The story
Thangbi Mewang in Thangbi Lhakhang
Thangbi Lhakhang's autumn festival centers on mewang, a nighttime fire ritual where crowds pass between two bonfires for purification, a format distinct from the masked-dance-only festivals nearby in the Bumthang valley. Daytime cham dances lead into an after-dark finale, closing with a tercham dance related to the naked-dance tradition performed nearby at Jambay Lhakhang, though on a smaller, more local scale.
Thangbi Lhakhang sits a short walk from Jakar in Bumthang's Choekhor valley, a fifteenth-century temple whose annual festival is built around fire rather than the masked-dance format most visitors expect from a tshechu.