National Library of Bhutan

The National Library of Bhutan holds the country’s collection of Buddhist texts in a four-storey, dzong-style tower at Kawajangsa. It also holds a copy of the world’s largest published book. Allow about 30 minutes; entry is included in your tour.

What to see

The collection is traditional Bhutanese and Tibetan texts — long unbound xylograph pages wrapped in cloth and stacked in wooden pigeonholes, floor to ceiling, exactly as they have been stored for centuries. Among them are the printing blocks for Longchenpa’s Seven Treasuries and for the complete works of Kunkhyen Pema Karpo, along with about 7,000 historic photographs.

Then there is the book. Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom is recognised as the largest published book in the world: about 60 kg (133 lb), 153 × 117 cm closed, opening to roughly 1.5 × 2.1 metres, 118 pages, produced by Michael Hawley and Friendly Planet in December 2003. It sits open on the ground floor and someone will usually turn a page for you.

Our own page said 68 kg and over two metres tall for years. It’s about 60 kg, and the two-metre dimension is its width when open — worth correcting, since the real object is impressive enough.

Practicalities

Weekday office hours, and it is a working government institution rather than a visitor attraction — half an hour is the right allocation. Four floors of stairs; the big book is on the ground floor.

It stands in Kawajangsa among the Folk Heritage Museum, the Zorig Chusum arts school and the traditional medicine institute, which is how almost everyone visits it. See things to do in Thimphu for how they compare.

The library was founded in 1967 under the patronage of Queen Ashi Phuntso Choden; the present tower, built entirely at Bhutan’s own expense, was inaugurated on 23 November 1984.