Tower of Trongsa (Royal Heritage Museum)

The Tower of Trongsa is the Ta Dzong, the watchtower built to guard the dzong below it, and since 2008 it has held the Royal Heritage Museum. It stands on a promontory about 130 metres above the fortress, which is the whole reason it is there. Allow an hour and a half to two hours, and do it after the dzong rather than before.

What is inside?

Eleven galleries, and two of them are working temples.

As the museum lists them: two galleries of the Four Guardian Kings; the Raven Crown, the crown of the Kings of Bhutan; the Wangchuck Dynasty; the sacred mask dances; rituals and Buddhism; the Temple of Ling Gesar, the epic king; the eight manifestations and murals of Guru Rinpoche; the Maitreya Temple; the Five Tathagata Buddhas; and Ultimate Enlightenment.

The collection itself is thangkas, sculpture, bronzes, decorative arts, arms and armour, ritual objects, masks, textiles and royal belongings. We do not give a number of objects, because the figures in circulation disagree by a factor of two and the museum publishes none of them.

The Ling Gesar and Maitreya rooms are chapels in use, so shoes come off in those.

When is it open?

This is one of the few places in Bhutan that publishes its own hours, so they are worth printing:

• Monday to Friday, 9 am – 5 pm, 1 April to 31 October
• Monday to Friday, 9 am – 4 pm, 1 November to 31 March
• Last admission one hour before closing
• Saturdays in peak season — March to May and October to December
• Closed Sundays and public holidays

Your guide confirms on the day, because public holidays move. Admission is inside your tour rate — there is no ticket window to queue at.

Why is there a tower here at all?

Because a fortress that controls the only road needs to see who is coming, and needs to see who is already inside.

Ta Dzong was built in 1652 by Chogyal Minjur Tempa, the first Penlop of Trongsa, in the same year he enlarged the dzong itself. Its four observation points are named for the Tiger, the Lion, the Garuda and the Dragon. It watched the approaches for three centuries and then sat empty.

Between 2005 and 2008 it was restored and converted with Austrian support, and His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck inaugurated the museum on 10 December 2008 — the fifth King opening a museum of his own dynasty, in the tower above the fortress it came from.

How does it fit into a day in Trongsa?

Dzong first, tower second, and you have used a good half-day well.

The dzong is the largest in Bhutan and takes an hour and a half to two hours; the museum takes about the same. Coming up here afterwards puts names to what you have walked through, and gives you the view down the spur that no photograph taken inside the dzong can.

If you are pairing it with anything else, Chendebji Chorten and Willing Waterfall cost you half an hour each and are both on the road in from the west, so they fit the same day without effort. Kuenga Rabten does not — it is an hour south and an hour back, and it wants a half-day of its own.

See things to do in Trongsa for the rest of the district.