Lhamoi Dromchhen

Lhamoi Dromchhen is a ritual festival honoring Palden Lhamo, the wrathful protector deity tied to Trongsa Dzong, the largest fortress-monastery in Bhutan and ancestral seat of the Wangchuck dynasty. Held each February inside the dzong's courtyards, it centers on intensive monastic ritual and offering ceremonies rather than the extended public masked-dance program typical of a tshechu, drawing mostly local and central-Bhutanese pilgrims.

Trongsa Dzong is the largest fortress-monastery in Bhutan and the ancestral seat of the Wangchuck dynasty, built on a spur high above the Mangde Chhu gorge in a way that controlled the only trade route between eastern and western Bhutan for centuries, and each February the dzong's resident monastic body performs Lhamoi Dromchhen, a ritual festival dedicated to Palden Lhamo, the wrathful female protector deity closely associated with the dzong and, by extension, with the royal family whose seat it once was.