The story
Royal Highland Festival in Laya
The Royal Highland Festival, launched in 2021 in the high-altitude village of Laya, gathers yak herders and highland communities from across northern Bhutan for two days of yak displays, archery, mastiff dog shows, and traditional highland song and dance. It is a secular, government-organized celebration of pastoral highland culture rather than a religious tshechu, held in one of Bhutan's highest permanently inhabited settlements.
The Royal Highland Festival began in 2021 as a government-organized gathering in Laya, a settlement above 3,800 meters that is one of the highest permanently inhabited villages in Bhutan, created specifically to bring visibility and economic support to the country's scattered highland communities.