National Memorial Chorten (Dzongkha: དགོངས་རྫོགས་མཆོད་རྟེན།) also known as the Thimphu Chorten, is a stupa located at Thimphu (ཐིམ་ཕུ), Bhutan. The stupa was built in 1974 to honor the third Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ འཇིགས་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་མཆོག་) and dedicated to World Peace.
National Memorial Chorten is a prominent landmark in the city, it is popularly known as ‘the most visible religious landmark in Bhutan’.
Druk Gyalpo (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་) means ‘Dragon King’ in Dzongkha, is the head of state of the Kingdom of Bhutan.
There is a small house full of butter lamps next to the stupa, tourists are free to light up butter lamps to honor the king.
Chorten literally means ‘Seat of Faith’ and Buddhists often call such monuments, the ‘Mind of Buddha’, it is an Buddhist architecture and artwork with paintings and sculptures.
The stupa is a large white structure crowned with a golden spire, tourists can go inside but are not allowed to take photos.
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (1929 – 1972) began to open Bhutan to the outside world, began modernization, and took the first step towards democratization, known as ‘Father of modern Bhutan’.
