With its only monastery, the Barshong Dzong mostly in ruins, the people of Naro Gewog in Thimphu have been longing for a proper monastery for years now.
The people of the gewog could now be an inch closer to seeing their dream come true as the Prime Minister, during his visit to the gewog over the weekend, promised to look into the possibility of reconstructing the Barshong Dzong.
The dzong, believed to be over three centuries old, currently serves as a monastic school and houses about 300 monks. It is also the only religious structure in the gewog.
“Other gewogs have at least two or three monasteries, but here in our gewog, we don’t even have one,” said Naro Gup Wangchuk.
The Gup shared it was proposed that a monastery be built in the place of the dzong in the 11th Five Year Plan. But the plan was later scrapped after it failed to garner the approval of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs.
“We even had a budget of Nu 4m allocated for it,” said Gup Wangchuk. “But the ministry did an inspection and denied approval saying the ruins of the dzong have to be preserved.”
The Gup added that they proposed to build a monastery in the same spot where the dzong stands because there is no other land available.
Lam Cencho of Barshong Dzong Shedra said the dzong was constructed after Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel commanded it when he arrived in Barshong coming through Lingzhi more than 300 years ago.
