Punakha District ( Dzongkha: སྤུ་ན་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Spu-na-kha rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising

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 mountainou ...

. It is bordered by

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city ...

Gasa GASA Group (''Gartnernes Salgsforeninger''; "co-operative marketing organisations") is a Danish company that imports and exports flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Founded in 1929 as a fruit, flowers and vegetable auction co-operative, the mul ...

, and

Wangdue Phodrang District Wangdue Phodrang District ( Dzongkha: དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Dbang-'dus Pho-brang rdzong-khag''; previously spelled "Wangdi Phodrang") is a dzongkhag (district) of central Bhutan. This ...

s. The dominant language in the district is Dzongkha, the national language.

Culture

Pungtang Dechen Phodrang Dzong at

Punakha Punakha ( dz, སྤུ་ན་ཁ་) is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is abo ...

, the administrative and religious center of the district, is the winter home of Bhutan's

Dratshang Lhentshog The Dratshang Lhentshog (Dzongkha: ; Wylie: ''grwa-tshang lhan-tshogs'') is the Commission for the Monastic Affairs of Bhutan. Under the 2008 Constitution, it is the bureaucracy that oversees the Drukpa Kagyu sect of Buddhism, which is the stat ...

(Central Monk Body). Since the 1680s the dzong has also been the site of a continuous vigil over the earthly body of

Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal Ngawang Namgyal (later granted the honorific Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits") (; alternate spellings include ''Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel''; 1594–1651) and known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan Bud ...

, the founder of the country, which lies in a special chamber in the dzong. Punakha Dzong was the capital of Bhutan during the time of

. The Punakha Dzong is one of the most historic dzongs in the whole country. Built by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the 17th century, it is located between the confluence of two rivers: Pho Chhu (male) and

Mo Chhu Mo Chhu is a major river in Bhutan. The word "Chhu" means "river" or "water" in Dzongkha, the official national language in Bhutan. The river rises in Gasa Dzongkhag (district) near the border between Bhutan and Tibet. From there, the Mo Chhu fl ...

(female). * Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Choeten

Administrative divisions

Punakha District is divided into eleven village blocks (or '' gewogs''): * Barp Gewog * Chhubu Gewog * Dzomo Gewog * Goenshari Gewog * Guma Gewog * Kabjisa Gewog * Lingmukha Gewog * Shenga Bjime Gewog * Talog Gewog * Toepisa Gewog * Toewang Gewog

Geography

Over half of Punakha District (the ''gewogs'' of Chhubu, Goenshari, Kabisa and Toewang) lies within

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 ...

, one of the

protected areas of Bhutan The protected areas of Bhutan are its national parks, nature preserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. Most of these protected areas were first set aside in the 1960s, originally covering most of the northern and southern regions of Bhutan. Today, prot ...

. The dzongkhag also contains

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 ...

s along the

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 T ...

border.

Gallery

Punakha-04-Reisterrassen-2015-gje.jpg, Punakha Punakha-Dzong-32-Innenhof-2015-gje.jpg, Dzong Punakha-Lobesa-34-Morgenlicht-2015-gje.jpg, Lobesa Punakha-Sopsokha-12-Haus mit Phallus-2015-gje.jpg, Sopsokha Yowakha-04-Reisterrassen-2015-gje.jpg, Yowakha Punakha-Chime Lhakhang-04-2015-gje.jpg, Chime Lhakhang

References

Districts of Bhutan {{bhutan-geo-stub

Culture

Administrative divisions

Geography

See also

Gallery

References