Trashigang District ( Dzongkha: བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bkra-shis-sgang rdzong-khag''; also spelled "Tashigang") 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 ...

's easternmost dzongkhag (district).

Culture

The population of the district is mainly Sharchop, which means "easterner" in Dzongkha, the national language.

Languages

The dominant language of Trashigang is Tshangla (Sharchopkha), the ''lingua franca'' of eastern Bhutan. Two significant minority languages are spoken in the far eastern region of the district: the East Bodish

Dakpa language The Takpa or Dakpa language (), ''Dakpakha'', known in India as Tawang Monpa, also known as Brami in Bhutan, is an East Bodish language spoken in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, and in northern Trashigang District in eastern Bhutan, m ...

and the Southern Bodish

Brokpa language The Brokpa language (Brokpa kay) ( dz , དྲོག་པ་ཁ།, དྲོགཔ་ཁ།, ''Dr˚okpakha'', ''Dr˚opkha''), also called the Merak-Sakteng language after its speakers' home regions, is a Southern Tibetic language spoken by abo ...

. Dakpa is spoken by descendants of yakherding communities, and may in fact be a divergent dialect of Brokpake, heavily influenced by Dzalakha.

Economy and education

While it has no major urban area, Trashigang has the densest population in Bhutan. It used to be part of an important trade route connecting

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

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, Taman ...

, and still is a primary route for Bhutanese trade with India. Towns include Trashigang (the district capital), Radi, Rangjung, and Phongmey. The district produces

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

and

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...

. There are several tourist packages to Bhutan that include trips from

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 ...

to Trashigang, despite the 17-hour journey from the capital over the rough and dangerous

Lateral Road The East-West Highway, also known as the Lateral Road, is the Bhutan primary east–west corridor, connecting Phuentsholing in the southwest to Trashigang in the east. In between, the Lateral Road runs directly through Wangdue Phodrang, Trongsa, ...

. Trashigang is also the site of

Sherubtse College Sherubtse College is the first accredited college in Bhutan, founded in 1966 by a group of Jesuits under the leadership of Father William Mackey. The college was affiliated to the University of Delhi by a special act of the Indian parliament. ...

, the original college within the

Royal University of Bhutan The Royal University of Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་འཛིན་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་སྡེ་; Wylie:'' 'brug rgyal-'dzin gtsug-lag-slob-sde''), founded on June 2, 2003, by a royal decree, is the n ...

system.

Landmarks

Trashigang Dzong, or fortress, was built in 1659 by the third

Druk Desi The Druk Desi (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་; Wylie:'' 'brug sde-srid''; also called " Deb Raja")The original title is Dzongkha: སྡེ་སྲིད་ཕྱག་མཛོད་; Wylie: ''sde-srid phyag-mdzod''. wa ...

Chögyal Mingyur Tenpa to defend against Tibetan invaders. Because of its altitude, invading armies remarked that "it is not a dzong on the ground, it is in the sky". An ancient '' lhakhang'' or

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

in the district, known for its rock garden, contains a sacred footprint said to be either that of Guru Rimpoche or that of a ''khandroma'' (angel). Rangjung, 16 km east of the district capital, is the site of Rangjung Ösel Chöling Monastery, established by Dungse Garab Dorje Rinpoche in 1989. The temple contains particularly fine images of

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 ...

, Shantarakshita and Chögyal Trisong Detsen (Khen-Lop-Chö sum).

Administrative divisions

Trashigang Districts is divided into fifteen village blocks (or '' gewogs''): * Bartsham Gewog * Bidung Gewog * Kanglung Gewog * Kangpara Gewog * Khaling Gewog * Lumang Gewog * Merak Gewog * Phongmey Gewog * Radhi Gewog * Sakten Gewog * Samkhar Gewog * Shongphu Gewog * Thrimshing Gewog * Uzorong Gewog * Yangneer Gewog

Protected area

The Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, one of ten protected areas of Bhutan, was created in part to protect the '' migoi'', a type of yeti in whose existence most Bhutanese believe. The sanctuary covers the eastern third of the district (the ''gewogs'' of

Merag Merag is a village in Croatia, located on the east coast of Cres Cres (; dlm, Crepsa, vec, Cherso, it, Cherso, la, Crepsa, Greek: Χέρσος, ''Chersos'') is an Adriatic island in Croatia. It is one of the northern islands in the Kv ...

and

Sakteng Sakteng ( dz, སག་སྟེང་, sag steng, size=150%) is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous gewog in Trashigang District in far eastern Bhutan. The nearby Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is named after it. In popular culture Sakteng ...

), and is connected via

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 ...

to Khaling Wildlife Sanctuary in

Samdrup Jongkhar District Samdrup Jongkhar District ( Dzongkha: བསམ་གྲུབ་ལྗོངས་མཁར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bsam-grub Ljongs-mkhar rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The dominant langua ...

to the south.

References

External links

Trashigang Dzongkhag website

Trashigang Five Year Plan

Trashigang Dzong photo gallery
{{Authority control Districts of Bhutan