Overview (Matsutake Mushroom Festival)

The Matsutake Mushroom Festival falls during mushroom season in summer every year. The festival takes place in two different locations Genekha in Thimphu and Ura valley in Bumthang. During the annual three-day mushroom festival, which takes place in August, hundreds of people, including tourists, congregate in Bumthang’s gorgeous Ura valley to watch, taste, and participate in mushroom picking. Matsutake is a Japanese name for a mushroom, which grows wild in Bhutan. Matsutake is a brownish mushroom that grows in dense forested area in and around Thimphu and Bumthang. It’s highly priced in Japanese market and mostly exported to Japan.

Highlights of the Matsutake Mushroom Tshechu (Festival)

The The Matsutake Mushroom Festival is event celebrated once in a year by offering valuable cultural and spiritual highlights that attract both local and tourists. Some of the key highlights of this festival are as follows:

• Local Folk Dances and Sing: Everyone will get to see popular mask dances being performed by the locals and the monks.
• Showcase: This is a very special festival to showcase locally grown mushroom and wild mushroom people pick from the forest.
• Info Graphic: The festival includes cultural performances to entertain the visitors while other stalls promote sustainable agriculture and ecotourism and different types of mushrooms can also be found to educate the visitors. The highlight of the festival includes engaging in mushroom picking activity and trying out the matsutake mushroom soup.
• Community Gatherings: People from the rural Bumthang will gather together for this festival. It’s a good time as this festival bring the local communities together to showcase their local product and bring awareness for a sustainable harvesting of wild mushroom and ways to boost the local income.
• Source of Income: For the community members, harvesting the wild mushroom is a major source of their income. Over the years, these mushrooms have been imported to Japan and other countries increasing the demand for the wild fungus and believed to possess high medicinal properties.
• Enjoy: It’s a nice festival to attend as firstly you will get to witness a true rural scene where people enjoy the festival in the true sense. People will come dressed in beautiful hand-woven dresses which are sometimes over hundred years old. These expensive dresses are family heirloom possessed down generations.