Punakha Dzong

Punakha Dzong — Pungthang Dechen Phodrang, the "Palace of Great Happiness" — is the building by which all other dzongs are measured. It stands on a tongue of land at the meeting of two rivers, the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu (the "father" and "mother" rivers), its whitewashed walls rising six stories straight from the water, its golden roofs framed in spring by a haze of lilac jacaranda blossom. Bhutanese and visitors tend to agree: this is the most beautiful fortress in the kingdom.

The Zhabdrung's masterpiece

The dzong was raised in 1637–38 by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the lama-statesman who unified Bhutan, and it is the second-oldest and second-largest dzong in the country. From here the Zhabdrung ran his new state, and Punakha remained the seat of government until the capital moved to Thimphu in the 1950s. His embalmed remains still rest in a sealed chamber inside, attended by monks; alongside are the most sacred relics of the Drukpa Kagyu school, including the Rangjung Kasarpani, a self-arisen image of Avalokiteshvara carried off from Tibet in the 17th century.

The winter capital of the monks

Punakha sits low — about 1,200 meters, warm enough for rice and bougainvillea — and so every winter the Je Khenpo and the entire central monastic body migrate here from Thimphu, as they have for centuries, making the dzong Bhutan's winter religious capital. Arrive between roughly November and April and the courtyards hum with hundreds of red-robed monks; in summer the building half-empties and echoes.

Where kings are made

Every monarch of Bhutan has been crowned in this dzong since Ugyen Wangchuck, the first king, in 1907 — and in October 2011 the present king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, married Queen Jetsun Pema here before the relics. Each February–March the dzong hosts the Punakha Drubchen and Tshechu, the drubchen famously re-enacting the 17th-century battles in which Bhutanese militia turned back Tibetan invasions — costumed warriors and all.

Visiting

You enter across a traditional cantilevered wooden bridge over the Mo Chhu and climb a steep entrance stair designed to be defensible. Inside are three courtyards, a hundred-pillared assembly hall, and some of the finest murals and woodwork in Bhutan. Pair the dzong with the walk to the Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten upstream and the long suspension bridge over the Pho Chhu — both easy half-day additions from Punakha. More fortress-monasteries: dzongs and monasteries.