Black necked Crane Festival in Bhutan

Travellers are welcome to take part in the festivities, and the Black-necked Crane Festival is one of the most charming events in the Bhutanese calendar. “It was a wonderful trip from start to finish,” says Diane Moore, who joined one of our Bhutan cultural tours. “If I had to pick something out I would say that it was the Black-necked Crane Festival which was so colourful and vibrant.”

Official rituals like flag-raising ceremonies are followed by performances of drumming and masked dances, while stalls serve up butter tea, spicy pork momo (dumplings), and bowls of rice and chili cheese. Don’t miss the crane dance, proudly performed by a gaggle of school children in fancy dress. The festival is the invention of the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature (RSPN) in Bhutan, and attracts hundreds of visitors every year, many of whom will stay a few nights, bringing valuable tourism income to this agricultural community.

You’ll see woodcarvings of black-necked cranes in monasteries, and if you stay the night in a farmhouse, you may well see pictures of them on the walls. These tall, graceful birds with their long legs and tapered necks, monochrome save for a red cap, number around 18,000 in the wild, and are listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List, their numbers gradually increasing. Much of the credit for that must go to the efforts of the RSPN, which was established to monitor the cranes and manage their habitat, and now keeps an eye on several other vulnerable species as well.

The birds can live up to 30 years, and their annual appearance in Bhutan is considered divine providence. For farmers who see them strutting around their fields, the cranes herald a strong harvest and a long life. The winter wheat is not planted until they arrive, and great care is taken to ensure they come to no harm.

Only around 400-600 birds come to Bhutan – the Black-necked Crane migration also takes them to Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh in India, and to southern China. In the Phobjikha Valley, the RSPN has constructed a visitor information centre, where you can learn about their conservation programmes, and how injured cranes are rehabilitated. You can spend time at the centre on our black-necked crane festival holidays, and admire the cranes through the centre’s high-tech telescopes. The best time to see them tends to be early morning.

Breeding on the Tibetan Plateau during summer, the black-necked cranes flock to the wetlands of Bhutan’s Phobjikha Valley to see out the winter. Though temperatures can fall as far as -4?C here at 3,000m above sea level, the birds find the living conditions ideal. They forage in the fields after the wheat, turnips and barley have been harvested, rooting out insects and eating the dwarf bamboo that flourishes in this damp environment.

But agricultural expansion creates pressure. Plans to drain the wetlands to boost potato crops were blocked as they would have been detrimental to the cranes’ ability to feed and roost, and there are ongoing concerns about the use of pesticides, as well as soil erosion. Some 160km² of the valley has been set aside as a conservation area managed by the RSPN . The organisation works with local farmers, monitoring water quality and pollution levels, and removing hazards such as barbed wire. Power cables in the valley have been laid underground too, again with the aim of protecting the birds.

The climate crisis is also a threat to the valley, and the wildlife it supports. The wetlands are fed by glacial melt, creating a suitable habitat for many species of migratory birds, including white-throated bush chats and greater spotted eagles. But as temperatures rise and glaciers melt faster, while precipitation becomes more unpredictable, the wetland ecosystem becomes unbalanced.

There is a clever and vital intersection of agriculture, conservation and tourism at play in the Phobjikha Valley. Farmers are keen to protect the landscape and wildlife such as the black-necked cranes because they can supplement their income through tourism, while visitors can enjoy some traditional Bhutanese culture while financially contributing to conservation efforts through donations. And the cranes, well, they’re probably happy just as long as there are plenty of tasty bugs to eat.

The Black-necked Crane Festival is a one-day event organised by the RSPN to celebrate the birds’ annual arrival to overwinter in Bhutan. It also raises awareness of the threats the birds face and the need to protect them. Over the course of the day, local villagers take part in a range of cultural events – a dance performed by costumed schoolchildren is particularly lovely. Visitors are welcome to join in the festivities.

Bhutan’s Black-necked Crane Festival is held at Gangtey Monastery in the Phobjikha Valley, a four-hour drive east of Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu. While there, you’ll typically stay in a locally owned hotel, but some tours may offer the chance to stay the night in a family home. That gives you another opportunity to explore rural Bhutanese culture while also ensuring that local people benefit financially from your stay in the valley.

The Black-necked Crane Festival date is 11 November every year. Tours that include the festival will likely also spend a day either side of it exploring the Phobjikha Valley, such as hiking or watching the cranes through telescopes at the RSPN visitor centre. The cranes usually begin arriving in the region from October and leave in February.

The black-necked crane is revered in Buddhist culture as a holy bird, a messenger from heaven, and features heavily in the country’s folklore. The cranes are also symbolic for environmentalists. They sustain themselves by foraging in the Phobjikha Valley, and roost in the wetlands too, so their presence indicates that the ecosystem here is healthy.