Mongar Dzong

Mongar Dzong was built in the 1930s, which makes it young by Bhutanese standards, and its interest is precisely that: it was constructed using the same methods as the seventeenth-century dzongs, timber joinery without nails, rammed earth and stone, and no architectural drawings, the builders working from knowledge held by master craftsmen. It replaced an older dzong at Zhongar and sits on a gentle rise in the town rather than on a defensive spur, since defence was no longer the point. Inside are the district administration and a monastic body around a courtyard. Mongar itself is a junction town on the east-west highway, spread along a ridge, and it functions mainly as a stopping place on the long drive across the country.

What you actually see

• Traditional construction - a twentieth-century dzong built by old methods.
• The courtyard - administration and monastic quarters around it.
• The town setting - a dzong on a rise rather than a defensive spur.
• Eastern Bhutan architecture - the regional variations in detail and paint.

When to go

March to May and October to November. The eastern highway is subject to landslides in monsoon. The Mongar Tshechu falls in autumn. Access is limited during office hours on weekdays.

Honest expectations

The dzong is modern by local standards and modest in scale; visitors coming from Paro or Punakha will find it small. Much of it is offices. Mongar town has little else and the accommodation is basic. The drive here from anywhere is long.

Nearby

Lhuentse lies north; Trashigang is east.