Bhutan Gasa Dzong Renovation

Within a span of more than a year since work began, about 80 percent of the renovation works on Gasa dzong has been completed.

Dzongkhag officials are optimistic of being able to complete the project within the next six months, irrespective of the usual obstacles like roadblocks and carrying material to the site.


Although collection of local material began since 2008, Gasa dzongkhag’s junior engineer Kuenga Tshering said the real renovation work began in full swing only by October 2009.

Kuenga Tshering said initially Nu 4.7M was approved for the project, considering that the dzong would be renovated with same design as it stood before the fire damaged a part of the dzong.

“But later the design of a structure was changed which now would cost much dearer,” he said. “To incorporate those changes would cost the government around Nu 14.6M instead of the approved 4.7M.”

Those aspects aside, he said the dzongkhag was constructing two new structures.

“A two-storied structure has reached the roof stage, while the other structure is progressing just as quickly,” he said.

In the two-storied structure, the top storey served as the administrative block, while the lower one housed the Kagye lhakhang.

With the administrative block having moved to another new structure that was built just outside the dzong where they will remain, the previous administrative block will be turned into Mithrup lhakhang.

A dzongkhag official said they had to construct two new buildings outside the dzong for office space after the last fire.

“A building is already being used by administration and engineering cell, while the other is still under construction,” he said.

The apartment that previously accommodated the caretaker will serve as torkhang, room dedicated for monks to make ritual cakes or torma, of the dratshang once completed.

The Kagye lhakhang, the koenyer’s room, administrative block and an engineering cell of the Gasa dzong were reduced to rubble, and the main statues inside the lhakhang charred in the 2008 fire.

However, the 17th-century dzong and its main nangten (spiritual treasures) survived the potentially devastating fire.

“We’ve constructed a hostel for monks at Phulakha, about a 15-minute walk from the dzong, ever since the monks were rendered homeless after the fire, and the ongoing renovation work after it,” dzongkhag officials said. “They’ve yet to move to the new hostel.”

Kuenga Tshering pointed out that last year’s roadblocks between Punakha and Gasa closed the dzongkhag from the rest of the country for about a month, which hampered the work progress.

“We couldn’t transport construction material and even the labourers ran out of ration,” he said.

Today the road to Gasa has reached Zamina since last year, leaving a gap of about an hour’s walk to the dzong.

Although the road had reached Zamina last year, he said it was closed for traffic. Besides, road blocks from mud slides made unloading and carrying construction materials to the site from Gezapang, which is about a four-hour-walk from Gasa, difficult.

In absence of the road that reached Zamina, officials said even gathering local material to the work site was a major hurdle.

“People had to carry stones to the construction site, just as they had to carry timber from the forest,” he said.

Although workers were called at the site, they could not work comfortably throughout the year, because of the harsh weather the dzongkhag is known to brew.

Heavy showers in summers that made working at the site impossible and the snow in winter that froze construction material, besides working hours reduced as workers reached work site late in the morning and left early with the approaching dusk.

Around 50 workers, excluding villagers from the four gewogs of Laya, Khatoe, Khamay and Lunana providing voluntary services, are working towards the project on time.

Source: Kuenselonline