Folk Heritage Museum Kawajangsa

Overview

Folk Heritage Museum in Kawajangsa is within walking distance of the National Library of Bhutan and the National Institute for zorig choesum (13 Traditional Arts)  in the heart of the capital city, Thimphu.

The Folk Heritage Museum uses exhibits, demonstrations, educational programs, and documentation of Bhutanese rural life to associate people with the rich Bhutanese Folk heritage and agricultural history. This preservation helps disseminate the rich heritage across generations.

Queen Mother of Bhutan, Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck took the initiative and established Folk Heritage Museum or Phelchey Toenkhyim on July 28, 2001. Her Majesty is the founder and patron of the Museum. This Museum is more than 150 years old. Its historicity reflects the rural setting and flavor that have been preserved in addition to the paddy, wheat, and millet fields. 

The Museum preserves famous traditional hot stone, traditional water mill with millstones, traditional style kitchen gardens with vegetables cultivated over the past 100 years. Indigenous knowledge about the use of natural resources like native trees and plants in Bhutanese rural households has to be preserved with its cultivation here. It will also include a patch of greenery, right in the heart of the capital city Thimphu.

Stone courtyard at the ground floor entrance to the farmhouse is used to store firewood, farming equipment, and grain. An incense burner is there as an offering to the protective deities. The ground floor serves as a barn and houses farm animals during the coldest periods of Bhutan's harsh winters.

The second level is a safe store for food and grain. Visitors will get to the center of the dining and living area with heating, generated by a wood-fired stove set against an external wall in the separate kitchen area of the third level.  The adjoining area to the kitchen is the place where the family would have slept.

The principal exhibit of the Museum dates back to the mid-19^th century, and it depicts restored three-storied, traditional rammed mud and the timber house. These conventional households, their design, and form give a unique experience. 

The Architecture of the National Folk Heritage Museum

The house where Museum has been set up is developed in a customary Bhutanese manner. The three-storied structure is comprised of smashed earth and wood. There is a conventional water mill that has been saved for a considerable length of time and kept on a presentation for guests. The kitchen garden, wheat and paddy fields add greater legitimacy to this spot. The courtyard of the house is roomy and shut.

The ground floor is the place the cows are given shelter during inclement winter months. The farming equipment and grains are stored. Fodder for castles and medicines are also kept on the ground floor only.

The second floor is utilized as a storage facility for grains, food things, and so on. On each different level, there is something new and something else to see.

Special Occasions

Sightseers may benefit from the gallery's special offers at a nominal expense with a booking of at least one week. These incorporate demonstrations of the customary method of extricating oil or Markhu Tsene, brewing ara or Ara Kayne, simmering rice or Zaw Ngowni, and thrashing rice or Tham Dhungni inside premises. The Museum additionally arranges an outdoor buffet lunch and supper, offering guests a taste of conventional food. The menu for such courses of action is accessible at the Museum. It comprises an assortment of customary dishes from each region of the Kingdom.

Be that as it may, lunch and dinner plans are just accessible for bunches with at least five individuals.

At present, the Museum acts as a stage that grandstands the rural convention and practices methods to apprise the onlookers of Bhutan's local conduct.

Travelers have the extraordinary chance to live throughout Bhutan's entire existence for a short time as the visit around the historical center can return them to the past Bhutanese days. Travelers can buy Bhutan-made trinkets and witness the different hosts displaying activities of former times, such as oil extraction, ara(alcohol) blending, and rice broiling. After all the tiring commitments, when somebody is hungry, they can lean back around the people's legacy eatery and appreciate some customary Bhutanese dinners.

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