Punakha Dromche

The Punakha Dromche (also rendered Drubchen, Drupchen or Drubchhen) is one of the most distinctive religious festivals in Bhutanese Buddhism. It is held each year at Punakha Dzong in central Bhutan during the first month of the Bhutanese lunar calendar, falling in February or March. Unlike the masked dances of an ordinary tshechu, the Dromche centres on a battle re-enactment that recalls the unification-era defeat of a Tibetan invasion and the recovery of a sacred relic associated with Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal.

The festival is sometimes presented as a single five-day event in tourist literature, but it is in practice a sequence of rituals beginning days earlier inside the dzong, opening to the public for the dramatic Pa Cham and Serda processions, and flowing directly into the Punakha Tshechu, which immediately follows. Together the two festivals draw some of the largest crowds of any religious gathering in Bhutan.

Origins

The historical event commemorated by the Dromche is a 17th-century war between Bhutan under Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal and Tibetan forces. Tibetan armies pursuing the Zhabdrung, who had broken with the Tsang government and fled south, attacked Bhutan on several occasions in the 1630s and 1640s. The Bhutanese repelled them at Punakha. A commemorative chapel was erected at Punakha Dzong in 1639 to house arms seized from the defeated Tibetans, and the rituals that became the Dromche grew up around this victory and around the relic the Zhabdrung was said to have brought from Tibet.^[1]

The relic at the heart of the festival is the Rangjung Kharsapani, a self-arisen image of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara said to have emerged from the cremation remains of Tsangpa Gyare, the founder of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage. The Zhabdrung is held to have carried it with him into Bhutan, and it is enshrined in the central tower (utse) of Punakha Dzong, displayed publicly only during the Dromche.

Pa Cham and the Pa Zor

The most famous element of the festival is the Pa Cham, a martial dance performed by some 136 dancers known as pazaps, dressed and equipped as 17th-century warriors. The Pa Cham re-enacts the rout of the Tibetan army at Punakha, ending in a procession down the front entrance of the dzong with whistling and shouting, in deliberate contrast to the disciplined silence of monastic dance.^[1]

The re-enactment culminates in the Pa Zor, a ritual performed by the Je Khenpo and the dratshang on the bank of the Mo Chhu, the river that runs past the dzong. According to the foundational story, when the Tibetans were defeated they demanded the return of the Rangjung Kharsapani; the Zhabdrung is said to have responded by casting an imitation relic into the river, leading the Tibetans to believe the original had been lost. In the modern Pa Zor the Je Khenpo flings oranges into the Mo Chhu in place of relics, an offering to the nāgas said to dwell in the river bed.^[1]

Serda and the Tshechu

The Serda is a procession of monks, lay officials and dancers leading the relic and the Zhabdrung's image through the dzong courtyard. After the Pa Zor and the Serda the Dromche transitions seamlessly into the Punakha Tshechu, the masked-dance festival that occupies the days that follow. The two festivals share liturgy, audience and venue, and are often described jointly as the Punakha Festival in tourism material, although their ritual content is distinct.

Other rites observed each year at the dzong in the same period include the Lhenkey Dungchhur, a service for the dead. Together these observances make Punakha one of the busiest dzongs in Bhutan during the first lunar month.^[1]

Date and attendance

The Dromche begins on the 9th day of the 1st month of the Bhutanese calendar and runs for several days before merging into the Tshechu. Because the dzong is the winter seat of the Zhung Dratshang, the central monastic body relocates to Punakha for the cold months, which makes the dzong unusually busy and richly staffed during the festival. Pilgrims travel from Wangdue Phodrang, Thimphu and further afield. The festival is among the public-facing observances most often photographed and described in foreign accounts of Bhutanese Buddhism.

References

1. Punakha Dzong — Wikipedia
2. Festivals — Department of Tourism, Royal Government of Bhutan
3. Coverage of Punakha Drubchen — Kuensel
4. Punakha Drubchen coverage — Bhutan Broadcasting Service
5. Drukpa Kagyu lineage and Rangjung Kharsapani — Himalayan Art Resources
6. Karma Phuntsho, The History of Bhutan, Random House India, 2013.