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Bhutan13 Punakha Dzong2

Pungthang Dewachen Phodrang (Palace of Great Happiness) or Punakha Dzong was constructed in 1637 and believed to have been completed in a two-year time period. It is also the country's most beautiful Dzong. It is the winter residence of Bhutan's Central Monastic Body led by HH the Je Khenpo.

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Bhutan13 Punakha Dzong2

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  1. Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country in Asia. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, Bhutan is geopolitically in South Asia. Thimphu is its capital and largest city

  2. Punakha is located at an elevation of 1,200 metres above sea level and rice is grown as the main crop along the river valleys of two main rivers of Bhutan, the Pho Chu and Mo Chu

  3. Punakha Dzong was the second to be built in Bhutan and it served as the capital and seat of government until the mid-1950s. All of Bhutan's kings have been crowned here. The dzong is still the winter residence of the dratshang (official monk body)

  4. Jacaranda trees

  5. According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition based on the lineage texts regarding prayer wheels, spinning such a wheel will have much the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers

  6. The prayer wheels, placed a long way in the monastery have prayers inscribed in them and it is believed that spinning these wheels in a clockwise direction let the prayer flow in the air and spread peace, wisdom, compassion and happiness

  7. Punakha Dzong is 180m long and 72m wide and the utse (central tower) is six storeys high. The gold dome on the utse was built in 1676 by local ruler Gyaltsen Tenzin Rabgye. A brass roof for the dzong was a gift of the seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso

  8. In addition to its strategic position at the river confluence, the dzong has several other features to protect it against invasion. The steep wooden entry stairs are designed to be pulled up, and there is a heavy wooden door that is still closed at night

  9. The dzong is unusual in that it has three docheys instead of the usual two. The first (northern) courtyard is for administrative functions and houses a huge white chorten and bodhi tree

  10. In the far left corner is a collection of stones and a shrine to the Tsochen, queen of the naga (snake spirits), whose image is to the side

  11. huge white chorten and bodhi tree in northern courtyard

  12. A large Bodhi tree (the species under which Buddha meditated) occupies the northern courtyard (dochey)

  13. This tree is believed to have been grown from a cutting of the first Bodhi Tree – i.e. the tree that Prince Siddhartha (who went on to become Buddha) sat beneath whilst achieving enlighten-ment 2500 years ago

  14. The northern courtyard which is where all the main religious and communal activities take place

  15. The Punakha Dzong, also known as The Pungtang Dechen Photrang Dzong, literally translates to the 'palace of great happiness or bliss.' 

  16. Huge prayer wheel

  17. Mural in Punakha Dzong

  18. Ducks in a mural in Punakha Dzong

  19. Pheasant in a mural in Punakha Dzong

  20. The spirit of cooperation, parable of the four friends, mural in Punkaha Dzong. There is a very important fable in Bhutan Kalachakra in Punakha Dzong

  21. Black-necked cranes in Bhutan (Grus nigricollis) are winter visitors during late October to mid February to the Phobjikha Valley as well as Ladakh, India, and Arunachal Pradesh, India. They arrive from the Tibetan Plateau, where they breed in the summer

  22. They visit the Phobhjikha valley in large numbers, which is a declared protected area for the cranes, and also to other valleys in smaller numbers in central and eastern Bhutan

  23. The cranes, which were hunted in Bhutan until 1980, are now totally protected, with the government enacting a law under which any person killing a crane would invite a long jail sentence

  24. Black-necked Cranes are much revered and respected in all its habitat (Bhutan, China and India). Especially in Bhutan, Black-necked Cranes are revered as Lhab Bja or the ‘heavenly bird’ and often associated with luck and fortune. It also features in one of the most common paintings of Tshering Nam Dru The Six Symbols of Longevity as Bja Tshering. The bird is also the logo of Bhutan’s pioneer environ-mental NGO called the Royal Society for Protec-tion of Nature (RSPN) Black necked cranes in a mural in Punakha Dzong

  25. These elegant four-foot tall birds are one of the more rare members of the crane family

  26. The black-necked crane is revered in Bhutan as a symbol of longevity and the annual migration is a cause for great celebration, as residents mark the passing of another year against the arrival of these famously long-living birds

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