Tshechu festivals

A tshechu is a festival held on the tenth day of a lunar month in honour of Guru Rinpoche, and almost every dzong in the kingdom holds one. For three or four days the fortress courtyard fills with families in their finest kira and gho, monks in brocade masks, and the long low call of horns from the ramparts.

The cham dances are the heart of it: slow, circling, centuries old, each one a teaching about death and rebirth or the triumph of good over obstacles. Between dances the atsara clowns tease the crowd and bless babies with wooden phalluses. Nobody hurries. Picnics appear, and so do the valley's grandmothers.

On the final morning, before dawn, a thongdrel is unfurled down the face of the dzong, a silk appliqué so large and so sacred that seeing it is said to cleanse a lifetime of sin. It is rolled away before the sun can touch it. Festival dates follow the lunar calendar and shift each year, so we plan around them early and verify yearly.