Valley of white fortresses and red chillies
Paro
White-walled monasteries with a red band under the roof stand above rice fields in a Himalayan valley.
Why Paro is dzong white
Paro is a broad valley in western Bhutan and the site of the country's international airport. Its fortress-monastery, Rinpung Dzong, dates from the 17th century. Like all dzongs it has thick, inward-sloping walls painted white, with a dark red band near the top. That band, called kemar, marks a religious building. Windows and eaves are painted with flowers, clouds and dragons in many colours. Bhutanese rules require new buildings to keep the traditional style, so farmhouses share the look. In autumn families spread red chillies to dry on roofs, making bright red squares across the valley. High on a cliff to the north is Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest monastery, white with gold roofs.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Paro
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Paro, Bhutan" on Wikipedia. If you know Paro and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇧🇹 Capital in white, red and goldThimphuBhutan's capital keeps its buildings in traditional white, dark red and gold, with painted woodwork.
🇮🇳 The White CityUdaipurWhite palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.
🇮🇳 Kolam white and Madras checksChennaiWhite kolam drawings at each doorstep, yellow autorickshaws, red colonial brick and painted temple towers.
🇮🇳 Fine florals on whiteSanganerA printing town on the edge of Jaipur, known for delicate flower motifs on a white ground.
🇮🇳 City of the Taj MahalAgraThe white marble of the Taj Mahal shifts from pink at dawn to gold at dusk, beside forts of red sandstone.
🇱🇰 The white fort townGalleA walled colonial town on Sri Lanka's south coast, with white churches, a white lighthouse and ochre villas.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Udaipur In: Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Chennai In: Saiphani02, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Sanganer In: Seema agarwal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Agra In: Antrix3, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Galle Lk: A.Savin, FAL, source
- Thimphu Bt: Douglas McLaughlin, CC BY 2.5, source