Punakha

Punakha's importance begins with geography: a low, warm valley at the meeting of two rivers, sheltered from the winter that grips the higher west. A small temple is said to have stood on the spit of land long before the fortress, and in 1637 the Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal began building Punakha Dzong there, the second of his great fortresses after Simtokha. It became the seat of his dual religious and civil government, and his remains are still kept inside a sealed chamber.

For more than three centuries Punakha was Bhutan's capital in all but name, and the winter residence of the ruling hierarchy, who moved between here and Thimphu with the seasons — a migration the central monk body still makes. Tibetan armies attacked the valley several times in the 17th century, a defence remembered in the drubchen festival. In 1907 Ugyen Wangchuck was crowned the first king of Bhutan in the dzong, and the Treaty of Punakha with British India was signed there in 1910. The National Assembly first met in the valley in the 1950s, shortly before the government moved permanently to Thimphu.

The dzong has been rebuilt many times after fires, earthquakes and floods; a glacial lake outburst flood on the Pho Chhu in 1994 damaged it and killed twenty-three people at the dzong, and a long restoration followed. The valley remains a place of state ceremony: the fifth king was married in the dzong in 2011. Rice, oranges and, more recently, tourism and hydropower on the Punatsangchhu shape its modern economy.

The dzong sets the tone. Its winter role as the seat of the Je Khenpo and the central monk body fills the valley with monks between late autumn and spring, and the year's two big gatherings, the Punakha Drubchen and the tshechu that follows it, draw people from across the district. The drubchen is unusual among Bhutanese festivals in re-enacting history rather than only religious legend: local men dress as the pazaps, the militia who defended the valley, and process with swords and shields.

Chimi Lhakhang gives the valley its other reputation. The temple honours Drukpa Kunley, the 15th-century "Divine Madman", whose unorthodox teaching is remembered in bawdy stories and in the painted phallus motifs on farmhouses around Lobesa, understood locally as protection against gossip and ill fortune. Couples come to the temple to be blessed with a child, and the village walk to it passes through some of Bhutan's most photographed paddy fields.

Everyday manners match the rest of western Bhutan: national dress at offices and temples, the kabney or rachu scarf in the dzong, hands and heads kept modest before monks. Archery grounds sit beside most villages, and the valley's warmth means life is lived outdoors more than in the higher towns, with tea drunk on verandas and work in the fields at first light.

Punakha district is thinly settled, most of its people in villages rather than towns. The main settlement is Khuruthang, a planned bazaar built a short distance downstream from the dzong to move shops and houses away from it; it has the market, the bus stop, the schools and offices that serve the valley. Around it, farmhouses stand among terraces on both banks.

Farming dominates. The valley's low altitude and irrigation allow paddy rice as the main crop, with a second season of vegetables, and mandarin orchards on the slopes produce the oranges that appear in Thimphu's markets from November. Chillies dry on farmhouse roofs in autumn. Cattle are kept for milk and butter, and many households now earn also from hotels, driving, rafting and guiding.

The rhythm of the day follows the heat: early starts in the fields, a long midday, and an evening of visiting and television. Hydropower construction on the Punatsangchhu has brought years of work, Indian labourers and heavy traffic to the lower valley. The concerns residents raise are those heard across Bhutan — the cost of living, young people leaving for work abroad — with the added local worry of floods from glacial lakes at the head of the Pho Chhu.

Punakha eats what its warm valley grows. Rice is the staple here in a way it is not in the highlands, served plain white or as the nutty red variety of the western valleys, with ema datshi, chillies stewed with soft cheese, as the standard accompaniment. Kewa datshi with potatoes and shamu datshi with mushrooms are the usual variations, and dried beef is cooked with chillies and radish when there is meat on the table.

The valley's own produce sets it apart from Thimphu and Paro: mandarins by the crate in winter, bananas, papaya, chillies, beans and leafy greens from the riverside plots, and wild ferns gathered in spring and served with cheese. Freshwater fish from the rivers appear occasionally, though many Bhutanese avoid fish on religious grounds. Momos, steamed dumplings filled with cheese, beef or vegetables, are eaten as a snack, and hot ezay, a relish of chilli, cheese and tomato, comes with almost everything.

Drinks follow the national pattern. Suja, tea churned with butter and salt, and sweet milk tea are offered at any hour; ara, the home-distilled grain spirit, is served at festivals and to guests. Doma, areca nut with betel leaf and lime, is chewed widely in the warm valleys. Restaurants are concentrated in Khuruthang and along the Lobesa junction, and the riverside hotels cook Bhutanese, Indian and Continental dishes for visitors.