Paro District (

Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...

: སྤ་རོ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Spa-ro rdzong-khag'') is a district (''

dzongkhag The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts ( Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and India on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas in South Asia. are the primary subdivisions of Bhutan. They ...

''), valley, river and town (population 20,000) in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

. It is one of the most historic valleys in Bhutan. Both trade goods and invading

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

ans came over the pass at the

head of the valley The head of the valley or, less commonly, the valley head, refers to the uppermost part of a valley.Leser (2005), p. 935. Description The head of a valley may take widely differing forms; for example, in highland regions the valley often ends i ...

, giving Paro the closest cultural connection with Tibet of any Bhutanese district. The dominant language in Paro is

, the national language. Paro contains the only

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

in Bhutan,

Paro Airport Paro International Airport ( dz, སྤ་རོ་གནམ་ཐང༌།, paro gnam thang) is the sole international airport of the four airports in Bhutan. It is from Paro in a deep valley on the bank of the river Paro Chhu. With surr ...

Geography

Paro District is bordered by

Haa District Haa District ( Dzongkha: ཧཱ་; Wylie: ''Haa''; alternative spellings include "Ha") is one of the 20 dzongkhag or districts comprising Bhutan. An alternative name for the district is "Hidden-Land Rice Valley." It the second least-populate ...

to the west, Tibet to the north,

Thimphu District Thimphu District (Dzongkha: ཐིམ་ཕུ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Thim-phu rdzong-khag'') is a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. Thimphu is also the capital of Bhutan and the largest city in the whole kingdom. Languages The ...

to the east, and

Chukha District Chukha District (Dzongkha: ཆུ་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Chu-kha rdzong-khag''; also spelled "Chhukha") is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. The major town is Phuentsholing which is the gateway city ...

to the south.

Administrative divisions

Paro Districts comprises ten village blocks (or '' gewogs''): * Doga Gewog * Dopshari Gewog * Doteng Gewog * Hungrel Gewog * Lamgong Gewog * Lungnyi Gewog * Naja Gewog * Shapa Gewog *

Tsento Gewog Tsento Gewog ( Dzongkha: བཙན་ཏོ་) is a gewog (village block) of Paro District, Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It ...

* Wangchang Gewog

Environment

Northern Paro District (the ''gewogs'' of Doteng and Tsento) contains part of

Jigme Dorji National Park The Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP), named after the late Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, is the second-largest National Park of Bhutan. It occupies almost the entire Gasa District, as well as the northern areas of Thimphu District, Paro District, Puna ...

and the

biological corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...

connecting it to

Torsa Strict Nature Reserve __NOTOC__ The Torsa Strict Nature Reserve (officially Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve) in Bhutan covers 609.51 square kilometres in Haa District, occupying most of its area. Founded along with other national parks in 1993 by decision of the ...

in neighboring

Cultural sites

Important cultural sites of Paro include: * Taktshang, or ''Tiger's Nest'', the most famous monastery and ancient highlights for the people of Bhutan. It was founded as a meditating cave by the famous saint Guru Padmasambhava in the early 8th century upon subjugating a demon and forcing him to take an oath to be the local protector of the region towards the very end. *

Kyichu Lhakhang Kyichu Lhakhang, (also known as Kyerchu Temple or Lho Kyerchu) is an important Himalayan Buddhist temple situated in Lango Gewog of Paro District in Bhutan. History The Jowo Temple of Kyichu is one of the oldest temples in Bhutan, originally bu ...

, which along with Jambay Lhakhang in central Bhutan is the oldest temple in Bhutan, dating to the 7th century. *

Drukgyel Dzong Drukgyal Dzong was a fortress and Buddhist monastery, now in ruins, located in the upper part of the Paro District, Bhutan. The dzong was probably built by Tenzin Drukdra in 1649 at the behest of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, to commemorate victory ...

, at the upper end of the valley, built to protect against invading Tibetans, but in ruins since a fire in the 1950s. * Paro Town, the single market town in the dzonghag which is booming (by Bhutanese standards) due to an influx of tourist dollars. *

Rinpung Dzong Rinpung Dzong, sometimes referred to as Paro Dzong, is a large dzong - Buddhist monastery and fortress - of the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school in Paro District, Bhutan. It houses the district Monastic Body as well as government administrative ...

, also known as Paro Dzong, the massive fortress/monastery which is also the administrative center of the dzonkhag. Scenes from the movie ''

Little Buddha ''Little Buddha'' is a 1993 drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, written by Rudy Wurlitzer and Mark Peploe, and produced by usual Bertolucci collaborator Jeremy Thomas. An international co-production of Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, ...

'' were filmed in and around this dzong. *The

National Museum of Bhutan National Museum of Bhutan is a cultural museum in the town of Paro in western Bhutan. Established in 1968, in the renovated ancient Ta-dzong building, above Rinpung Dzong under the command of His Majesty, the King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, the thi ...

, where visitors can learn about the culture of Bhutan.

Economy

Druk Air Drukair Corporation Limited ( dz, འབྲུག་མཁའ་འགྲུལ་ལས་འཛིན།), operating as Drukair — Royal Bhutan Airlines, is the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bhutan, headquartered in the western dzongkha ...

, the national airline of Bhutan, has its headquarters in Paro.

Paro Indian Military Base

Paro is the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

's second military base outside its territory, the first one being

Farkhor Air Base Farkhor Air Base is a military air base located near the town of Farkhor in Tajikistan, southeast of the capital Dushanbe. It is operated by the Indian Air Force in collaboration with the Tajik Air Force. Farkhor is India's first military ba ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

where India also renovated but did not occupy the

Ayni Air Base Ayni Air Force Base, also known as Gissar Air Base, is a military air base in Tajikistan, west of the capital Dushanbe. The base is jointly operated by the Indian Air Force and the Tajik Air Force. It is India's second overseas air base after ...

References

External links

Paro dzongkhag administration official Web site
{{Authority control Districts of Bhutan