Tsechu (festival) time is heaven for a textile voyeur like me. Everyone wears their finest clothes, and in Paro that meant the opportunity to see many especially fine kushutara kiras on the women.

These kiras would have cost upward of $1000 each, so the only way I could afford to collect them was on my camera!

If you’d like a closer look at the details, right-click on a photo to see it as a full-sized enlargeable file.

Note: The term kushutara can be used to refer only to brocade woven in red and blue on a white ground, with other names (eg, ngoshem) given to fabrics with other colour schemes. But nowadays, with such an enormous explosion of new designs and colour combinations, I often hear the word used broadly, for any piece densely patterned with kushu designs.

The men dressed up nicely too. See Paro Tsechu: Aikapur Ghos