The Dokar or Dogar Dzong is situated at an altitude of 6,600 feet on the way to Haa in Western Bhutan. From the confluence, Chuzom, it is only 11 kilometers, going towards Haa. From the capital, Thimphu, it is slightly more than an hour’s drive.
The name Dokar (do meaning boulder and kar meaning white) is derived from the “Five white boulder” in the villages of Dogar. Over the course of time, the name changed to Dogar, probably to indicate the presence of many stone quarries in the area.
Dogar Dobji Dzong is considered to be the first model Dzong in Bhutan. Although it was built 98th years before Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel constructed his first Dzong at Semtokha, it had all the outstanding features of a Dzong.

The Dzong was built in 1531 by Ngawang Chogyal, the brother of Choji Drukpa Kuenley, who is popularly known as the “Divine Madman”. Legend has it that Ngawang Chogyal followed a spring which originated from beneath the throne of Jetsun Milarepa, the cotton clad yogi, in Druk Ralung, Tibet, in order to find a suitable site to establish a centre from which to spread the Druk Kagyu teachings in Bhutan. The water gushed out from the rock near the ridge at Dogar, and hence the site was selected to construct a religious centre. The centre was named Dokhar Druk Chokhorkhang meaning “stone Castle of Bhutan”. It is said that Ngawang chogyal brought with him 100 carpenters and masons from Druk Ralung to build the central tower, the utse, of the Dzong.

The spring, known as Ngawang Chogyal’s Dubchhu (holy water), is still visible close to the Dzong. Much later, the entire Dzong, except for the central tower, was destroyed by a massive earthquake. It is believed that the tower survived because of a Terma statue (the treasure statue of Guru Langdarchen) housed on its top floor. The statue is highly regarded as it is believed to have miraculously spoken when the Tibetan King Langdarma, notorious for his desecration of Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and beyond, tried to destroy it by smashing the left ear with a hammer.
Perched atop a ridge, one side of which is flanked by a hair-raising ravine descending to the basin of the Pahu-Wangchu, the five-storied Dzong was used mainly as one of the main centres of Drukpa Kagyu teaching. Ngawang Chogyal’s descendants maintained close ties with the Bhutanese people and frequently visited the centre to preach the Buddhist doctrine.