Festivals

The tshechu calendar

Bhutanese festivals follow the lunar calendar, so their Gregorian dates move each year and are confirmed annually. The months below are the usual window, not a fixed date.

What a tshechu is

A teaching, performed

A tshechu is a religious festival held on the tenth day of a month in the Bhutanese calendar, in honour of Guru Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to the Himalaya in the eighth century. Masked cham dances are performed over several days by monks and trained laymen in a dzong or monastery courtyard.

The dances are not entertainment, though they are enjoyable. Each is a teaching with a fixed form and meaning — the Dance of the Black Hats clears the ground of malign influence, the Dance of the Judgement of the Dead stages the reckoning after death for an audience that takes it seriously. Between them, masked clowns called atsaras work the crowd and puncture the solemnity, which is part of the design.

Attendance is understood to generate merit, so the whole district comes. Families arrive at dawn with packed lunches and stay all day, the best clothes in the house come out of storage, and ordinary business stops. It is the single best day to be in Bhutan, and it is also the hardest day to get a hotel room.

Cham dance in motion at a Bhutanese festival

The calendar

When they fall

Dates move each year against the Gregorian calendar and are confirmed by the Department of Tourism. We reconfirm before any arrangement is made final.

Festival	Usual month	What it is
Punakha Drubchen & Tshechu Punakha Dzong	February or March	The drubchen re-enacts a seventeenth-century battle, with local militia in period dress, and is followed by the tshechu proper. Punakha is warm at that time of year, which the rest of the country is not.
Paro Tshechu Rinpung Dzong, Paro	March or April	The largest spring festival and one of the two biggest in Bhutan. Five days of cham dances, ending before dawn on the final morning with the unfurling of a giant thongdrel against the dzong wall.
Ura Yakchoe Ura valley, Bumthang	April or May	A village festival in the highest of the Bumthang valleys, centred on a sacred image carried in procession. Small, local, and almost entirely unvisited.
Kurjey Tshechu Kurjey Lhakhang, Bumthang	June or July	Held at the temple built around Guru Padmasambhava's meditation cave, on the anniversary of his birth. One of the few major festivals in the monsoon months.
Haa Summer Festival Haa valley	July	Cultural rather than religious — nomadic life, highland sports, traditional food and dress. A recent addition to the calendar and a good reason to be in Haa.
Thimphu Tshechu Tashichho Dzong, Thimphu	September or October	The country's largest festival. Three days in the dzong courtyard drawing people from across western Bhutan, preceded by the Thimphu Drubchen.
Jambay Lhakhang Drup Jambay Lhakhang, Bumthang	October or November	Held at one of Bhutan's oldest temples and known for the mewang fire ceremony on the opening night and the tercham, a dance performed in darkness. Photography is not permitted at the night rites.
Black-Necked Crane Festival Gangtey Goenpa, Phobjikha	November	Marks the return of the cranes to the valley, with dances performed by local schoolchildren and conservation groups. Usually held on a fixed calendar date rather than by lunar reckoning — confirm the year's date with us.
Trongsa Tshechu Trongsa Dzong	December or January	A winter festival in the great central dzong, with a fraction of the visitors of the spring and autumn tshechus.
Lhuentse Tshechu Lhuentse Dzong	December or January	Deep in the east, at the ancestral dzong of the royal family. Reached only by the long road north from Mongar.

Before you plan around a festival

Dates are confirmed each year and can change. Courtyard seating is public and unreserved — we will get you there early and your guide will find you a good position, but no operator can reserve a place for you, and anyone who says otherwise is not telling the truth.

Photography is generally welcome in the courtyard and generally not permitted inside temples. Some night rites, including those at Jambay Lhakhang Drup, are not open to photography at all. Hotels in festival valleys fill months ahead — tell us your year and we will check the dates and book early.

Journeys built around them

Two ways to see a tshechu

Masked cham dancers performing in a dzong courtyard during a tshechu

Festival 8 days · 7 nights

Courtyard and Mask

Built around a spring or autumn tshechu in the western valleys, with the dzongs, Taktsang and Punakha either side of the festival days.

Paro · Thimphu · Punakha
Easy to moderate

Villagers gathered at a festival in the Ura valley, Bumthang

Festival 9 days · 8 nights

Autumn Festivals of Bumthang

A village tshechu in the Bumthang valleys rather than a city one — smaller crowds, older temples, and the fire ceremony at Jambay Lhakhang.

Paro · Punakha · Trongsa · Bumthang
Easy

Or add a festival day to any other journey whose dates happen to fit.

Tell us your travel year

We will confirm which festivals fall in your window, tell you which are worth building a trip around, and book the hotels before they go.