Festival Tour

The Festivals in Bhutan are very colorful with colorful robes for mask dances and colorful attire with beautiful designs for cultural dances. It is also the social occasion where people will be dress up in their finest clothes that they have and get chance to be together with friends and families after busy work or harvest.  The festival is known as tsechu (meaning 10^th day of every month of lunar calendar) which is mainly celebrated as the birthday of Guru Rimpoche (Guru Padmasambhava), however tshechu time differs from place to place and temple to temple.

Tshechu consists of mask dances, cultural dances and other entertainments based on the mythological interpretation and oral history which has been pass down from generations.

Many people gather in the festival to get blessing from the glimpse of mask dances as Buddhist believes that having glimpse itself of the dances have benefit of getting lot of merits and to remove sins committed.

Buddhist teachings are imparted to the large gathering of the crowd through dramatization in the form of mask dances so that even the lay people can understand. Bhutanese believe in rebirth and karma (deeds) so in the dance of Intermediate state (Bardo) which showcase the life after dead and judgment by the lord of dead and accordingly sent to heaven, different realms or hells according to one’s accumulated deeds and sins committed during their lifetimes.

Visit Tshechu and festivals to have in depth understanding of Bhutanese culture and traditions

Schedule during Tshechu

Each day of the four-day festival is set out and generally consists of the following dances.

1. Dance of the Four Stags (Sha Tsam); Dance of the Three kinds of Ging (Pelage Gingsum); Dance of the Heroes (Pacham), Dance of the Stags and Hounds (Shawo Shachi) and Dance with Guitar (Dranyeo Cham)
2. The Black Hat Dance (Shana), Dance of the 21 black hats with drums (Sha nga ngacham), Dance of the Noblemen and the Ladies (Pholeg Moleg), Dance of the Drums from Dramitse (Dramitse Ngacham), Dance of the Noblemen and the Ladies (Pholeg Moleg) and Dance of the Stag and Hounds (Shawa Shachi)
3. Dance of the Lords of the Cremation Grounds (Durdag), Dance of the Terrifying Deities (Tungam) and Dance of the Rakshas and the Judgement of the Dead (Ragsha Mangcham)
4. Dance of Tamshing in Bumthang, Dance of the Lords of the Cremation grounds (the same dance as day 3), Dance of the Ging and Tsoling (Ging Dang Tsoling) and Dance of the Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche (Guru Tshen Gye).