HA PP Y TOGE THER
Tradition meets modernity in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATE SIBER
A traditional dzong,
the center of monastic
and administrative life
(left); monks perform
a traditional tsechu
dance in Jakar (right).
O
on a sunny october morning, I sat in the cold
stone courtyard of a monolithic, white-walled, redand-gold-trimmed dzong, a monastic and administrative center, in the small burg of Jakar in central
Bhutan. Monks twirled and leapt through the courtyard with
three-foot-tall peacock-feather hats and hand-stitched harlequin
costumes with draping sleeves that nearly grazed my cheeks.
The breeze off their long skirts washed past my face and the
beat of their drums reverberated through my core.
On the periphery of the courtyard, among hundreds of
local Bhutanese villagers dressed in their finest silk ghos and
kiras, the national attire required by law, a dozen Western
tourists performed their own scripted ritual—they flashed
cameras, ran fingers through guidebooks, whispered and
exchanged nods with guides. They came for this four-day
series of dances, a tsechu, which the Bhutanese believe wards
off evil spirits for all who attend. The two spectacles were
equally compelling: It was as though I was watching a small
event i