BHUTAN’S SACRED DZONGS
MONUMENTAL DZONGS HOUSING MONASTERIES ARE UNIQUE TO THE BHUTANESE LANDSCAPE
These dzongs incorporates temples, monasteries and the headquarters of the government’s district administrations.
Magnificent dzong complexes were once found in Tibet and areas of the Himalayas with Tibetan influence. Today, most of these buildings are lost or in ruins; a few are restored as museums. It is only in Bhutan that we find the dzongs still in full use as much as in the past.
The dzongs have played a significant role historically, symbolised by the national language called dzongkha which laterally means ‘the language spoken in the dzongs’. When Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal rose to power in the 17th century, the dzongs facilitated his cause. Zhabdrung established a uniform code of law and the system of ruling the districts from dzongs.
The term dzong has a wide range of meanings. The etymology indicates an early beginning in the 8th century with a religious meaning, signifying a place where one is protected and the mind may flourish. A dzong was often just as simple as rock or a cave for meditation, a stronghold of mind power, of which Singye dzong in Lhuentse is an example. Dzong thus became a feasible term for rulers to describe their impressive buildings – especially since temporal power was always linked to spiritual power.
Sacred Architecture
There is sacred meaning in Bhutanese architecture. The elaborate roofs reflect the hierarchy and harmonious proportions, and sacredness of a building. The most important temples have a triple layered roof with a serthog (pinnacle) on top, while most temples are crowned by golden ornament called a gyaltshen (signifying a victory banner, one of the eight auspicious signs recognized in Buddhism).
The buildings also convey esoteric, hidden meaning. Dzongs were built as a compact model of the ideal Buddhist universe, the mandala, a sanskrit word literally meaning circle. The mandala indicates a centred space for ritual action, based emanation from and return to the centre, the most sacred spot. In this pattern, everything is interconnected and interdependent; from house to village to region to nation to the world and to the universe. The mandala concept is applied to all forms of planning and building.
In architecture, the mandala generally reflects a sacred enclosure, an ordered and protected space. The Buddhist tradition of the mandala mirrors an ideal cosmic diagram with Buddha’s divine palace in the centre. The outer buildings of dzongs form an enclosed perimeter wall, protecting the inner, consecrated space. Such sacred enclosures are marked with a red band, the kemar, around the top part of the walls.
Zhabdrung’s first dzong, Semtokha, initiated in 1629, follows the ideal mandala pattern, while later dzongs adapted this more pragmatically. One enters most dzongs from the outer, administrative area before proceeding to the more sacred, inner areas of temples and monastic cells. The transitions between the two parts are marked by the towering peak in the centre of the mandala palace, called the utse.
The ornaments carved and painted on the timber structures reflect the cosmic order of the mandala and other symbolic meaning. The architecture is, thus, both a representation and a revelation of the hidden presence of the divine.
Punakha Dzong
Historically, Bhutan’s dzongs had different statuses. The dzongs of the central government, Punakha and Thimphu, situated in the ‘inner’ area of Bhutan, were encircled and protected by the other, more ‘outlying’ dzongs. The three dzongs of Dagana, Paro and Trongsa followed closely in terms of importance, while the ‘outer’ circle was formed by the dzongs along Bhutan’s borders.
In the very centre was Punakha Dzong, established by Zhabdrung as his main palace and monastery in 1637-8, earlier than the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lamas in Tibet. Its origin is linked to a divine creation myth where the sacred plans were revealed to Zhabdrung in a dream. Zhabdrung’s office and private quarters were in the towering keep of the utse, and his earthly remains are kept in the impressive temple called Machen Lhakhang, next to the utse.
Punakha was the main seat of the government, and an alternating system was established where the government stayed for about six months in each of Punakha and Thimphu Dzongs. This practice was maintained until the 20th century. The clergy still maintains this seasonal migration practice today.
Punakha Dzong suffered from many attacks, fires, floods and earthquakes, but it was always rebuilt. After the last fire in 1986, the dzong underwent extensive rebuilding and appears more impressive today than ever before in its long history.
How the Dzongs Functioned
The dzongs were built on holy sites selected on the basis of geomancy and divination. They were strategically sound locations, providing protection during warfare. The dzongs’ cool and cavernous rooms also provided storage for the large amounts of grains and other products that were paid as taxes to the government until the 1950s.
The early dzongs represented a defensive architecture where the outer walls were closed off, opening up towards the inner courtyards. Recent rebuilding projects, such as those of Thimphu and Punakha dzongs, are opening up the facades of the fortress walls, adapting to the need for more light.
The district administration was organized in a sophisticated and hierarchical manner, headed by the dzong master, the Dzongpon, today called the Dzongdag, or district administrator. The dzongs are very much a male environment. Today, the administration includes female staff, but women’s access to dzongs has always been limited to the daytime only.
Rituals
The dzongs are interwoven in ritual practices. Rituals open to the public were initiated in the 1640s, and dzong courtyards gave space for huge gatherings open to all the inhabitants of the surrounding valley that were celebrated annually. These festivals were called tsechu, literally meaning the ‘10th day’ since they start on this auspicious day of the lunar month. The tsechus promote spiritual welfare for the population, which is fundamental in a Buddhist society.
Significance of the Dzongs Today
The dzongs evolved in the Himalayas through centuries of changing historical conditions. In Bhutan, they developed into magnificent building structures still representing the fulcrum of both religious and political power. The dzongs maintain an unbroken legacy of ancient architectural traditions, a heritage irretrievably lost in most parts of the Himalayas.
These traditions are important and potentially enriching for humanity, because they convey an understanding of what may be termed ‘different realities’, where non-material considerations play a more important role in cultural life and expression, compared to the very materialistic focus prevalent in most parts of the world today.
The term dzong, and all its sacred meanings, is still vibrantly alive in Bhutan.
By Ingun B. Amundsen, a Norwegian architect and conservator.