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Bhutan's
Economy - Tourism
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Bhutan Economy |
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Bhutan Information |
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Tourist
season in Bumthang
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| Jakar
Dzong |
| Tourist
lodges and guest-houses are full and handicraft and souvenir shops are
doing brisk business.
The
highlight of the visit to Bumthang at this time of the year is to
watch the Jambey Lhakhang Tshechu, one of the most popular festivals
of Bumthang's numerous festivals. |
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The
main event of the festival is the Terchham, or the naked dance,
performed by the Jambey Lhakhang villagers at night. "It's quite
serendipitous that we made it to witness the festival when we had initially
planned on trekking," said Margot Jones a tourist from New York.
"This is our first time in Bhutan and probably the first festival too."
Mary
Nada another tourist interested in birds said that she was taken aback
when the locals informed her about the Tshechu. "I always wanted to trek
in the Himalayas," said Mary Nada. "Now that I'm actually here I don't
want to miss the most talked about Jambey Lhakhang Tshechu."
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| The Tshechu will be performed end of October. The Terchham is performed on the
last two days of the Tshechu.
"Till
the Tshechu is over all the guest houses will be full," said the
owner Kaila who runs a popular lodge in Bumthang both among the
tourists and travellers owing to its proximity to the town. "We make about
Nu. 150,000 at this time of the year in three days," he said. |
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| Bumthang's
high inflow of tourists
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| Jambey lhakhang |
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the 17 guest houses in the valley with more than 200 rooms are all full
with tourists.
Other
tourist resorts with fewer rooms earn about Nu. 40,000. "We have just 10
rooms and we make close to some Nu.50, 000 or so," said the Yangphel guesthouse
manager, Yeshey. "Most of our tourists come to watch the Jambey lhakhang
Tshechu."
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After
the tourists are gone the guesthouses have to rent their lodges to the
travellers plying the east-west highway.
"We
have occasional foreign visitors and at the most we earn far less than
what we make now," said Kaila. Many tourists who couldn't find accommodation
in the lodges pitched tents outside the guesthouses and in open spaces
near the town. About three farmhouses in Tamshing had to be rented out
to the local travel agencies to accommodate their guests with meals.
According
to one of the handicraft shops in Choskhor valleythe October
season is the best time for business.
Sonam handicrafts, popular for bura and hand woven kiras shad sales worth
over Nu. 6,000 on the first day. "Most of our customers are women tourists
and they buy the kira to wear during the Tshechu," he said. "Back home
they normally use the kiras as show pieces." The tourists usually settle
for colourful bright hand-woven and bura kiras. Apart from that they buy
the handicraft items and antiques from these shops.
By
the first week of November, the tourists will begin moving out,
the Choskhor valley will become quiet again for another winter.
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