Gasa is all geared up to host the fifth Royal Highland Festival tomorrow. People from all walks of life gather to celebrate the two-day festival that showcases innovation and exhibits the highlands as the pride of Bhutan. The festival is resuming after two years.
The rehearsal programs are in full swing. Several exciting programs such as the agriculture and livestock exhibition, horse racing and the strong man competition await the visitors. Layaps are excited about the festival which they missed for the last two years due to the pandemic.
“We are extremely happy since the Royal Highland Festival is resuming. We can learn a lot about our cultures such as our dress code and our indigenous songs during the event. We can also preserve and hand over these cultures to our younger generations. We are looking forward to getting an audience from His Majesty The King and celebrating the festival,” said Yuden.
“Our people are extremely happy after hearing about the resuming of the Royal Highland Festival this year. They started rearing the horses and began bringing back their yaks from the herding places. We have also helped with the preparation work. Some of the people have started installing stalls while some have started earning by hiring their horses. Everyone is excited,” said Rinzin Cheda.
“All the programs and preparation works for the highland festival are ready after almost a week. The civil servants, gewog officials and locals helped in the preparation works. Royal Highland Festival has benefitted our people a lot. The festival has helped build and maintain a good rapport between the highlanders and people from the rest of the districts,” said Tshewang, DT Chairperson.
The highland communities from almost ten districts will be taking part in the event to showcase their unique culture and tradition during the festival.
“The highlanders have very few opportunities. But such an event is providing the highlanders with much-needed exposure and secondly, they get the opportunity to learn about other cultures. We are planning to perform our two regional famous Songs and Zhey at the event tomorrow. Likewise, we are also ready to exhibit our local productions for sale during the event,” said Kencho Dorji, Soe Gup.
“We can see and understand the differences between the cultures of Sakteng and Laya from the event. The festival is a good opportunity to build and maintain good relationships among different communities,” said Tshewang Tshering, Sakteng Gup.
Envisioned by His Majesty the King, the Royal Highland Festival was introduced in 2016 to boost the highland community’s socio-economic conditions and promote their culture.
Changa Dorji, Gasa
Edited by Sonam Pem
