The art of wearing a Bhutanese Kira

a traditional Kira

The Bhutanese are proud of their national heritage and this is evident as most of the women wear the traditional Kira dress and the men, the Gho.

The Kira is an ankle-length dress made of a woven fabric.  The hand-woven ones are heavier and warmer and also more expensive.  The fabric is wrapped around the body and delicately folded on one side. 

We were invited to have dinner at the home of our travel organizer, Snow Leopard, in Thimpu. The mother of our host personally dressed all of us in traditional Bhutanese clothes.

She first wrapped a beautiful hand-woven, 100-year old Kira up to my shoulders which she pinned with an antique silver Koma (repousse brooch), one for each shoulder. Then she made me put on a Wonji, a light-colored, long-sleeved silk blouse and wrapped a 3-inch  hand-woven belt around my waist. Last is the Toego, a dark-colored heavy silk jacket with the end of the Wonji folded back to form a cuff. For the final touches, she pinned a brooch to secure the jacket from opening and added two strands of antique gemstone necklace. 

Nowadays, the Kiras are cut at the waist instead of pulling it up all the way up the shoulders  Here's Tessa being dressed  by one of the festivalgoer at Punakha:

A festivalgoer helping Tessa put on a Kira

It is interesting to note that the Koma, especially the old designs, can double up as a self-defense weapon. At the textile museum, I spotted one of the antique silver brooches that resembled a knife. The guide said that some of the brooches were used as knives for protection. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo since we weren't allowed to take photos inside.

Here we all are wearing our traditional Kira.