Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of

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 ...

in central

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 name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-grandfather of Ngawang Namgyal, Zhabdrung Rinpoche, the unifier of Bhutan.

Trongsa Dzong

Chökhor Raptentse Dzong at Trongsa which was built in 1644, used to be the seat of power of the Wangchuck dynasty before it became rulers of Bhutan in 1907. Traditionally the

King of Bhutan The Druk Gyalpo (; 'Dragon King') is the head of state of the Kingdom of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as ''Drukyul'' which translates as "The Land of the Thunder Dragon". Thus, while kings of Bhutan are known as ''Druk ...

first becomes the Trongsa Penlop (

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

) before being named Crown Prince and eventually King. Built on a mountain spur high above the gorges of the

Mangde Chhu Mangde Chhu or Tongsa river flows in central Bhutan traversing roughly north–south. The river rises in Wangdue Phodrang district (or dzongkhag in Dzongkha), near Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan's highest peak at . Bhutan's main east–west highway c ...

, the dzong controlled east-west trade for centuries. The only road connecting eastern and western Bhutan (the precursor to the modern

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, ...

), passed through the courtyard of the dzong. At the command of the ''penlop'' the massive doors could be shut, dividing the country in two. Higher yet on the mountainside is a watchtower, called "Ta Dzong"(watch tower), built to guard the dzong from enemies but now housing a museum and a chapel dedicated to Jigme Namgyal who was Trongsa Penlop from 1853 to 1870. File:Trongsa1.jpg, Highway to

Sarpang Sarpang, also transliterated as Sarbhang or Sarbang, is a thromde or town in Sarpang District in southern Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in So ...

just east of the town File:Trongsa Town.jpg, Trongsa town medical centre File:TrongsaDzong.jpg, Trongsa Dzong from above to the west of the town

References

{{Coord, 27, 31, N, 90, 30, E, display=title Populated places in Bhutan Trongsa District

Trongsa Dzong

See also

References