Festivals & Events

1. ཚེས་ཆུ་གི་གཟའ་སྟོན་ག་དེ་ལས་ཡོདཔ་ལགས།

   Tse-chu gi za-ton ga-de lay yoepa la

   When is the Tsechu festival?

   Usage

   Used to ask about the dates of Tsechu, Bhutan's most important religious festival

   Grammar Note

   Tsechu (tse=10, chu=day) is held on the 10th day of the lunar calendar; dates vary by region

2. འཁྲབ་གར་བལྟ་ཕྱིར་འགྱོ་ཀི་ཡིན།

   Trab-gar ta-chir gyo-ki yin

   I am going to watch the masked dance

   Usage

   Used to say you are going to watch Cham, the masked dance performed at Bhutanese festivals

   Grammar Note

   "Ki yin" expresses ongoing action or near future. Bhutan's Cham is famous at Paro and Thimphu festivals

3. ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ།

   Lo-sar la Tashi Delek zhu

   Happy New Year

   Usage

   Used to wish Happy New Year during Losar, the Bhutanese New Year celebration

   Grammar Note

   "La" is a directional particle. "Zhu" is the humble form, conveying heartfelt seasonal greetings

4. གཟའ་སྟོན་གི་ས་གནས་ག་ཏེ་ལས་འགྱོ་དགོ།

   Za-ton gi sa-ne ga-te lay gyo-go

   How do I get to the festival venue?

   Usage

   Used to ask for directions to a festival or cultural event venue

   Grammar Note

   "Ga-te lay gyo-go" asks "from where must one go," a polite way to request directions

5. གོས་རིང་གྱོན་ནས་གཟའ་སྟོན་ལ་འགྱོ་དགོ།

   Goe-ring gyon-nay za-ton la gyo-go

   I wear a Kira to attend the festival

   Usage

   Used to describe wearing traditional Bhutanese Kira dress to a festival

   Grammar Note

   In Bhutan, wearing traditional dress is often required or strongly encouraged at festivals and religious events

6. གཟའ་སྟོན་ཐོག་ལ་ཞལ་ཟས་ག་གང་ཕྱིར་གནང་།

   Za-ton tog la zhal-zay ga-gang chir nang

   What food is served at the festival?

   Usage

   Used to ask about traditional foods served during Bhutanese festival celebrations

   Grammar Note

   "Zhal-zay" is the honorific word for food. Festivals often feature dishes like Ema Datshi (chili cheese)

7. དགུ་ཟླ་རྒྱལ་དར་གི་གཟའ་སྟོན་ཤིན་ཏུ་བཟང་།

   Gu-da gyel-dar gi za-ton shin-tu zang

   The National Day festival is very wonderful

   Usage

   Used to express admiration for Bhutan's National Day celebration on December 17

   Grammar Note

   "Shin-tu" is an intensifying adverb meaning "very." It precedes adjectives for emphasis

8. ལྷ་ཁང་གི་གཟའ་སྟོན་ལ་དད་པ་དགའ།

   Lha-kang gi za-ton la dad-pa ga

   I was moved by the temple festival

   Usage

   Used to express being moved by a religious festival held at a dzong or temple

   Grammar Note

   In Dzongkha, "ga" is frequently used to express positive emotional responses including being moved

9. རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་གཟའ་སྟོན་གི་ལྷ་བྲིས་བལྟ་ཐུབ།

   Gyel-yong kyi za-ton gi lha-dri ta-tub

   You can see the thangka (Buddhist paintings) at national festivals

   Usage

   Used to describe the opportunity to view large thangka Buddhist paintings displayed at festivals

   Grammar Note

   The Paro Tsechu features a giant thangka unveiled at dawn. "Tub" indicates possibility

10. གཟའ་སྟོན་གི་དུས་ཚོད་ལ་སྤྲོ་བ་ཡོདཔ།

    Za-ton gi duey-tsho la tro-wa yoepa

    Festival season is very enjoyable

    Usage

    Used to express enjoyment of Bhutan's festival season, such as Paro in spring or Thimphu in autumn

    Grammar Note

    "Tro-wa yoepa" is a fixed expression meaning "there is joy/fun," used to describe enjoyable situations

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