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Tongsa

Midway between Ha in the far west and Tashigang in the far east stands the striking Tongsa Dzong, ancestral home of Bhutan's royal family.

Both Ugyen Wangchuck, the Penlop of Tongsa who was elected the nation's first hereditary monarch, and his successor King Jigme Wahchuck, ruled the country from this ancient seat.

All four Kings have held the post of Tongsa Penlop prior ro being officially crowned, including the present king who was appointed Penlop in 1972, shortly before his succession to the throne.

A massive many leveled structure which slopes down the contour of the hill on which it is set, the dzong was built by Ngawang Namgyal in 1648 and later enlarged and decorated .

Because of its highly strategic position on the only connecting route between the eastern and western sectors of the central region, the Tongsa Penlop was able effectively to control the whole of the east for many centuries, even when civil war was ranging in the west. Among the Dzong's treasures is a magnificent collection of rhino sculptures.

Bhumthang, in the east of Tongsa, in the wide valley of Bhumthang, lies the Jakar Dzong. Legend says that when the lamas assembled to decide on a site for this dzong, a big white bird rose suddenly in the air and settled on a spur of the hill - and it was here that the "Castle of the White Bird" was built.

Tales of Padma Sambhava dominate the holy places of Bhumthang. The valley is home of the sacred Jampe Lkakhang and to the Kurje Monastery where the bodily marks of the Ruru remains to this days impressed on a solid rock face.

Both temples are believed to have been built around the 8th century by Sindhu Raja after Padma Sambhava had cured this ailing ruler and converted him to the Buddhist faith.

Bhumthang is also home of the great Buddhist teacher Premalingpa, to whose descendants the present dynasty traces its ancestry. Pemalingpa wa a blacksmith who was led by mystic forces to discover spiritual treasures at the bottom of the burning lake.

Not knowing how to spread the world contained in the treasures, he hid away until one night the Dakinis, or female heavenly spirits, revealed to him the power to Preach.

Legend tells that as he spoke flowers dropped from the sky and vanished into rays of light. Tashigang, in the far east of Bhutan, on the banks of the Dangme Chu, lies Tashigang, the hub of the region's largest and most important district.

Once the largest and most important district. Once the centre of a busy trade route with Tibet, Tashigang is today the junction of the east-west highway with the road which runs north from the foothill town of Samdrupjongkar.

The Tashigang Dzong, from which the whole of the eastern region was governed from the late 17th century until at the beginning of this century, stands on a steep ridge above the Manas River. The Dzong was built in 1667 by Chogyal Minjur Tempa, Bhutan's third Deb.

Mongar to the southwest is Mongar, next to Tashigang the second largest settlement in the east. Mongar is the site of one of Bhutan's newest dzongs, built in 1930 following the traditional architectural pattern handed down through time; without plans on paper or the use of any nails.



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