Paro Dzong also called Rinchen Pung (Rinpung) Dzong and it means ‘a fortress on a heap of jewels’. The monastery looks very impressive and its massive buttressed walls tower over the town and the valley.
We take things around us for granted! The Paro river flows silently along the Dzong and offers a scenic view of the monastery. The traditional wooden bridge built over the river is called Nyamai Zam. The bridge is used as an access to the east side of the river and local residents use it daily to cross to the other side. I met a guy while taking pictures of the bridge. He said (paraphrased) “everyone who visits the temple spends time on the bridge taking photographs, but this is so regular to me that I don’t even see it!” Indeed, in my 25 years in Mumbai, I visited the Gateway of India twice and in my 2.5 years in Toronto I visited the CN tower umm.. zero times! 🙂
History: Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the unifier of Bhutan as a nation state ordered the construction of this dzong in 1644 CE. He is the same person who initiated construction of the Wangdue dzong too. The fort was used as a defense station and protected the town during several aggressions from Tibet.
Paro was our hub for next few days and we took trips to Cheli La and Tiger’s nest Monastery. So I visited the dzong on the first day, second day, third day… you get the idea.
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The night picture is amazing!
I know very little about this part of the world but I’d love to travel there. Looks like there are quite a few pictures opportunities 😉
Thanku! Tons of picture opportunities indeed! Everything is either beautiful or exotic or both!
The river looks charming.
The taking-things-for-granted is a common phenomenon I think. I have met a man in Agra who had not seen the Taj.
Oh my god, for real! Unbelievable!! What is the guy doing! I am sure he said something like “oh i planned so many times but just couldn’t get time to do it” 😀
What is the line of light below the monastery?
Arun, there are a number of stores of ‘this’ side of the river. So the lights may appear below the monastery but are at a distance across the river. Behind the shops is the river and on the other side of the river is the dzong. I hope you can picture the setting!
Wow. That fortress really stands out in the middle of everything! I liked the night picture, it looked like there was a heavy-traffic highway in the middle of the mountains due to the lights.
Thanks Jeruen! It looked nice from everywhere. The planned straight-line of lights makes a stronger impression that its like a highway 🙂
In your code, 00, 01, 02, right up to 09 or whatever, including 1.5, 2.5, and everything in-between…
😀 Mahendra you are very kind!
Love the view of the valley from the hilltop.
Do go up to the CN Tower and you’d like the thrill while stepping on the glass floor. If you feel the security to reach up is just too much, then you can do it the Dan Goodwin style..hehe.
Thanks Celine!
Yes, a visit to CN tower is overdue indeed….
[…] Archery: Bhutan’s National Sport This post is part of Mystic Druk Yul, a series of travelogues narrating my trip to Bhutan. Here are the other posts! Previous post: Different views of Paro dzong […]
I liked the first pic. It looks so majestic, like a queen sitting on her throne.
Ah! I like that metaphor, it indeed looks like that! 🙂
[…] The sun set and the place got chilly in an instant. We were waiting for a ride for almost an hour but there was absolutely nobody going to Paro, most vehicles were going to Haa – maybe from their work places in Paro? I thought that we missed a good time to catch a ride – we started in the afternoon, by then the peak traffic had subsided. By ‘peak traffic’ I mean 1 vehicle in 5 minutes in one direction! It was almost dark and we didn’t have sufficient warm clothes, but soon a Maruti 800 stopped, and there was a couple who dropped us back to Paro. […]