Centenary Farmers’ Market
The Centenary Farmers’ Market is Bhutan’s largest farmers’ market, in a two-storey hall below Thimphu town on the bank of the Wang Chhu. It trades from Friday morning to Sunday night. Allow 45 minutes to an hour; it’s free.
What it’s like
About 400 stalls over two floors, and growers who have driven in from across the country and slept beside their produce since Thursday night. Upstairs is generally fruit and vegetables, downstairs the dry goods, and the smell changes as you go from one to the other.
What you will see: chillies in every state — fresh green, sun-dried scarlet, ground to powder — because Bhutanese cooking treats chilli as a vegetable rather than a spice. Datse, the soft white cheese that goes into it. Hard yak cheese threaded on strings, sold as something between a snack and a jaw exercise. Ferns, river weed, buckwheat, red rice, mandarins in winter, incense, betel and areca nut, and a great deal of good-natured haggling.
Across the footbridge over the Wang Chhu there’s a run of handicraft stalls, and most guests do both in the same stop.
This is the best free hour in Thimphu, and it is the one place in the capital where you will hear several of Bhutan’s languages in one room.
When to go
Friday morning to Sunday night — and Saturday morning is the peak, when the hall is full and the town is shopping.
Our own page said “Friday afternoon” for years, which would have had you turning up several hours after the trading started. It corrects to Friday morning; the sellers are in place from Thursday evening.
Autumn is the fullest season, with the harvest in and the chillies drying on every roof in the country. But there’s no month when it’s dull.
Manners, briefly
Ask before you photograph a person; nobody minds you photographing the produce. If you want to buy, buy — the traders are used to visitors and the prices are the prices. Don’t step over or on anyone’s goods.
How it fits your day
It’s below the town centre, five minutes by car or ten minutes’ walk down from Norzin Lam, so it slots into any Thimphu day that falls on the right side of the week. The Jungshi paper factory is about a kilometre away, more or less opposite, which makes an easy pairing.
If your Thimphu day is a Monday, this is the one thing on the list you simply cannot do — worth knowing when you’re deciding which night to spend where. See things to do in Thimphu for how everything compares.
Why “Centenary”
The market was inaugurated in 2008, the centenary year of Bhutan’s monarchy, built to give farmers a permanent place to sell instead of the informal weekend market that had run on the riverbank for years. Plenty of people still call it the weekend market, and they mean this.
Tours that visit Thimphu
Frequently asked questions
What days is the Centenary Farmers' Market open?
Friday morning through to Sunday night. Sellers start arriving on Thursday evening and sleep beside their stalls, so by Friday morning the hall is already full — our own page used to say Friday afternoon, which would have sent you a few hours late.
What can you buy at the market?
Everything Bhutan grows and a good deal it imports: chillies fresh, dried and powdered; ferns and river weed; datse, the soft cheese that goes into everything; dried yak cheese on strings; incense, betel, buckwheat, red rice and mandarins in winter. Come hungry and curious rather than with a list.
Is the farmers' market worth visiting?
If you want to see Bhutanese life rather than Bhutanese monuments, it is the best hour in Thimphu — and it costs nothing. Growers come in from across the country, so it is also the one place you'll hear several of Bhutan's languages in one room.
How long do you need at the market?
Forty-five minutes to an hour, including the handicraft stalls across the footbridge. It's a market, not an exhibition — you'll know when you're done.
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