The Royal Textile Museum Bhutan or Royal Textile Academy is a national textiles museum. It is located very near to Taj Tashi Hotel and Authentic Handicraft shops. It was established in the year 2001. It has a huge collection of antique textile artifacts. Weaving in Bhutan is the culture and tradition. RTA the aim is to preserve and promote this living art of Bhutan to international and domestic markets. The Royal Textile Museum Bhutan was instituted in May 2005 under the royal guidance of Majesty Queen Mother Sangay Choden Wangchuck.
The objective is to promote Bhutan’s unique textile and to improve the quality and patterns. It is the platform for studies and research on the textile of Bhutan. The purpose is also to promote culture and preserve the uniqueness of weaving. The Royal Textile Museum Bhutan was first conceived by the Queen Mother Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck. It was established in 2001 and inaugurated by the Queen.
The Royal Textile Musem Bhutan is divided into six areas when you visit the place. Starting from achievements in textile arts in Bhutan, the role of textiles in the Buddhist religion, textiles from indigenous fibers, The Royal Collection from Royal Family of Bhutan, warp pattern weaves, and weft pattern weaves.
The Royal Collection of Bhutan has an immense collection of Bhutanese antique textile artifacts. Which includes crowns of Bhutan’s Kings, all kinds of dresses, and other accessories worn by the Royal Family. You can see pearl robe from Tsamdrak Goenpa and the bedding of Shabdrung Jigme Dorji.
The ground floor of the Royal Textile Museum Bhutan has displays of spinning, colour fibers, preparing a loom, and manipulating two sets of yarns. All kinds of decorative fabrics and textile arts are in the galleries. There are displays of traditional regional garments produced by women and men in Bhutan.
The Royal Textile Museum Bhutan organizes design competitions to display the best textiles. The museum also hosts a textile festival annually but now due to covid-19, it is on a halt.
To sustain the interest of the weavers, sellers, and artists, an auction process is managed by the Museum. The base price for the product is fixed by the management and finally, the final bid price will be disclosed officially. This procedure is adopted to ensure quality products. The museum has also engaged two permanent weavers – one for “Pangtha” which means spinning and another for “Thuetha” which means colouring.
A small group of loom weavers at the museum from Lhuentse district are shown here, which is an ancestral home of the Bhutanese Royal Family in northeastern Bhutan.
5 star hotel Taj Tashi is very near to Royal Textile Museum. It is just 10 minutes walk. Taj Tashi Hotel caters to those, who want to pay additional to the amount paid to Bhutan Tour agency at munium daily package. The hotel is joint venture between Tashi group of companies of Bhutan and Taj group of hotels,India.
National Library is 20 minutes walk from Royal Textile Musuem. If you take taxi it takes 4-5 minutes drive. It is stockiest of old Buddhist scriptures and books. Recently Government of Bhutan undergone conversion of old scriptures and books into digital format. National Library is one of the top most sightseeing places in Thimphu.
Indigenous Hospital or ITMS is traditional Buddhist practise hospital in Bhutan. It is under Ministry of Health. It conducts teaching practics for Indegenious medicines. Students learn how to practise traditional medicines of Bhutan. Medical herbs are collected from high altitude regions of Bhutan. Production of medicines are done and export to many countries worlwide.
Sunday weekend Market of Thimphu is 15 minutes walk from The museum. The market is open for tourist and locals from Friday till Sundays. Farmers from nearby regions of Tsirang,Thimphu,Punakha,Paro, Haa and Punakha come to sell their organic vegetables. You can see different segments of stalls. Other side of the Cantipillar wooden bridge you can find good collection of handicrafts at cheaper price.
Painting school 20 minutes walk from Royal textile Museum Bhutan. The school is taught traditional arts and crafts. It is preserving traditional arts and crafts of Bhutan by passing knowledge to young people.
Folk Heritage Museum is a 5 Minutes drive from Textile Museum. It is the oldest structure of Bhutanese traditional house, where you can see Bhutanese traditional House and how Bhutanese live with day to day life. How the House is structured for activities inside the house.