Museum on the Highway

If you are travelling to Thimphu and have half an hour to spare would you like to time travel three centuries back into Bhutanese history at Wangsisina? It’s not known when the house was exactly built but in 1788 the 19^th Druk Desi lived in that house, which is evident that the house existed even before that. The house remained a huge source of mystery for many years.

Just there!

When I was younger, every time we travelled that road someone in the bus would always tell a story about this huge house below the road. I heard different stories on different occasions ranging from legend to myth to folktales, all surrounding that massive house.

I heard there was a lake underneath the house where a wish-fulfilling mermaid lived. I heard a whole episode of Gasa Lami Singye story set in this house because it was said that Changi Bum Gylem was reborn in this house. It was also said that this house produced more Dashos than any other house. I vaguely remember another story involving the massive cliff on the other side of the river.

There is a lake below the house, if not beneath 

Now that the house is opened to public as a heritage museum anyone can visit and discover the inside of the 18^th century structure. The face of the house we see from the road was a recent addition after the road was built from above the house. Other than that nothing much seemed to have changed over the centuries. The house is facing the river, along which the tradition route runs and the architecture of the front is nothing like we see today. The architecture we see today in our villages must have evolved in the 19^th century.

Look at the architecture of the windows. 

As we walked into the courtyard of the house the first thing that overwhelmed us was the massive compound wall. It’s the tallest wall I have ever seen. The door, the staircase and every piece of woodwork and the walls showed the age of the house, and the deep craters on the railings and stairs told stories of generations of powerful families whose hands touched them.

Back of the house then.

Only half a century ago it was said that the family kept over hundred servants and given the size of the room that stored grains it’s no exaggeration. The massive compound walls and the remains of the numerous what-seemed-like servant houses told that it really did have an army of servants. Why not, the house was seat of three Druk Desis and other prominent figures since 1788.

1788: Druk Tenzin, 19^th Desi 

1792: Tashi Namgyel, 20^th Desi

1805: Sangay Tenzin, 23^rd Desi

But more than the generations of powerful male members the house was known for the female members with the title Wangsisi Chum (Rich Lady of Wangsisna). Six generations of Wangsis Chum are recorded after 1805; They were Chimi Wangmo, Tandin Bidha, Dargom(1911), Phub Sithu(1927), Sangay Dema(1948) and Dechen Wangmo, who is currently living there with her children. Her children are the 12^th generation of the family. Perhaps one of these ladies must be the reincarnation of Changi Bum Gylem that I heard of.

History is in everything

The best part of the museum is that it hasn’t changed anything at all. Everything is left as it is. To cater to visitors they have built a dinning room outside the campus wall that can accommodate over 30 guests at a time.

Visiting Museums in Bhutan

I have seen too little of the world outside Bhutan but that little experience away from home awakened my appreciation for the depth of our own country. Now I desire to travel deeper in our own country and its history than anywhere away.

Isn’t it sad that we have nothing much written down as history. We say we are rich in oral literature and history but if you realize, much is lost in transmission from one mouth to another and one generation to another. More than losing is the threat of manipulation as stories travel through time.

What hasn’t been changed, what hasn’t been altered are the stories stored in objects from the past. But sadly those stories are collecting dust in museums, and much of what people had in their homes have flown to Nepal through black market routes and rest are waiting in the handicraft shop to be sold out to western tourists.

So considering that our villages are transformed, though even if they were intact not many of us spend time there, museums are our only hope of finding original stories that are rarely heard, or never heard in its truest form.

Sometimes the mystery of our unclear history is frustrating but other times it turns out that the same mystery defines what Bhutan is. It is that desire to explore the unknown, which makes life all so meaningful for some of us. It’s the urge to travel in back in time and not just live life forward but also add a backward dimension to life. Life becomes so much bigger.

While time machine called museum is as cheap as Nu.20 per adults and Nu.5 for students; a pizza can fund a class of 40 students to any museum in Bhutan but in my 7 years on Facebook I have seen thousands of pictures of children posing with pizzas but not a single picture of child posing outside a museum.

Paro Penlop Dawa Penjor Heritage Farmhouse, one of the private museums I visited was confused when my group asked for visiting fee. They have never received any Bhutanese visitors and therefore haven’t thought of an entry fee for Bhutanese. The lady was so happy to receive the first group of Bhutanese visitors that she offered us ara and suja like she did for fee paying tourists, all for free. We were so touched the we offered no less than any tourists.

Dear parents take your children for swimming to given them the best physical exercise, take your children to a library for the best mental exercise, and take your children to a museum to exercise their imagination. Take them back in time because so many answers they may seek in the future are buried in the past.

Following is a list of Museums I have visited. It’s just a list for now, specifics of each will be written in the following blogs.

• National Museum of Bhutan, Paro
• The Tower of Trongsa, Trongsa
• Paro Penlop Dawa Penjor Heritage Farmhouse, Paro
• Folk Heritage Museum, Thimphu
• Simply Bhutan, a Living Museum, Thimphu
• Druk Home Museum, Paro

*BookMyTour has a museum specialised travel guide to help you in case you are planning a museum tour in Bhutan

National Museum of Bhutan

The Tower of Thongs

Druk Home Museum

Paro Penlop Dawa Penjor Heritage Farmhouse

Simply Bhutan, A Living Museum

Folk Heritage Museum

Haa Dzong in The Parliament

From Drukgyel High School to Paro College of Education my friends Kinley Wangchuk (Takta) used one line to silence me in every debate we had, much out of context at all times: "You Haap, who don't even have a Dzong should just shut up." This is just one among many jokes about me coming from Haa and Haa not having Dzong.
I would ask, "What's in a Dzong?"
But over the years time and age taught me what's in a Dzong; It's the identity of the place, symbol of unity, sentiments of people, storeroom of history, illustration of cultural heritage, and therefore it's everything for the people of the place, but suddenly it felt so hallow realising we don't have our Dzong.
To add to the misery our entire administrative body is housed in an ordinary traditional structure that is no bigger than my village house, it's so ordinary that no one seemed to have cared to photograph it and load it on internet. I could not find one picture of our administration house.

Haa Wangcuk Lo Dzong is the original Haa Dzong. It was initially called Dumcho Dzong Sarpu meaning new Dzong. It's been occupied by Indian Military Training Academy for more than half a century.

Wangchuk Lo Dzong- The Dzong in Question

While I thought Haa Wangchuk Lo Dzong was built in 1913 right after the old Dumcho Dzong was destroyed by fire, which is during the reign of first king Ugyen Wangchuk and when Gongzim Ugyen Dorji was Haa Drungpa but blogger Wangcha Sangay, who should know better, wrote it was "... built by the people of Haa during the time of the 2nd King. It was initiated by Deb Zimpon Sonam Tobgay (Son of Gongzim Ugyen Dorji)" Then it should be much later than 1913. (Click here to read this history of Old Haa Dzong)

Watercolor of Wangchuk Lo Dzong

It was during the time of Prime Minister Jigme Palden Dorji that the Dzong was provided for temporary occupancy to IMTRAT as an interim measure to answer accommodation problem in Haa. The BBS report suggests that Dzong became IMTART headquarter in 1988, Do they mean officially?Because by any calculation IMTART was there before 1964, the year Jigme Palden Dorji Passed away. And following is an extract from Wangcha Sangay's blog that confirms that that it was occupied way before and also the King's words to people of Haa.

In 1970 or early 1971 any way it was When His Majesty the King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck came to Haa for the inauguration of Haa to Chhuzom motor road. In his Public Address to the people of Haa His Majesty the King confirmed that the Dzong and the area surrounding the Dzong belonged to Haa and the Bhutanese Nation. It was not sold nor leased to the Indian Military Training Team ( IMTRAT ). -wangchasangey.blogspot.com

I would like to thank our representative in the National Council, Honourable Tshering Dorji for asking Home and Cultural Minister about our Dzong. When the minister said, "I cannot say exactly when the Dzong would be returned to the people." He means to say that it's a very sensitive issue but I wonder why people even think that it's sensitive and would have negative impact of our friendship with india.
It's true that Indo-Bhutan friendship is more important than any structure, therefore it's about mutual respect and respecting a friendly nation's cultural sentiments. IMTART doesn't need our Dzong, they just need space to function. They know how important our Dzong is to us and therefore relocating them elsewhere should be fairly acceptable to them. 

Wangchuk Lo Dzong- A long time Ago

It's perfectly timed reminder by Dasho Tshering Dorji to his colleague in the Parliament Dasho Kinley Om who made this very promising promise during her election campaign to get back our Dzong. She made it seem so possible. People believed in her. People voted her to power, now she should bring result. And like I believe, the issue is not sensitive, IMTART understands and trust our country's intentions, and they can empathise with our people's sentiments attached to Dzong. It's just matter of approaching from the right direction. Finally I hope and pray Lyonpo Damcho will have more confirming and responsible answer to give next time.



P:S: The BBS Report on this issue seems to indicate they have a misconception that Lhakhang Karpo is going to a replacement of sort for Haa Dzong, which I hope is not on anybody's mind and in any plan. And talking about Lhakhang Karpo, it reminds me of the people who are involved in stealing even from the Lhakhangs. I pray to Ap Chundu to leave no guilty man free!

Rural Heritage Museum in My School

Much of what I had seen in my village as a boy has disappeared over the years. The rural heritage gave way to modern conveniences so easily within these three decades. Even during my days in school we had children who grew up away from their roots and had no idea of the life in countryside. Now we can only imagine how ignorant this generation of children will be about our roots.

Sometimes I wish we could preserve a village, freeze it in time, untouched by the forces of change, to be a standing history of our ancestors. But our hard past could hardly withstand the luxury of modern life. We have changed faster than we feared. Even yesterday is too far away. No village will agree to this idea.

A few year down the line we won't be able to distinguish a Bhutanese home from a western home, we can't do it already in the urban homes. Soon our original heritage will become a piece of memory dying with the last generation or a few pages of some books written by foreign writers.

I am going do a little something to leave behind what I have in my memory in a form of a School Museum in Bajothang. All thanks to my friend Ugyen Tshering for the inspiration. I have begun a new Club called 'School Museum Club' with 22 culturally rich children. We are going to create a house of rural history in our school. We have the perfect building in the center of the campus, which carries lots of history with it to house our idea.

This will be the Museum (Click on the pic to read about it)

In few months we would have renovated the interior of the house to make it look like a typical village home and furnish it with the artifacts that we are collecting now. Our search for exhibits are devided into four categories- Kitchen, Store, Personal, and Outdoor. Four teams are on it.

Our Basic list of Exhibits (Understandable to ourselves)

We are researching and creating picture catalogue of our target collection, but some excited children already came with some interesting items. I can already see it happening. I have called my mother to help me extend my list and to gather old stuffs from my village. She is already on it just like some parents of my club members.

Collection begins...

The whole project will be executed with no fund at all. There are few things that might cost money in doing this, rest will be about passion. The house makeover might cost few thousands, for which I have word from a friend. If you wish to support us please donate old artifacts. 

I will tell you when everything is done, then bring your children over to show them our rural heritage.