Wangduechhoeling Palace Museum and Cultural Centre

For all the serenading we do in praise of our monarchy, our tradition and culture and architectural aesthetics, the shallowness of it became all too evident when not a single Bhutanese had the sense of national pride to stand up and object to the construction of the grotesque Amankora Bumthang Lodge in the vicinity of Wangduechhoeling Palace – a national edifice without compare. I was pained enough to blog about it in 2011.

A reader from abroad reacted as follows:

Hello Yeshey,

“……  The problem of the Jakar Amankora hotel forces me to speak up, however.

For all the talk about protecting Bhutan's culture from foreign influence and controlling the negative impacts of tourism, this is a major, tangible contravention.

There are ways to ensure that if a structure as special as Wangdicholing Palace were to have a development project proposed in its vicinity, it would not be adversely affected. The Amankora hotel, which leaves Wangdicholing Palace literally in its shadow, is clearly out of harmony with its historic context…….”

The blemish of insult notwithstanding, the historic Wangduechhoeling Palace is now a museum dedicated to the Wangchuck Dynasty – its Tashi Rabney was conducted on the 30th of October, 2024.

Wangduechhoeling Palace Museum and Cultural Centre

Photo: Kuensel 31st Oct., 2024

Through this blog I would like to offer Thanks to Bhutan Foundation who thought of it, and spent many years and millions of dollars working on the Palace. Their act of preservation – I chose not to call it restoration – has been remarkable – the result is there for all to see. We must also Thank the selfless donors who assumed the responsibility in which we Bhutanese had failed miserably. I had the good fortune to meet many of them during the Tashi Rabney ceremony. Ofcourse, few of them I had met many decades earlier.

Tashi Rabney of the Museum

Wangduechoeling Palace was built by Choetse Poenlop Jigme Namgyel – sometime during 1858/1859 – after the amicable settlement of the Battle of Shamkharthang with Jakar Dzongpoen (later Jakar Poenlop) Tsundru Gyaltshen. Most know that Choetse Poenlop Jigme Namgyal is the progenitor of the Wangchuck Dynasty – but few know that he is equally important as the man who successfully reunified Sharchog Khorlo Tsipgye in 1850 – when he served as the Trongsa Droenger under the then Trongsa Poenlop Wangchen Dorji (Tshoki Dorji).

Our first Monarch – Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck was born in this Palace.

For some inexplicable reason, I refrained from taking even a single frame of photograph during the entire day of the Tashi Rabney – not of the people, nor of the Palace or the rare artifacts that were on display inside. I do not know - perhaps it was a subconscious way of showing reverence to the sanctity of the occasion, or it may have been a sense of joy and happiness that the bastion of the Wangchuck Dynasty has been reinstated to its rightful place in history.