Punakha

Punakha Dzong stands at the meeting of the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu, the father and mother rivers, in a fertile valley of western Bhutan. Its name, Pungthang Dewachen Phodrang, means the Palace of Great Happiness. The fortress became a seat of Bhutan’s government and monastic community, joining religious and temporal authority beneath its walls.

Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal laid its foundations in 1637, and construction was completed the following year. Tradition recounts that the master builder Balip received the design in a dream inspired by the Zhabdrung. A monastic institution was established in the new dzong, which also housed the sacred Ranjung Karsapani relic. In 1680 Gyelse Tenzin Rabgye enlarged the assembly hall to accommodate the growing community of monks. The fortress thus stood at the heart of the state created under Ngawang Namgyal.