History ablaze in Gasa

25 January 2008

Gasa: Gasa Tashi Thongmoen Dzong caught fire in the evening of 22 January.

The fire, which started at around 7:30 pm and threatened to consume the whole dzong, was completely put off by 5:30 the next morning. Close to 400 people including Royal Bhutan Police personnel, officials on election duty and people from Khatoe, Khamay, Gasa Tshachu, Semina, Khailo, and Panako battled the flames for at least nine hours. They fought a hard battle trying to douse the flames with water collected in buckets, pots and pans, and containers before using a generator to pump water from a pond about 100 metres from the dzong. “Firefighters were mobilised quickly and efficiently, and that helped us,” said Dzongda Karma Weezir.

The dzongda said that the fire was suspected to have been caused by an electric short circuit in the caretaker’s room, which is adjacent to the Kap Goem Lhakhang.

While the caretaker’s room and Dzongkhag Engineering Section above it were completely burned down with the latter losing all its documents, the lhakhang and the Dzongkhag Administration Section were only partially destroyed. The damage to the administration block was caused mainly in the process of frantically breaking down doors, bringing down partitions, and removing office equipment, according to the Dzongda.

The next block, which houses the office of the sector heads, also suffered some damage from similar attempts to save things from the fire.

Although important nangtens including the Kanjur and Bum scriptures and the thongdroel, could be salvaged from the fire, the statues of Buddha, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel, and Guru Rinpoche, walls, pillars, and ceiling were charred and singed. The thongdroel had suffered partial burns on the fringes. Dzongda Karma Weezir said the extent of damage would take time to be completely assessed. He added that the normal work in the dzong will resume with the return of power supply.

Dzongrab Karma Rinchen said that, despite partial damage to the dzongkhag’s administrative section, routine work had in fact resumed. “We have managed to replace the missing things, and there is no effect on our routine work,” he added.

When Observer arrived at the scene early next morning, the fire had been put off, but the singed and charred remains of the fire were still smouldering. The people were still recovering from the shock. Corridors and courtyards were littered with the remains of burnt-out office equipment, documents, scriptures, and furniture. Scanning through the damage, it was apparent that much of it had indeed been caused by panic-ridden attempts to salvage important properties and to rid the rooms of easily combustible materials like plywood partitions as well as plastic and rubber equipment.

The Dzongkhag Human Resource Officer, Lobzang Dorji, who had suffered a cut above an eye while fighting the blaze, said Gasa had narrowly escaped a Holocaust. “It was totally unimaginable,” he added.

Ap Penjor, 60, who walked two hours from his village to help put out the fire, said it was their collective good fortune that saved the dzong, shaking his greying head violently.

The people of Gasa described the fire as the “most shocking experience” in recent times. Built in 1648 by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel as one of the four Dra Dzongs (defense fortresses), Gasa Dzong today houses two important lhakhangs, and is the seat of the dzongkhag administration, dzongkhag monk body and the dzongkhag court of justice.