File:PunakhaDzongInSpring.jpg

Summary

Extended description: Punakha Dzong was built at the confluence of the Pho Chhu (male) and Mo Chhu (female) rivers (chhu means river) by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in 1637. The construction of the Dzong was foretold by Guru Rimpoche, who predicted, “…a person named Namgyal will arrive at a hill that looks like an elephant”. If you look closely at the two hills behind the dzong on the left hand side, and if you have some imagination, you may indeed be able to recognize an elephant lying on the side, the hill in the front being the head, the one in the back the body.

Until the sixties, Punakha was the winter capital in Bhutan due to its more temperate climate. Since then Timphu, which was the summer capital, has been made the only capital of Bhutan.

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• Bhutan