5. Trongsa

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Trongsa is the most central district of Bhutan and the geographic center of Bhutan is located within it. Trongsa Dzongkhag is located in the heart of the country. It covers an area of about 1807 km², with elevation ranging from 800 meters to 4,800 meters above sea level with a total population of about 13,428. It shares boundaries with Bumthang Dzongkhag to the northeast, Wangdiphodrang Dzongkhag to the west and Zhemgang Dzongkhag to the south. Yongzin Ngagi Wangchuk who was guided, in a vision, by the guardian deity, Palden Lhamo, to go to a place in the central Bhutan which resembled a bow and which was in food grains (mang-dru) where the name Mangdue has its origin, arrived in Trongsa in 1541 where he took residence in the village of Yueli. One night while he was meditating his attention was drawn by a flicker of light, resembling that of butter lamp burning in the open air, at the spot where the present day Goenkhang of the Trongsa Dzong is located. In 1543, he established a small Tshamkhang (meditation quarter) in the sacred spot and meditated there. He soon attracted a number of disciples who built their own meditation unit around the main Tshamkhang. The cluster of newly built meditation quarters appeared to the people of Yueli above like a new village and hence they called it “Trongsa” meaning “new village.”