Paro Festival
This festival usually takes place in March or April each year, depending upon the Bhutanese lunar calendar. It is considered one of the most colorful and wonderful of Bhutan�s many festivals and is very popular with visitors.
Festival participants don ornamental dress and elaborate costumes that are worn just once a year. Other highlights of the Paro Festival include the Thongdrel on the last day.
Thongdrel is a huge religious scroll, usually with the image of Bhutanese protector deity, Guru Rimpoche, appliqu�d in bright silk. The scroll is lowered on the last day of the Festival in the early hours of the morning, and is rolled back up before direct sunlight touches it.
"THONGDREL MEANS LIBERATION UPON SIGHT, SEEING ONE IS ENOUGH TO BRING THE FAITHFUL INTO AN ENLIGHTENED STATE."