Rinpung Dzong

Start at the river. Before you climb to the fortress, stand on the covered wooden bridge and listen. Below you, the Paro Chhu runs fast and cold over grey stones, carrying water down from the high Himalaya. The planks under your feet are worn smooth. Above the far bank, white walls rise in steep, slanting tiers, and the wind moves through prayer flags somewhere out of sight.

This is Rinpung Dzong. Its full name is usually translated as the fortress on a heap of jewels. A dzong is a form of building found across Bhutan. It is part fortress, part monastery, and part seat of government, all under one roof. Monks pray in one courtyard. Civil servants sign papers in another. That double life is still running today, and you are walking straight into it.

The bridge itself deserves a moment. It is a traditional cantilevered design. Timber beams step out from each bank, layer upon layer, until they meet over the water. A roofed gallery protects the wood from rain. The bridge you are standing on is a reconstruction. An earlier one was lost to floodwater in the twentieth century. The method, however, is old, and it is the same method Bhutanese builders have used for centuries to cross mountain rivers.

The fortress took its present form in the 1640s, under the Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal. He was a Tibetan lama who came south and unified the scattered valleys of western Bhutan into a single state. He built a chain of dzongs to hold that new state together. A smaller fortress already stood on this spur of land. The Zhabdrung replaced it with something far larger, and Paro became one of the strongholds that guarded the country against invasion from Tibet.

Look up at the walls as you climb. They lean inward slightly, so the building seems to grow narrower as it rises. They are thick and whitewashed, and they carry very few windows near the base. Higher up, the windows open out into rows of carved and painted timber. That pattern made sense for defence. Attackers faced blank stone below. Defenders looked out from the wooden galleries above. Near the roofline, look for a broad band of deep red. In Bhutan, that band marks a building of religious importance.

Here is something many visitors miss. The building you see is not exactly the building the Zhabdrung knew. In the early twentieth century, a fire swept through the fortress and destroyed much of it. The people of the valley rebuilt it in the traditional style, with timber, stone, and pressed earth. So the shape is old, and the craft is old, but many of the beams around you were cut and carved long after the founding. Fire was a constant danger in buildings made largely of wood.

Pass through the main gate and you enter the first courtyard. This is the administrative side. The offices of the Paro district work here. On a weekday, you may see officials crossing the flagstones in the gho, the knee-length robe worn by Bhutanese men, with a long white scarf draped over one shoulder. That scarf is called a kabney. Its colour signals rank. Wearing it inside a dzong is a mark of respect, and it is still expected of Bhutanese visitors.

Before you go further, look at the walls of the entrance passage. Dzongs often carry large painted images here, and this one is no exception. Watch for the Wheel of Life. It is a great circle held in the claws and teeth of a fearsome figure. Inside it, small painted scenes show the realms of rebirth, from gods to hungry ghosts. The painting works as a teaching. It shows, in pictures, the cycle that Buddhist practice aims to break.

At the heart of the complex rises the central tower, called the utse. It separates the administrative courtyard from the monastic one beyond. The tower is the tallest part of the fortress, and it holds shrines and chapels. Around it, the monastic courtyard is quieter. You may hear chanting from an upper room, or the low tone of a long horn. You may catch the smell of butter lamps and incense drifting from a doorway. Young monks in maroon robes sometimes cross the stones between lessons.

Once a year, in spring, the fortress fills with people for the Paro Tshechu. This is a religious festival held in honour of Guru Rinpoche, the teacher credited with bringing Buddhism to Bhutan. Monks and laymen perform masked dances in the courtyard. Families come from across the valley in their best clothes. On the last morning, before sunrise, a giant painted cloth is unrolled near the fortress. It is called a thongdrel. Seeing it is believed to bring great blessing, so crowds gather in the dark to wait.

A second surprise, for film lovers. The fortress appeared in the 1993 film Little Buddha, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Its courtyards and galleries stood in for scenes set elsewhere in the Himalayan world. Few people who watched that film knew they were looking at a working district office in western Bhutan. Today, the officials and monks carry on in the same rooms, with no cameras in sight.

Now turn and look up the hillside. Above the dzong stands a round, watchtower-like building. This is the Ta Dzong. It was built to guard the main fortress from attack. In more peaceful times it was converted, and it now houses the National Museum of Bhutan. Together, the two buildings show how the valley was once defended. The fortress held the river crossing. The watchtower held the high ground behind it.

As you walk back toward the gate, slow down. Notice the brass prayer wheels and the hands that have polished them. Notice how the courtyard stones are hollowed in places by centuries of feet. Notice the light on the white walls. It changes from cool blue in the morning to warm gold by late afternoon. This is not a museum frozen in place. It is a building that people still use every day, for prayer and for paperwork.

When you reach the bridge again, stop in the middle and look back. The fortress rises over the river, white and red against the green of the valley. The water below sounds exactly as it did when you arrived. Monks, clerks, farmers, and travellers have crossed these planks for generations, and today you are one of them. Take a breath of the mountain air before you step off the far end.