Tower of Trongsa (Ta Dzong Museum)

The Tower of Trongsa, known in Dzongkha as Ta Dzong ("watchtower fortress"), is a cylindrical tower standing on the hillside above Trongsa Dzong in central Bhutan. Built in the seventeenth century to guard the dzong, it was restored and reopened in 2008 as the Royal Heritage Museum, devoted to the history of the Wangchuck dynasty and of Buddhism in Bhutan.^[1]

History

The tower was built in 1652 by Chogyal Minjur Tenpa, the first governor (penlop) of Trongsa, to defend the dzong that would later become the seat from which the Wangchucks rose to national power. Its design includes surveillance points oriented to the four directions and shaped after the four celestial animals of Himalayan cosmology.^[2]

The Royal Heritage Museum

After restoration carried out with Austrian technical support, the Ta Dzong was inaugurated as the Royal Heritage Museum by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in 2008, a year that coincided with his enthronement, the centenary of the monarchy and the introduction of parliamentary democracy.^[1]

The museum occupies eleven galleries across five floors, displaying royal artefacts, religious objects and material that traces the link between the Drukpa Kagyu Buddhist tradition and the legitimacy of the monarchy. Two functioning chapels — one dedicated to the epic king Gesar of Ling, the other to the future Buddha Maitreya — preserve the building's continuing religious role.^[2]

References

1. "Ta Dzong Museum." Bhutan Cultural Atlas, College of Language and Culture Studies.
2. "Taa Dzong — Tower of Trongsa."