For days I hadn’t been able to sleep more than a couple of hours a night. On the eve of the final day of Paro Tsechu, it was no different.

And so, despite a state of exhaustion that was beginning to make me feel like my brain had been burned out of my skull, I had no trouble waking up at two in the morning for the unveiling of Bhutan’s “great thangka“. In my zombie state, I stumbled out of bed.

The thangka wasn’t going to be revealed for another hour but already, lines of Bhutanese pilgrims snaked down every street in town, merging to follow the river, and then move up the hill to Paro Dzong.

Like with the crowds that gathered outside the dzong for Buddhist cham dances performed during the day, the mood atop the hill was casual and friendly. The revealing of the great thangka is a serious thing for Bhutanese. It not only gives people the opportunity to view a very old and sacred work of art, but also a chance to absolve themselves of the previous year’s sins. But even the thangka wasn’t enough to make those in attendance restrain their typical enjoyment of such a large social gathering.

Toddlers played candidly, relishing in the adventure of taking part in a celebration held in the middle of the night. Watching over them, old women gossiped and laughed. And while the thangka was truly something I felt privileged to see (it’s never touched by sunlight and only brought forth once a year), my favourite moments of the night came while chatting with two young girls from Phuntsholing. Shy but flirtatious, the girls were more interested in me taking my shoes off before sitting on their mat than they were in the holy tapestry their parents had brought them to see.

As a young woman from Canada I met that night pointed out, Bhutan’s US$200/night tourist visa can make getting to Paro tough. But if you can, I’d make the trip for tsechu.

More photos at my Flickr stream.