A first-timer's guide to tshechu festivals

Every year, dzong courtyards across Bhutan fill with colour as communities gather for their tshechu — a festival honouring Guru Rinpoche, who brought Buddhism to the Himalaya.

Dancers in black hats and red and gold costumes whirl across a stone-paved ground beside the white walls of a dzong, watched by a crowd packed onto stone terraces and the dry hillside above — Spectators fill the terraces and hillside around the dance ground at the Paro Tshechu, April 2006. Photo: Stephen Shephard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

The masked dances

The heart of every tshechu is cham: sacred masked dances performed by monks and laymen. Each dance tells a story — the triumph of good over evil, or the journey of the soul after death.

Masked dancers in a dzong courtyard: one in a flowing blue brocade robe and red mask spins mid-step while others in orange collars and leopard-print skirts beat hand drums, with families seated under yellow drapes — The Ging and Tsholing dance at the Jakar Tshechu in Bumthang, and the Black Hat dance with drums at the Paro Tshechu. Photos: Arian Zwegers, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab); Stephen Shephard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

A dancer in a wide-brimmed black hat crowned with gold ornaments and a brocade costume turns mid-dance holding a hand drum, as spectators in gho and kira watch from behind a wooden rail — The Ging and Tsholing dance at the Jakar Tshechu in Bumthang, and the Black Hat dance with drums at the Paro Tshechu. Photos: Arian Zwegers, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab); Stephen Shephard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

Tourism Bhutan’s short film from the 2022 Thimphu Tshechu shows the dances in the courtyard of Tashichho Dzong and the crowds who come to watch them.

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Masked dances at Tashichho Dzong during the Thimphu Tshechu.

The thongdrel

On the final morning of many festivals, a giant appliqué thangka is unrolled across the dzong wall before sunrise. Simply seeing it is believed to cleanse one’s sins.

A giant appliqué image of Guru Rinpoche hangs across one side of a dzong courtyard while lines of schoolgirls in green jackets and striped kira file past it on a wet stone floor — Schoolgirls file past the Guru Rinpoche thongdrel at the Jakar Tshechu in Bumthang, October 2013. Photo: Arian Zwegers, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab)

At the Paro Tshechu the thongdrel (the name means liberation by the sight of it) goes up at 3am on the fifth day. It is carried in procession from the dzong to the festival ground at Deyangkha, covers a three-storey building, and is taken back before sunrise. Its embroidery shows Guru Rinpoche’s eight manifestations and his two consorts.