What are Sites and Structures?

The UNESCO 1972 Convention on World Heritage defines Cultural Heritage Sites as those monuments, groups of building; sites or landscapes that are of outstanding value from the points of view of aesthetic, art, history or ethnology and anthropology.

Inspired by this definition, the Bhutan Cultural Atlas has decided to inventory those sites, monuments, buildings and other structures that:

  • Are a testimony to a community’s or nation’s history;
  • Reflect the cultural and artistic values of a community or the nation of Bhutan;
  • Give a sense of identity to a community;
  • Reflect the attachment to and a sense collective ownership by the nation or a community of Bhutan.

The database include inter alia,

  • Dzongs (fortresses) and Palaces;
  • Monasteries and Temples;
  • Other places of interests including: Chortens and prayer-walls, places of historical and religious interest; other kind of constructions (such as bridge or well, mill if any); and
  • Villages.