it up. I am avoiding the protein and just having the vegetarian options.

In the afternoon we headed back to the dzong for a dance designated as World Heritage. We had forfeited our front row standing position so had to find an alternate viewing point. We climbed up a hill above the dance ground and perched precariously on the hillside. We stood through some local dances and more singing before the World Heritage dance came on. When it did it was disappointing. There were some complicated steps but we were not educated enough to be able to appreciate it.

We left the dzong and headed out for a walk through the valley with our guide, an extremely knowledgeable fellow with a Master’s degree in Economics from Auckland University. He led us up a steep hill to a ridge from where we had a good view of the valley. The fields were growing wheat and once that was harvested they would plant rice. We walked around the village and back to the hotel for an early night as we have to get up early tomorrow.

Our room is nice and spacious and warm – overly so at night. The taps have a mind of their own and need jiggling to turn them off.