National Museum of Bhutan…

If you visit Bhutan, make sure to stop by the National Museum, perched directly above Paro Dzong. The 17th century watchtower pictured above was renovated in 1968 to house the museum (but due to earthquake damage in 2009 and 2011, the museum’s masks and thangkas are now on display in an adjacent annex). Since I’ve studied “non-western” masked performance for over fifteen years with my performance mentor, Professor John Emigh from Brown University, I was particularly impressed and inspired by the museum’s collection of festival masks used in traditional dances performed by Buddhist monks…