A walk through the old Dirang Dzong

Dirang Dzong is the historic core of the valley, a cluster of stone houses packed onto a spur above the Dirang Chu and once enclosed by walls. The word dzong usually means a fortress-monastery, and here it describes a fortified settlement built to guard the valley route between the plains and the high passes. Its houses rise three or four storeys, built of dressed stone with timber floors and small windows framed in painted wood.

With a local guide we walk the lanes in the late afternoon, when the light is warm on the stone and families are home from the fields. You see the old gateway, the prayer wheels, the communal water points and the small temples tucked between houses. Some families still store grain and keep animals on the ground floor, as their grandparents did.

We end in a family home for salted butter tea, a staple of Monpa life, and perhaps a plate of local cheese or roasted maize. The visit is unhurried and personal, and your guide translates. It gives a glimpse of a way of life shaped by mountains, trade and Buddhism.