Tangbi Mewang
Festival

The Festival in Detail

How the Three Days of Tangbi Mewang Unfold

The festival begins at around 7am on the first day, when the Gomchens open proceedings inside the lhakhang with prayers and ritual preparations. The day moves between the monastery courtyard and the open ground nearby. Folk dances and early mask performances take place in the courtyard. The first day runs through until midnight — longer than almost any other festival in Bhutan.

On the second day, at around 10am, a ceremonial procession departs from the lhakhang and moves to the open festival ground where the Mewang fire has been prepared. The Gomchens conduct the purification rituals — prayers, incense offerings, and the invocation of protective forces — before the fire is lit. As the flames rise, the crowd moves forward. People jump over the fire in a continuous stream, each person completing three crossings. The belief is direct and widely held: jumping three times removes accumulated misdeeds and protects the jumper from ill fortune for the entire year. There is no age limit, no hierarchy, no special access — everyone jumps together, and the atmosphere is simultaneously solemn and joyful.

After the Mewang, the programme continues in the enclosed courtyard of the monastery. The Cham mask dances — including the Goem Bernak, a dark-masked dance specific to Tangbi — are performed by young men and women of the village rather than ordained monks. The folk dances are equally village in character: energetic, earthy, and clearly beloved by the local audience. The third day brings the festival to a close with further dances and the gradual dispersal of the community back to their farms and homes.

Tangbi Lhakhang — The Monastery and Its History

Tangbi Lhakhang was founded in 1470 by Choki Drakpa, the 4th Shamar Rinpoche — one of the most senior lamas of the Karma Kagyu tradition, sometimes called the “Red Hat Karmapa.” The iron curtain at the monastery entrance is said to have been cast by the Rinpoche himself during the monastery’s founding, and it remains in place today — one of the oldest surviving material relics at any active festival site in Bhutan. The monastery sits at 2,730m in Chhoekhor Gewog, beyond Kurjey Lhakhang in the Choekhor Valley.

In subsequent years the monastery came under the influence of Terton Pema Lingpa — the great 15th-century treasure discoverer from Bumthang whose spiritual legacy permeates virtually every valley and festival in the region. The Nyingma character that Pema Lingpa brought to Tangbi sits alongside the original Karma Kagyu foundation, giving the monastery a layered history unusual even by Bumthang’s standards. Today the monastery is managed by Gomchens — lay monks who have taken partial vows and live within the community rather than in a formal monastic community. This lay management is reflected in the festival itself, which is organised by villagers and feels fundamentally different from the grand state-managed Tshechus of the western dzongs.

What Makes Tangbi Mewang Different from Other Bhutanese Festivals

Most major festivals in Bhutan — the Paro Tshechu, the Thimphu Tshechu, the Punakha Tshechu — are organised and managed by the Department of Culture or the central monastic body. Tangbi Mewang is not. It is organised entirely by the people of three villages: Thangbi, Goling, and Kharsath. There is no department issuing permits, no official programme booklet, no ticketing. The festival exists because the community chooses to hold it, year after year, as it has done since the monastery’s founding over 550 years ago.

The result is a festival with a quality of authenticity that is rare in the modern Bhutanese festival calendar. Visitors who attend Tangbi Mewang are not an audience watching a performance — they are guests at a community event. They jump the fire alongside the villagers. They watch dances performed by the same families who organised the festival. They eat the same food prepared for the gathering. It is, in the truest sense, an experience of Bhutanese community life rather than Bhutanese cultural display.

Things to Do in Bumthang Around the Festival

• Kurjey Lhakhang — just down the road from Tangbi, one of the holiest sites in Bhutan. The body imprint of Guru Rinpoche is preserved in a cave inside the temple complex. Essential.
• Jambay Lhakhang — one of the oldest temples in Bhutan (7th century), a few km from Tangbi. The Jambay Lhakhang Drup, with its midnight Tercham naked dance and Mewang fire ceremony, is held in October/November at this same temple — offering a different Mewang experience in the same valley.
• Tamshing Lhakhang — founded by Pema Lingpa in 1501. Original 500-year-old murals survive. Pema Lingpa’s chain mail coat is kept here for pilgrims to wear as a blessing.
• Mebar Tsho (Burning Lake) — the sacred gorge in the Tang Valley where Pema Lingpa retrieved terma from the water by diving in with a lit torch. About 45 minutes from Tangbi.
• Jakar Dzong — the administrative centre of Bumthang, built in the 17th century. Worth visiting for its architecture and valley views.