The manor house of Nyangmey village in Tsento, Paro, belonged to Nyangmey Chukmo, the aristocrat of the village. Now called Nyangmey Village Museum, the three-storey mediaeval house preserves the last vestiges of Bhutan’s past that is fast disappearing.
First built by Tshongpon Gonpo for his root lama, Kathog Rigzin Chenpo, before the 17th century, the house of Nyangmey Chukmo has survived – almost unscathed – the onslaught of modernisation, thanks to Tshongpon Gonpo’s unbroken line of descendants.
One approaches the museum through a canopy of fruit trees surrounding the mud rampart built around the house. When the trees are laden with fruits, a visitor can pick apples, peaches, walnuts, or grapes. And as one enters through the huge rampart door, the dark, mud-rammed house stands tall, still proud despite the all too clear ravages of time written all over her.