Paro ( dz, སྤ་རོ་) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and seat of

Paro District Paro District ( Dzongkha: སྤ་རོ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Spa-ro rdzong-khag'') is a district ('' dzongkhag''), valley, river and town (population 20,000) in Bhutan. It is one of the most historic valleys in Bhutan. Both t ...

, in the Paro Valley of

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 a historic town with many sacred sites and historical buildings scattered throughout the area. It is also home to

Paro International 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 ...

, Bhutan's sole international airport.

is served by

Drukair 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 dzongkh ...

Architecture

The main street has many examples of traditionally decorated buildings. The Dungtse Lhakhang (a 15th-century temple) and the Ugyen Perli Palace are near the new bridge. Members of royal family lodge in the palace when in Paro. Nearby is the old bridge and the

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 ...

. Notable hotels include the Olathang Hotel built in an ornate style. About outside Paro is the famous

Paro Taktsang Paro Taktsang ( dz, སྤ་གྲོ་སྟག་ཚང་, also known as the Taktsang Palphug Monastery and the Tiger's Nest), is a sacred Vajrayana Himalayan Buddhist site located in the cliffside of the upper Paro valley in Bhutan. It i ...

(Tiger's Nest) Buddhist monastery and hermitage. Some Bhutanese believe that

Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...

(Guru

Rinpoche Rinpoche, also spelled Rimboche and Rinboku (), is an honorific term used in the Tibetan language. It literally means "precious one", and may refer to a person, place, or thing—like the words "gem" or "jewel" (Sanskrit: ''Ratna''). The word con ...

) flew on the back of a tigress to this location from

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, ...

. The trek to Tiger's Nest monastery takes about three hours one way. A scenic view of the town of Paro can be seen from the Tiger's Nest. A road passes up the valley to the ruins of another fortress-monastery, Drukyel Dzong, which was partly destroyed by fire in 1951. Paro is home to Bhutan's tallest building, the Ta-Dzhong, which is 22 meters (72 feet) high, and has 6 floors. It was completed in 1649.

Airport

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 ...

has been described as "the most difficult commercial airport in the world",''Paro Airport'', atlas obscura (website), accessed 3 December 2014
/ref> The airport has only one runway. Airplanes on approach pass by 5,500m Himalayan mountain peaks, and the 1,980m runway length presents a double challenge, due to the low air density. As a result, only a handful of airline pilots (8 as of December 2014) are certified to operate commercial aeroplanes there. About 30,000 persons arrive at the airport each year.

Climate

Wangdue Phodrang features a dry-winter

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Cwb'').

Gallery

Image:Paro's main street 2.jpg, A street in Paro Image:Shops in Paro, Bhutan 02.jpg, Shops in Paro Image:Kyichu Lhakhang-060701.JPG,

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 ...

Image:Rinpung Dzong, Bhutan 01.jpg,

Image:National Museum of Bhutan 01.jpg,

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 ...

Image:Bhutan-Paro-136-Taktshang-Tigernest-gje.jpg,

File:Bridge in Paro.jpg, View of Nyamai Zam above Paro Chhu Image:Paro airport, Bhutan interior.jpg,

Terminal

References

External links

*
Paro City
Travel Guide from North Bengal Tourism
Places to see in Paro
{{Authority control Populated places in Bhutan