Although the number of Black Necked Cranes coming to their winter feeding grounds in Bumdeling, Tashiyangtse, fluctuates every season, this time the count is only 74 – down from 123 last winter, say Bumdeling wildlife sanctuary officials.
The Museum of Monarchy in the Tower of Trongsa, Trongsa Ta-dzong holds in trust for the nation, a collection of art and antiquities from ancient and living Bhutanese cultures. Housed in one of Bhutan’s architectural landmarks (Ta-dzong), the collection is one of the finest in existence, spanning centuries of human history on the kingdom.
What’s remarkable about this crystal-clear photograph of Drukyul Dzong, which is currently on display at the Rubin Museum in New York City, is that it was taken 105 years ago with a camera that is the size of an old TV set. And that the plate-glass negative on which the image was captured made it out of Bhutan’s rocky roads on the back of a horse.
“What’s your problem?’ Dorjee Lhatoo shouted in Tibetan, “We’ll all die if we carry on pushing towards the summit,” Lieutenant Chachu replied. The two men were a hundred feet below the summit of Mount Jhomolhari (Chomolhari – 24,000 ft) making their final assault to the summit.
Once a year a Dzong or an important village may hold a religious festival called a Tsechu. Villagers from the nearby villagest come for several days of religious observances and socializing while contributing auspicious offerings to the monastery of the festival.
Bhutan is a small landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas bordered by China in the North and India on the other 3 sides. Bhutan has a total land area of 38,394 square kilometers and measures approximately 150 kilometers North to South and 300 kilometers East to West. The landscape is characterized by rugged terrain and steep mountain valleys ranging from 150 meters in the sub-tropical valleys in the southern foothills, through temperate zone to heights exceeding 7000 meters in the alpine regions of the mountains.