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23-462: Pungthang Dewachen Phodrang (Palace of Great Happiness) or Punakha Dzong was constructed by Tuebi Zaow Balip under the great command of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in 1637 and believed to have been completed in a two-year time period. It is also the country's most beautiful Dzong. It is the winter residence of Bhutan's Central Monastic Body led by the Je Khenpo . The Dzong houses the most sacred relics of

46-544: A close linguistic relationship to J'umowa, which is spoken in the Chumbi Valley of Southern Tibet . It has a much more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan . Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50% to 80% mutually intelligible, with the literary forms of both highly influenced by the liturgical (clerical) Classical Tibetan language, known in Bhutan as Chöke, which has been used for centuries by Buddhist monks . Chöke

69-425: Is 1 km away from Punakha-Gasa highway and currently, the villagers are engaged in constructing the 1 km farm road. In recent years, the farming work is mechanized and power-tillers instead of bullocks are used to plough the fields and villagers have become relatively prosperous. This village is often called the ‘rice bowl’ of Bhutan due to abundance of red and white rice. Punakha Domchoe, which takes place in

92-409: Is a tonal language and has two register tones: high and low. The tone of a syllable determines the allophone of the onset and the phonation type of the nuclear vowel. All consonants may begin a syllable. In the onsets of low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced . Aspirated consonants (indicated by the superscript h ), /ɬ/ , and /h/ are not found in low-tone syllables. The rhotic /r/

115-522: Is often elided and results in the preceding vowel nasalized and prolonged, especially word-finally. Syllable-final /k/ is most often omitted when word-final as well, unless in formal speech. In literary pronunciation, liquids /r/ and /l/ may also end a syllable. Though rare, /ɕ/ is also found in syllable-final positions. No other consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic . Syllables usually take

138-523: Is the bureaucracy that oversees the Drukpa Kagyu sect of Buddhism, which is the state religion of Bhutan. Although Bhutan has a state religion, the role of the religious bureaucracy is ideally meant to complement secular institutions within a dual system of government . Under the 2008 Constitution , the Dratshang Lhentshog is made up of seven members: the Je Khenpo serves as the chairman, with

161-400: Is usually a trill [ r ] or a fricative trill [ r̝ ] , and is voiceless in the onsets of high-tone syllables. /t, tʰ, ts, tsʰ, s/ are dental . Descriptions of the palatal affricates and fricatives vary from alveolo-palatal to plain palatal. Only a few consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Most common among them are /m, n, p/ . Syllable-final /ŋ/

184-559: The Drukpa Kagyu sect. The Five Lopons are also responsible for appointing the Je Khenpo. They recommend a learned and respected monk ordained in accordance with the Druk-lu who possesses the nine qualities of a spiritual master, and is accomplished in ked-dzog (spiritual development and completion), to the King of Bhutan . The King then appoints that monk to the office of Je Khenpo and in turn,

207-550: The Uchen script , forms of the Tibetan script known as Jôyi "cursive longhand" and Jôtshum "formal longhand". The print form is known simply as Tshûm . There are various systems of romanization and transliteration for Dzongkha, but none accurately represents its phonetic sound. The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha , devised by the linguist George van Driem , as its standard in 1991. Dzongkha

230-576: The Five Lopons ( Dzongkha : སློབ་དཔོན་ལྔ་; Wylie : slob-dpon lnga ) of the Zhung Dratshang ( Dzongkha : གཞུང་གྲྭ་ཚང་; Wylie : gzhung grwa-tshang ; "Central Monastic Body" ) and a civil servant who serves as the secretary, also serving on the committee. Under the 2008 Constitution, it is mandated that the Zhung Dratshang and rabdeys (monastic bodies in dzongs other than Punakha and Thimphu ) receive state funding and facilities adequate to support

253-500: The Five Lopons. The Je Khenpo is also responsible for many important liturgical and religious duties across the country. Aside from the King of Bhutan , only the Je Khenpo may don a saffron kabney . Dzongkha Dzongkha ( རྫོང་ཁ་ ; [d͡zòŋkʰɑ́] ) is a Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan . It is written using the Tibetan script . The word dzongkha means "the language of

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276-510: The Lopons are appointed on the same criteria by the Je Khenpo on the advice of the remaining members of the Dratshang Lhentshog. The sitting Je Khenpo is the formal leader of the southern branch of the Drukpa Kagyu sect, which is part of the Kagyu tradition of Himalayan Buddhism . The primary duty of the Je Khenpo is to lead the Dratshang Lhentshog and to arbitrate on matters of doctrine, assisted by

299-716: The Southern Drukpa Kagyu school including the Rangjung Kasarpani, and the sacred remains of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal and Tertön Padma Lingpa . In 1907, Punakha Dzong was the site of the coronation of Ugyen Wangchuck as the first King of Bhutan . Three years later, a treaty was signed at Punakha whereby the British agreed not to interfere in Bhutanese internal affairs and Bhutan allowed Britain to direct its foreign affairs. In 1780, 1789, 1802, 1831, 1849, and in 1986,

322-523: The dzong from flood damage by deepening the river channels and raising the embankments. A covered wooden cantilever bridge crossing the Mo Chhu river was built together with the Dzong in the 17th century. This bridge was washed away by a flash flood in 1957 or 1958. In 2006 work started on a new covered wooden cantilever bridge of traditional construction with a free span of 55 meters which was completed in 2008 with

345-554: The dzong was partially destroyed by fire. It also experienced an Earthquake in 1897 and a flood in 1994. Due to its location at the confluence of the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu rivers in the Punakha-Wangdue valley, the dzong is vulnerable to flash flooding caused by glacier lakes ( GLOF ). According to a recent report, flash flood damage to Punakha Dzong occurred in 1957, 1960 and 1994. In March 2010, works were started in order to protect

368-522: The first month of the Bhutanese year, is an important event in Bhutanese culture, combining powerful rites with a dazzling display of horsemanship and sword play. Dratshang Lhentshog Parliament Judiciary The Dratshang Lhentshog ( Dzongkha : གྲྭ་ཚང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ ; Wylie : grwa-tshang lhan-tshogs ) is the Commission for the Monastic Affairs of Bhutan . Under the 2008 Constitution , it

391-486: The form of CVC, CV, or VC. Syllables with complex onsets are also found, but such an onset must be a combination of an unaspirated bilabial stop and a palatal affricate. The bilabial stops in complex onsets are often omitted in colloquial speech. Dzongkha is considered a South Tibetic language . It is closely related to and partially intelligible with Sikkimese , and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha , Brokpa , Brokkat and Lakha . Dzongkha bears

414-556: The fortress", from dzong "fortress" and kha "language". As of 2013 , Dzongkha had 171,080 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers. Dzongkha is a South Tibetic language . It is closely related to Laya and Lunana and partially intelligible with Sikkimese , and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha , Brokpa , Brokkat and Lakha . It has a more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan . Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50 to 80 percent mutually intelligible . Dzongkha and its dialects are

437-488: The help from Germany. The Punakha district is divided in 11 administrative blocks called Gewogs . Gewogs are an administrative division under a Dzongkhag or a district. The eleven Gewogs are: The District has two seats in the National Assembly representing the 2 constintuencies of Lingmu-Toedwong and Kabji-Talo Constituency. Punakha valley is famous in Bhutan for rice farming. Both red and white rice are grown along

460-455: The language is the lingua franca in the districts to the south and east where it is not the mother tongue. The Bhutanese films Travellers and Magicians (2003) and Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) are in Dzongkha. The Tibetan script used to write Dzongkha has thirty basic letters , sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants . Dzongkha is usually written in Bhutanese forms of

483-558: The native tongue of eight western districts of Bhutan ( viz. Wangdue Phodrang , Punakha , Thimphu , Gasa , Paro , Ha , Dagana and Chukha ). There are also some native speakers near the Indian town of Kalimpong , once part of Bhutan but now in North Bengal , and in Sikkim . Dzongkha was declared the national language of Bhutan in 1971. Dzongkha study is mandatory in all schools, and

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506-457: The river valley of Pho and Mo Chu, two of the most prominent rivers in Bhutan. Ritsha (meaning at the base of a hill) is a typical village in Punakha. The village houses are made of pounded mud with stone foundations. Each house is only two stories high. Surrounding the houses are the gardens and the rice fields. The gardens also usually have fruit-bearing plants like oranges and papayas. The village

529-439: Was used as the language of education in Bhutan until the early 1960s when it was replaced by Dzongkha in public schools. Although descended from Classical Tibetan, Dzongkha shows a great many irregularities in sound changes that make the official spelling and standard pronunciation more distant from each other than is the case with Standard Tibetan. "Traditional orthography and modern phonology are two distinct systems operating by

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