Nomad festival concludes in Bumthang

The two-day Sixth Nomad Festival, initiated by Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and held annually has concluded today in Chokhoer gewog under Bumthang. The theme of the festival is ‘promoting harmony for bio-culture diversity’.

The nomads from Haa, Paro, Thimphu, Gasa, Trashi Yangtse, Bumthang, Wangduephodran and Trashigang participated the annual festival this year.

The unique festival is seen as an excellent platform for the nomads and herders to showcase their tradition and culture, nomadic life style and experiences, handicrafts, and weaves.

They also exhibited their traditional games, like Soksum, Pungdo, Khuru and a variety of nomadic dances that are prominent in their locality and served their traditional dishes, like Jagbuli, Khuli and Puta.

Park Manager of the Wangchuk Centennial National Park, Tshering Dendup, said the nomads in the country not only have an exclusive culture, but they are also known to have a sacred and indispensible duty of contributing towards sovereignty and border integrity of the country by acting as a buffer zone at the bordering areas.

The festival was aimed at educating the nomads on the values of conservation of flora and fauna, watershed management, economic development, animal and plant husbandry etc.