The Tsechu lasts 5 days. It starts on Monday with a series of events inside the Paro Dzong (a dzong is a fortress/temple/monastery). On Tuesday it moves outside to a larger venue. In culminates on Friday with the unfurling of the Thongdrel at 3 am.
The first 4 days of the Tsechu are dances and plays that mainly teach people about Buddhism in Bhutan. From my perspective it was like drinking from a firehose. There was so much to see and learn that I only picked up a fraction of it all. Some of the dances/plays, like the Dance of the Judgement of the Dead, are meant to teach people what happens when you die and are led to judgement by Shinje, the Lord of Death. Parents take their children to see this dance because they believe that then they won't be scared when they die.
Not all the dances are this serious. There are folk dances by women from a local village dressed in beautiful matching kiras. There are clowns, calles Atsaras, that run around making fun of the dancers, participate in the plays, and joke with the audience. The Atsaras carry wooden phallic shaped sticks that they poke people with and use as a prop (use your imagination).
The costumes are also very elaborate and beautiful. While the women dance in very tiny line dancing like steps in their Kiras, the men wear the elaborate costumes with masks and twirl around wildly for really long periods of time. I was trying to figure out how they didn't get dizzy.
On the last day at 3 am a giant 4 story tapestry, called the Thongdrel, is unfurled at 3 am. The Thongdrel has Guru Rinpoche (the founder of Nyingma Buddhism and the person who brought Buddhism to Bhutan in in AD 746) in the center surrounded by his eight manifestations. His image and statues are everywhere here in Bhutan and you can usually recognize him by his little mustache.People line up to pass beneath the Thongdrel this early in the morning. They believe that if you are blessed under the Thongdrel your sins are washed away. I got up at 4 am to join the line, which actually turned into sort of a mob crush right before a police blockade. The police were controlling the "entrance" to the Thongdrel. After getting through the crush, I walked underneath this gorgeous tapestry in the half dark, was blessed by a monk with a gold thunderbolt in his hand under Guru Rinpoche, and then blessed by another monk with a gold hand of Buddha. I was blessed by having these objects touched to the top of my head.
Right in front of me, through the crush of people and then the line under the Thongdrel at 4 am, was a father alone with his 3 young girls. The baby was probably 3 months old and the other two little girls were probably 2 and 4. This is a very important event to the people.
I found it an odd coincidence that the blessing under the Thongdrel nearly coincided with Easter in the Christian world. Both have the same premise - washing away of our sins - and some interesting similarities (ever been to Easter sunrise service?). To be light hearted - it goes along with the Asian saying: Same, Same but Different.
After the blessing, I ran into Karen and Douglas, some friends I met on the plane to Bhutan. This is a great picture of Karen at the unfurling as the sun was rising.
