Bhutan at a Glance

A small country of 47,000 square kilometers, Bhutan shines like a rare stone attracting people all over the world to visit its well-preserved culture and natural land forms. For centuries, the Bhutanese who have lived under the shadow of the Himalayas seemed to enjoy a secluded lifestyle that accepted little foreign influence. The central aspect of their lifestyle has been their religion, which had nurtured a unique architectural style.

Most of the Bhutanese population is made up of Bhotes, who believed Lamaistic Buddhism, a sect of Buddhism predominantly popular in Tibet, China. The rest of the populations are ethnic Indians and Nepalese, who are most likely to be Hindu followers. It was Buddhism, sanctioned by the monarch, had produced great an architecture that belongs to the high mountains. The buildings that served the religion included the Dzongs or temples, the chortens or stupas, and the ghompas or meditation monasteries.

The most impressive features of these buildings are the massive whitewashed walls, the red band under the roof, and their elegant proportion. Although sandwiched equally between Tibet (China) and India, Bhutanese Buddhism and architecture had much closer ties to that of Tibet. The architectural influence from India is limited to the building types prescribed by Buddhism. The building types are the same: the stupas, the temples and monasteries; but the architectural style is of great difference. The Indian characteristic decoration on the exterior did not find any of its trace on the bare walls of Bhutanese architecture. The Bhutanese way of decorating is more likely to be the symbolic patterns painted on the red band under the roof and around the square windows. The Indian stupas were cosmic eggs that take the simple form of a hemisphere. Their counterpart in Bhutan was called chortens, which could be rectangular and had many layers. Unlike the Indian viharas or monasteries, which were spaces carved into the rocks, the monasteries of Bhutan were built on the high cliffs. The difficulty in access to these Bhutanese monasteries ensured their isolation to the secular world. Building materials were rock and timber, which were abundant in the country. Besides these obvious distinctions on the building envelope, one notable difference is the interior quality of Bhutanese religious buildings, which were given little architectural attention in the Indian counterparts.

The common houses in Bhutan are simple in plan and yet quite efficient. These wooden structures often consist of two stories, with the animals' quarter at the base, people's living space on the second story, and the cross-ventilated roof on top. Due to the nomadic nature of the Bhutanese people, these structures were not meant to be permanent. When a house is abandoned, it is customary to leave it to the forces of nature, rather than demolishing it.

The Bhutanese way of life bears much more resemblance to that of Tibet than its political protege of India. The unique beauty of this culture lies in the Bhutanese people's deliberate effort to preserve their traditional way of life, their religious belief, and an architecture that complemented the natural landscape.