National Museum of Bhutan
Bhutan's national collection, housed in the round 17th-century watchtower above Rinpung Dzong in Paro.
- Coordinates
- 27.429°, 89.425°
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The National Museum of Bhutan occupies Ta Dzong, the round watchtower built in 1649 on the hill above Rinpung Dzong in Paro. The building came first and shapes everything about the visit: the galleries are stacked in a circular tower with thick stone walls, so the museum is walked as a spiral rather than as a floor plan.
The collection
It became the national museum in 1968, and it holds the country's principal collection — thangkas, bronze and gilded statuary, ritual objects and masks, textiles, arms and armour, and natural-history material. Two galleries are the ones people remember: a curved wall of lit niches holding hundreds of small statues and stupas, and a wall of dark relief panels running around the tower's inner face.
The building was damaged in the 2011 earthquake and spent years under repair; the collection has since returned to the tower. Displays and opening arrangements change, so treat any specific gallery as something to confirm on the day.
Visiting
An hour to ninety minutes. It is a short drive or a steep twenty-minute walk up from Rinpung Dzong, and the two are always done together — the museum first, then down to the dzong, or the reverse. There is a painted gateway on the approach and a view over the whole Paro valley from the terrace. Photography is not permitted inside the galleries.
Location
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