Black Necked Crane Festival
The valley welcomes its winter guests home, one day each November.
Schoolchildren in crane costume dance in Gangtey's courtyard as the real birds settle into the marsh below — conservation as festival.
Held every 11 November in the courtyard of Gangtey Monastery, the Black Necked Crane Festival marks the return of the birds that winter in the Phobjikha marsh, and it is unlike anything else in the festival calendar: village children dance as cranes, environmental theatre shares the programme with folk song, and the celebration’s whole purpose is the valley’s decades old pact with its most famous residents.
Stay the days around it and the festival becomes a hinge — cham and crane costume in the morning, the actual birds calling across the frost by afternoon.
Plan your time around Black Necked Crane Festival
Tell us a moment or a feeling you are seeking. We will design a private journey around Black Necked Crane Festival — with the days before and after pitched to match.
Plan your private journey