Nalakhar Tshechu

When it happens

Nalakhar Tshechu is a three-day festival held on the fifteenth to seventeenth days of the tenth month of the Bhutanese lunar calendar.

The three main days are usually preceded by a rehearsal day.

Where it happens

The festival is held at Ngang Lhakhang, a private village temple in Ngang village, in the Choekhor valley of Bumthang.

The temple stands next door to a noble house still presided over by descendants of its founder.

History

Lam Namkha Samdrup is recorded as the founder of Ngang Lhakhang.

According to tradition, Namkha Samdrup himself carved the two yak masks still danced in the festival. He is said to have wanted his Shinje (Lord of Death) dance to be distinguished from other bull-headed Shinje dances, and to have found the horns on a nearby slope known today as Horn Mountain.

The zhey performed here is often described as a survival from the time of the Zhabdrung, and the Bhutanese zhey tradition as traced to a tribute song performed for him in 1616.

Beh, the martial dance performed here, is often described as introduced by the Zhabdrung after the victory over Tibetan forces in 1639. Each of Bhutan’s eight regions is described as keeping its own version, with its own ceremonial language.

Rituals

The festival is a rabney (consecration festival), known locally as Ngangbi Rabney or Ngangbi Ramnyen.

Its distinguishing element is the zhey, performed by men of the noble families. They sit apart from the other performers and sing a cappella. One zhey work runs across four separate dances and takes roughly two hours. Zhey dancers are often described as wearing a headdress called Thoe, meant to mark the dancer as no ordinary person.

Sachak Namchak (“to break open both the ground and the sky”) is the festival’s local version of Shinje Yab Yum, the Dance of the Lord of Death and his Consort. It is danced in yak masks and opened by a monkey carrying an incense burner.

Beh is performed before honoured guests by dancers in red sheepskin headgear called Razha.

Being there

Unlike a tshechu at a dzong (fortress), Nalakhar Tshechu is run and sponsored by eight villages of the Choekhor valley around a private family temple. Its centrepiece is the zhey of the noble families rather than a state cham (masked dance) programme.

A six-hour hike runs from Ngang Lhakhang to Tahung.