Tshechu, festival with deep religious themes and annually held in every dzong (fortress), is the most popular attraction for tourists. Tsechu displays the splendor of various religious dances, and locals take it as an opportunity to wash sins and gain merits.

Paro (in spring) and Thimphu (in the fall) tsechu attract the most tourists.

Religious festivals in Bhutan are numerous and the sacred and the best known is called the TSECHU. The Tsechu festivals are held every year in the honour of Guru Rimpoche, the “Precious Teacher” commemorating one of his great deeds. The celebration of the festivals are marked with great respect and all the Bhutanese people gather and participate in the religious ceremonies which can carry on for several days ranging from three to five days. The festivals are filled with dances that are well defined in religious content.

Some of the Tsechus end with the display of a huge Thangka painting called the “Thongdroel” like the Tsechus held in Paro, Punakha and Thimphu. It is believed that attending a Tsechu celebration one can obtain blessings and merits for better life and for life after death. It is also a yearly social gatherings of people in their finest clothes and beautiful jewelries. People from all over the districts near and far, some traveling by road and some on foot, will all gather to witness and participate in the festivity.

Besides dances, the crowed are utterly entertained by ATSARAS the “Clowns” whose expressive mask and postures are an indispensable elements in any religious festival. They confront the monks, toss out salacious jokes and distract the crowd with their antics.

The Dances at the Festival

The mask dances are part of Vajrayana heritage. The original motivation behind the theatrical performance of mask dances by monks was to liberate spectators by seeing them. A series of mask dances are performed to the accompaniment of musical instruments and ritual chants, once in a on a fixed date in monasteries and fortresses which are also residences of monks. Some of the popular mask dances are the dance of horoscopic animals, the dance of the black hatters, the dance of Drummers of Dramitse. The festival may include operatic performances based on the biographies of King Norzang, Milarepa and the Hunter Acho.

The ritual dances alternate with folk songs and dances presented by the young women and men from the villages, dances, folk songs and folk dances are completely different, with no similarity in their costumes and physical movements.