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29-495: Distinctive features include: Dzongs serve as the religious, military, administrative, and social centers of their district. They are often the site of an annual tsechu or religious festival. Typically half of the rooms inside a dzong serve administrative purposes (such as the office of the penlop or governor), while the other half is dedicated to religious purposes, primarily the temple and housing for monks. This division between administrative and religious functions reflects

58-408: A thongdrel - a large appliqué thangka typically depicting a seated Padmasambhava surrounded by holy beings, the mere viewing of which is said to cleanse the viewer of sin. The thongdrel is raised before dawn and rolled down by morning. Because tshechus depend on the availability of masked dancers, registered dancers are subject to fine if they refuse to perform during festivals. Padmasambhava,

87-422: A decreed number of workers to work for several months at a time (during quiet periods in the agricultural year) in the construction of the dzong. Dzongs comprise heavy masonry curtain walls surrounding one or more courtyards. The main functional spaces are usually arranged in two separate areas: the administrative offices; and the religious functions - including temples and monks' accommodation. This accommodation

116-489: A massive flood on the Pho Chhu, damaging the dzong and taking 23 lives. By tradition, dzongs are constructed without the use of architectural plans. Instead construction proceeds under the direction of a high lama who establishes each dimension by means of spiritual inspiration. Dzongs are built using corvée labor applied as a tax against each household in the district. Under this obligation each family provides or hires

145-420: A more complex structure than softwoods and are often much slower growing as a result. The dominant feature separating "hardwoods" from softwoods is the presence of pores, or vessels . The vessels may show considerable variation in size, shape of perforation plates (simple, scalariform, reticulate, foraminate), and structure of cell wall, such as spiral thickenings. As the name suggests, the wood from these trees

174-424: Is arranged along the inside of the outer walls and often as a separate stone tower located centrally within the courtyard, housing the main temple, that can be used as an inner defensible citadel. The main internal structures are again built with stone (or as in domestic architecture by rammed clay blocks), and whitewashed inside and out, with a broad red ochre band at the top on the outside. The larger spaces such as

203-450: Is due to the variety of characteristics apparent in different timbers, including density, grain, pore size, growth and fibre pattern, flexibility and ability to be steam bent. For example, the interlocked grain of elm wood ( Ulmus spp.) makes it suitable for the making of chair seats where the driving in of legs and other components can cause splitting in other woods. There is a correlation between density and calories/volume. This makes

232-529: Is from gymnosperm trees). Hardwoods are produced by angiosperm trees that reproduce by flowers, and have broad leaves. Many species are deciduous. Those of temperate regions lose their leaves every autumn as temperatures fall and are dormant in the winter, but those of tropical regions may shed their leaves in response to seasonal or sporadic periods of drought. Hardwood from deciduous species, such as oak, normally shows annual growth rings , but these may be absent in some tropical hardwoods . Hardwoods have

261-554: Is generally harder than that of softwoods, but there are significant exceptions. In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, with the range in density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods; some hardwoods ( e.g. , balsa ) are softer than most softwoods, while yew is an example of a hard softwood. The structural polymers of hardwoods are cellulose , hemicellulose , and lignin . The constituents of hardwood lignin differs from those included in softwood. Sinapyl alcohol and coniferyl alcohol are

290-515: Is one of the few shingle roofs to survive and was being restored in 2006/7. The courtyards, usually stone-flagged, are generally at a higher level than the outside and approached by massive staircases and narrow defensible entrances with large wooden doors. All doors have thresholds to discourage the entrance of spirits. Temples are usually set at a level above the courtyard with further staircases up to them. Larger modern buildings in Bhutan often use

319-453: Is rich in phenolic compounds, such as stilbenes , lignans , norlignans, tannins , flavonoids . Hardwoods are employed in a large range of applications, including fuel , tools , construction , boat building , furniture making, musical instruments , flooring , cooking , barrels , and manufacture of charcoal . Solid hardwood joinery tends to be expensive compared to softwood. In the past, tropical hardwoods were easily available, but

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348-466: Is unfurled with intense religious fervour, early in the morning. This painting measuring 30 metres (98 ft)×45 metres (148 ft) has the images of Padmasambhava at the centre flanked by his two consorts and also his eight incarnations. Devotees who gather to witness this occasion offer obeisance in front of the Thongdrel seeking blessings. Folk dances are performed on the occasion. Before sunrise,

377-610: The Paro tshechu are among the biggest of the tshechus in terms of participation and audience. They are related to traditions in other branches of Himalayan Buddhism , many of which have been banned in Tibet . The focal point of the tshechus are Cham dances . These costumed, masked dances typically are moral vignettes, or based on incidents from the life of the 9th century Nyingma teacher Padmasambhava and other saints. Typically, monks perform unmasked in certain group dances, including

406-475: The Bhutanese government listed five dzongs to its tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription in the future. The five dzongs are Punakha Dzong , Wangdue Phodrang Dzong , Paro Dzong , Trongsa Dzong and Dagana Dzong. Tsechu A tshechu ( Dzongkha : ཚེས་བཅུ། , literally "day ten") is any of the annual religious Bhutanese festivals held in each district or dzongkhag of Bhutan on

435-472: The Black Hat dance, while laymen perform masked, in largely different plays. The monks are generally very precise in their movement, while some roles played by laymen involve considerable athleticism (such as the leaping dog shown below, who repeats this move over and over again). Groups of women perform songs, with limited dance movements, in between the plays. Most tshechus also feature the unfurling of

464-461: The courtyard of the main dzong below (see image at head of article). Punakha Dzong is distinctive in that it is sited on a relatively flat spit of land at the confluence of the Mo and Pho Rivers. The rivers surround the dzong on three sides, providing protection from attack. This siting proved inauspicious, however, when in 1994 a glacial lake 90 kilometers upstream burst through its ice dam to cause

493-455: The dzongs are well-sited with regard to their function as defensive fortresses. Wangdue Phodrang dzong, for instance, is set upon a spur overlooking the confluence of the Sankosh (Puna Tsang) and Tang Rivers, thus blocking any attacks by southern invaders who attempted to use a river route to bypass the trackless slopes of the middle Himalayas in attacking central Bhutan. Drukgyel Dzong at

522-628: The expulsion of the ambans following the Xinhai Revolution in 1912. Today, 71 counties in the Tibet Autonomous Region are called dzong s in the Tibetic languages . Bhutanese dzong architecture reached its zenith in the 17th century under the leadership of Ngawang Namgyal , the 1st Zhabdrung Rinpoche . The Zhabdrung relied on visions and omens to site each of the dzongs. Modern military strategists would observe that

551-551: The first tshechu in Bumthang , where the eight manifestations of Padmasambhava were presented through eight forms of dances. These became the Cham dances depicting the glory of Padmasambhava. The dance schedule for each day of the four-day festival is set out and generally consists of the following dances. The last day of the four-day festival also marks the unfurling of the Thongdrel , a very large scroll painting or thangka , which

580-537: The form and many of the external characteristics of dzong architecture in their construction, although incorporating modern techniques such as a concrete frame. The campus architecture of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a rare example of dzong style seen outside the Himalayas. Initial phases were designed by El Paso architect Henry Trost , and later phases have continued in the same style. In 2012,

609-543: The great scholar, visited Tibet and Bhutan in the 8th century and 9th century. He used to convert opponents of Buddhism by performing rites, reciting mantras and finally performing a dance of subjugation to conquer local spirits and gods. He visited Bhutan to aid the dying king Sindhu Raja . Padmasambhava performed a series of such dances in the Bumthang Valley to restore the health of the king. The grateful king helped spread Buddhism in Bhutan. Padmasambhava organized

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638-545: The hardwood significantly differs from the softwood, and mainly consists of triterpenoids , polyprenols and other higher terpenes. Triterpenoids commonly purified from hardwoods include cycloartenol , betulin and squalene . Hardwood polyterpenes are rubber , gutta percha , gutta-balatá and betulaprenols. Although in small quantities, hardwoods also contain mono- , sesqui- and diterpenes , such as α- and β-pinenes , 3-carene , β-myrcene , limonene , hinokitiol , δ-cadinene , α- and δ-cadinols , borneol . Hardwood

667-411: The head of the Paro valley guards the traditional Tibetan invasion path over the passes of the high Himalayas. Dzongs were frequently built on a hilltop or mountain spur. If the dzong is built on the side of a valley wall, a smaller dzong or watchtower is typically built directly uphill from the main dzong with the purpose of keeping the slope clear of attackers who might otherwise shoot downward into

696-469: The idealized duality of power between the religious and administrative branches of government. Tibet used to be divided into 53 prefecture districts also called dzongs . There were two dzongpöns for each dzong, a lama and a layman. They were entrusted with both civil and military powers and are equal in all respects, though subordinate to the generals and the Chinese amban in military matters, until

725-558: The main monomers of hardwood lignin. Hardwoods contain less amount of non-structural constituents, named extractives , than softwoods. These extractives are usually categorized into three broad groups: aliphatic compounds , terpenes and phenolic compounds . Aliphatic compounds found in hardwoods include fatty acids , fatty alcohols and their esters with glycerol , fatty alcohols (waxes) and sterols (steryl esters), hydrocarbons , such as alkanes , sterols , such as sitosterol , sitostanol and campesterol . The terpene content of

754-790: The painting is rolled up and kept in the Dzong before it is displayed again one year later. Below is a list of major tshechus in Bhutan, along with their 2011 dates. Dates in other years will vary. The Bhutanese film Travellers and Magicians is set among a group of travellers, most of whom are going to the Thimphu tshechu. Hardwood Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests . In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous , but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen . Hardwood (which comes from angiosperm trees) contrasts with softwood (which

783-550: The supply of some species, such as Burma teak and mahogany , is now becoming scarce due to over-exploitation. Cheaper "hardwood" doors, for instance, now consist of a thin veneer bonded to a core of softwood, plywood or medium-density fibreboard (MDF). Hardwoods may be used in a variety of objects, but are most frequently seen in furniture or musical instruments because of their density which adds to durability, appearance, and performance. Different species of hardwood lend themselves to different end uses or construction processes. This

812-636: The temple have massive internal timber columns and beams to create galleries around an open central full height area. Smaller structures are of elaborately carved and painted timber construction. The roofs are massively constructed in hardwood and bamboo , highly decorated at the eaves , and are constructed traditionally without the use of nails. They are open at the eaves to provide a ventilated storage area. They were traditionally finished with timber shingles weighted down with stones; but in almost all cases this has now been replaced with corrugated galvanised iron roofing. The roof of Tongsa Dzong, illustrated,

841-549: The tenth day of a month of the lunar Tibetan calendar . The month depends on the place. Tshechus are religious festivals of the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism . Tshechus are large social gatherings, which perform the function of social bonding among people of remote and spread-out villages. Large markets also congregate at the fair locations, leading to brisk commerce. The Thimphu tshechu and

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