Temple etiquette

Dress code

Dzongs are working government and monastic buildings, not tourist sites, and the dress code is enforced at the door rather than suggested.

• Long trousers or a long skirt. Shorts, cropped trousers and short skirts will be turned away.
• Covered shoulders. Sleeveless tops, vests and spaghetti straps are not acceptable inside.
• Shoes off before entering a lhakhang — easy shoes save you a lot of fiddling on a temple-heavy day.
• Hats and sunglasses off in the courtyard and inside.
• No hoods up, and nothing tied around the waist.

Bhutanese visitors wear the gho and kira with a kabney or rachu when entering a dzong, and you will notice guides and drivers changing before they go in. Visitors are not expected to do this, but it tells you how seriously the building is taken.

Photography

Drones need advance permission and are restricted around dzongs, airports and the border. Assume no unless it has been cleared for you in writing.

How to move around sacred objects

The one piece of practical Buddhism worth learning before you arrive: always clockwise. Chortens, mani walls, prayer wheels, temples and the inner circuit of a dzong are all circumambulated with the object on your right.

• Turn prayer wheels with your right hand, clockwise, as you walk past.
• Do not sit on, lean against or climb a chorten or mani wall.
• Do not point your feet at an altar, a statue or a monk — sit cross-legged or with feet tucked back.
• Do not point at religious objects with a single finger; an open hand is the polite gesture.
• Step over, never on, the raised threshold at a temple door.

The national rules that catch people out

Tobacco

Smoking in public places is illegal in Bhutan and tobacco is not sold in the country. Small quantities may be brought in for personal use with duty paid at the border, and it must stay out of public spaces. Enforcement is real, not nominal.

Alcohol

Legal and widely available, but bars and liquor shops close on Tuesdays — “dry day” — across the country. Hotel guests are usually unaffected.

Taking things out

Antiques and religious artefacts cannot be exported. If you buy anything that looks old, get a receipt and, where relevant, a clearance certificate from the seller. Contemporary handicrafts and textiles are fine.

At a tshechu

Festivals are the one place where visitors and the religious calendar collide most directly, and the rules are the same, only with more people watching. Dress as you would for a dzong. Sit at the edges rather than in the front rows kept for elders and local families. Do not walk across the dance ground between masked dances, and do not use flash. Stand when the monks process.

None of this is onerous, and Bhutanese people are forgiving of visitors who get it wrong sincerely. The rules that will not bend are the dress code at the door and the camera inside.