Thruepang Palace is a royal
dzong (a form of fortress) in
Trongsa District
Trongsa District (Dzongkha: ཀྲོང་གསར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration: ''Krong-gsar rdzong-khag'') is one of the districts of Bhutan. It is the most central district of Bhutan and the geographic centre of Bhutan is ...
,
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 ...
. The royal government of Bhutan considers it to be a historic building.
History
Early history
Located on the hillside, the palace was considered crucial in establishing control in the early days of the kingdom.
The dzong (fortress) portion was constructed in 1648. The first and second kings used the fortress to rule the kingdom from this crucial position.
Modern history
It is the birthplace of the third
Druk Gyalpo (King)
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck ( dz, འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ འཇིགས་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་མཆོག་, ; 2 May 1928 – 21 July 1972) was the 3rd Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan.
He began ...
of Bhutan in 1928. He spent is early days growing up in the palace.
This was a secondary resident and served as a, but not main, royal palace for the second Druk Gyalpo (king)
Jigme Wangchuck
Jigme Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་དབང་ཕྱུག, ; 1905 – 30 March 1952) was the 2nd Druk Gyalpo or king of Bhutan from 26 August 1926, until his death. He pursued legal and infrastructural reform during his reign ...
and Queen
Ashi Puntsho Choden. The Trhruepang Palace currently is still in use as a winter royal palace for the current king
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་གེ་སར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཕྱུག་, ; born 21 February 1980) is the Druk Gyalpo (Dzongkha: Dragon King) of the Kingdom of Bhutan. After his ...
.
It is customary that any and future kings of Bhutan to serve as governor of the village, with his residence in the palace, before ascension to the throne.
Description
Location
The dzong is located on the hillside overlooking the village of
Thruepang within the
Nubi
The Nubi language (also called Ki-Nubi, ar, كي-نوبي, kī-nūbī) is a Sudanese Arabic-based creole language spoken in Uganda around Bombo, and in Kenya around Kibera, by the Ugandan Nubians, many of whom are descendants of Emin Pasha' ...
gewog village block in the district of
Trongsa
Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gra ...
. Not far from the palace is the local market place. The palace sits upon a hill that leads straight to the Thruepang village.
Travel from the capital Thimpu requires 192 kilometers of travel and 8 hours of time.
Architecture
The palace largely can be attributed a large house rather than a full scale palace. There are 2 stories palace that sits on 10 acres of land.
Festivals
Tschechu is a religious festival that brings people from all walks of life to Trongska. This festival, the one hosted here, also honors the establishment of the roots of the kingdom by the first and second kings of Bhutan. Dates of the event occurs on the tenth day of a month (not specified) of the Tibetan calendar. In 2011, the event occurred on January 2 to January 4.
References
{{Reflist
Dzongs