For three centuries Bhutan had no fixed capital in the modern sense. Government moved with the seasons between dzongs, wintering in warm Punakha and spending summers in higher valleys. The first two kings ruled mainly from their family seats in central Bhutan.
In the 1950s the third king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, decided the country needed a permanent capital. He chose Thimphu, a valley of farms below an old dzong, and in the 1960s Tashichho Dzong was rebuilt and greatly enlarged to house the government, the throne room and the central monk body. Thimphu became the official capital in 1961.
The new road from Phuentsholing, built in the early 1960s, linked the capital to India and helped it grow. The city still keeps the king's offices and the monks under one roof in Tashichho Dzong, a reminder of the dual system that has run Bhutan since the 17th century.
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Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
