Dzongkha

I picked up Dzhonka in a vintage perfume lot on eBay, so I really had no idea what to expect from it. It ended up being one of those completely unexpected great finds, I’m not sure if I ever would have smelled this otherwise. It definitely gives Buddhist temple vibes. There’s something about the dry, warm atmosphere and the way the spices come through that gives me that impression—not in a sweet or incense-heavy way, but more like walking into an old temple where the air is warm, dry, and filled with the lingering scent of spices and incense. This is very much a dry fragrance to my nose. The spices are the focus, and they have a dusty, almost sun-warmed quality to them. There’s nothing fresh or juicy here. It has a quiet, almost meditative character, and the warmth gives it a sense of age that I really enjoy, without smelling “old”. It’s unusual, atmospheric, and has a very specific mood. I’ve worn it multiple times this summer but can’t wait to wear it once the weather cools down.

This is such a complex scent. When I first applied this, I had a blast of cardamom dried into a spicy floral with undertones of wood and smoke. Hints of black tea - not milky black tea. After 8 hours it was almost exclusively leather and wood with only hints of iris. It's definitely leans dry, but I do get some sweetness. I love the way it has evolved over the course of the day. This is one of my new favorites, but I absolutely understand why it is polarizing. Definitely not a scent to blind buy.

Dzongkha is an eau de toilette fragrance created by Bertrand Duchaufour and inspired by the remote Buddhist mountain kingdom of Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas. So reads the old blurb from L'Artisan: "Rich with aromatic influences: temple stones and incense, the sweet aroma of spiced chai tea, the heat of warm leather around fires, the heart of any temple or home in snowbound lands. Vetiver and green papyrus float through soft smoke with touches of peony, lychee and delicate iris. Dzongkha tells a special story on every skin: that of Dzongkha itself, the spiritual language of Bhutan." It opens on my skin with a very intriguing sharp note of incense: the beauty lays in its pungency; th eincense is followed by a melnage of spices, primarily cardamom and saffron. The dryness is accentuated by a special treatment of the papyrus note to the point that I am reminded of shelves full of books in a very old dusty library. The incense continues enveloping me like an invitation to read or even WRITE my own experience in one of those dusty books. The very bitterness of th eincense, the feeling of cardamom infused dust are the two keys to understand such evocative creation. Thirty minutes in, the tea emerges with spicy woods undertones, atop a growing base of leather. There is a light smattering of abstract iris flittering about in the background. The peony (a very delicate and not very perfumy flower) is there to alleviate a little the arid nature of the perfume. As time passes, the latter just gets worse Dzongkha becomes with time dryer and dryier, but also feels very dark green: this treatment of leather may reminds someone of Bandit. Yet, Dzongkha is a thousand times dryer, thanks to the incense note. In the drydown, it is soapy, dark vetiver with bitter smoke, black leather and dust. It is acrid and abrasively bitter. This is not a comfort scent. Meditating with it comes at its price. IG @alexolympia6

A little too grassy for me. Theres a note I dont like

Leathery, spicy, and a clean incense… Side notes: This remind me of Molton Brown’s black pepper bar of soap… and I really enjoy that scent actually.

Meditative and cold but not austere. I absolutely love this fragrance.

Che non mi piacciono i profumi attuali né di nicchia né commerciali, non è un segreto. Sono tutti uguali fra loro,copiati e replicati ad nauseam, oppure sciocchezze senza alcun senso o peggio ancora,sono disturbanti e noiosi. Dzongkha naturalmente era uno di quelli buoni, originali e caratteristici dell'artisan,uno fra quelli che ho amato e usato con piacere. Ovviamente è fuori produzione, assieme a voleur de roses, nuit de tubereuse, havana vanille, traversee du bosphore, poivre piccante, piment brulant, seville a l'oube, safran troublant, mechant loup, dzing, fleur de liane, e molti altri fra quelli che hanno reso famosa e amata la casa de l'artisan parfumeur. Ora restano quelle tre o quattro noiose banalità di oudh vaniglia e fiori d'arancio noiosi e insignificanti che vanno in questo periodo triste della profumeria. Evidentemente vogliono troncare i legami col passato glorioso e ridurre tutta la profumeria a quel mucchio di odori chimici che adesso impestano e infestano tutte le profumerie e che per me sono off limits. Probabilmente l'artisan parfumeur vuole chiudere i battenti dato che non ha piu una fragranza decente né originale. Un po come etat libre d'Orange e altre che si sono omologate alla noia corrente senza originalità. Senza anima e priva di qualunque slancio interessante. Tornando a dzongkha era un profumo esotico di fumi di incenso bianco pulito,the umido e dolce con un tocco di latte,e note verdi morbide. Fratello di timbuktu. Anche questo sarà presto interrotto. Un cimitero di profumi

Very male. Like drinking a spiced tea wearing a leather jacket contemplating life. It's something a hipster would wear. Hipster guy. I don't hate it but I just don't think it's in the age range for myself or my husband it's definitely not for me. I'm not a big fan of papyrus anyway and I get a lot of that in the base. Smelled it right away when I sprayed the fragrance before I even looked up the notes. The vetiver here is also quite strong and that's what makes it lean male. It just really does smell kind of like a hipster guy who basically doesn't know what he wants to do with his life and he's contemplating joining a cult or something. He seems very brooding and sad in his leather jacket drinking his spice tea. Just not our thing. The more I smell this the more it reminds me and has me picturing a hipster doofus having a midlife crisis way too early in life. I usually like Bertrand's work but here it lacks a sophistication that his work usually has. It's just so brooding and depressing.

If Tibetan Buddhism had a scent, it would be this, it feels like drinking butter milk in a monastery on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas. This perfume transports you to the other side of the world, and reminds you that the world is bigger than what you encounter. It smells out of place in a buzzling modern city but that helps me stay centred. If you like Zen, Eastern philosophy and drinking green tea, this is for you. Definitely not a beginner perfume or a blind buy unless you know this is something you would like.

Bertrand is a well-traveled man. After Timbuktu in Mali for L'Artisan Parfumeur, we get his journal entry for Dzongkha in Bhutan. The opening of the perfume is certainly attention grabbing: a lychee note that seems to be bursting with juiciness, dusted with plenty of dry cardamom and flecked with florals. Underneath the top notes you pull ample notes of spicy chai and incense. As the top notes dry down the chai tea is steeping and blooming, and the incense throwing tendrils of rich resinous smoke into the air. The heart of this fragrance is unbelievably rich: spicy and a bit lactonic; dry and sweet; compelling and soothing. As the steeping tea finally cools and the incense has diffused into the air, warming leather, vetiver, and cypress wrap around you like a blanket. This perfume will not be for everyone. To use the description of exotic would be an understatement, as it does a photorealistic job of pulling notes from far-flung Eastern spices and incenses that are not common to Western noses. This could make it difficult for some to wear, but I think that might be a bit of the point. The way this perfume pulls all of its accords together and presents them in complex, multifaceted, evolving manners is supposed to be a reflection of spirituality in the culture of Dzongkha. It's an ancient, complicated, and mystical type of spirituality that is supposed to be inseparable from your person. Nothing about that should strike someone as being easy, as if you could walk into a Bhutan temple, receive a blessing, and suddenly grasp all there is to know and also be inseparable from the belief system the people of Bhutan have passed down for millennia. LAP's Dzongkha describes this journey very well: the quest for spirituality will not be easy, it will be challenging and defy what you think you know and are comfortable with, but take the journey in stride and you will find a captivating, soothing, yet arresting experience that is impossible to forget. It's a marvelous perfume that I doubt I will wear all that often, but it will be a special moment when I do.

On my skin this smells like wandering in an old monastery with really high pebble walls and sandy floor, a mix of dust, spices and old leather in the air, it’s very dry, aromatic and warm. it probably is a nightime scent but I feel it would perform really good in hot weather.

None of the previous reviews, nor smelling it on paper, prepared me to what it smells like on my skin: it's mostly vetiver and litchi with a little bit of papyrus. No chai, no incense, definitely no iris. Just earthy and fruity, pretty similar to Pony Boy by Jorum studio minus the grapefruit note. I still like it though, it's very grounding, just completely different on me than it is on everyone else, apparently 😅

This is chai, but not in the way you might expect—this is no chai latte. It doesn’t lean into the creamy, cozy gourmand territory; it is rather the essence of the spices themselves—dry, aromatic warmth from cardamom, aromatic smoky black tea, leathery depth in the background like a well-worn, old book now repurposed as a cozy coaster. There’s an almost atmospheric quality to it, of pure chai being brewed in an open-air market, of spices carried on the wind, of the warmth of sunbaked earth and distant incense. On my skin, it reads incredibly warm, almost too much so, the leathery facets deepening continually and the spice intensifying. It’s a bit smoky and spicy for my personal taste, with this richness that incredibly heavy and enveloping. But as a fragrance, it’s undeniably well-crafted and multilayered, unfolding gradually to tell a story of warmth and tradition. Even if it’s not something I’d wear, I appreciate the vision behind it.

An underrated work. I think it’s one of the magnificent jobs done by Bertrand Duchaufour, which I can't compare to many other works. The spices used are very strong and in a different balance. The most prominent notes are black pepper, leather, and iris, with cardamom, vetiver, and papyrus in the background. It feels like an indie version of Dior Homme. Considering the release year of 2006, it's definitely inspired by this perfume when Dior released DHP. Even in hot days, I wear it without discomfort. The performance, sillage, and longevity are all top-notch, five stars.

It opens with the nice suedie leather. But after few ours it smells a stray kitten I am looking after. In a good way: that tender fluffy young kitten.

The opening is perfect 10/10, woody spicy incensy iris. Later on it gets more thick, musky, ambery 7/10

Very nice combination of some extravagant notes that unexpectedly work together quite nicely. I can feel lots of freshness from spices and aromatic herb (also some piny olibanum) mixed with something slightly musky, animalic and woody. It’s a true perfume art, I would how it will develop on my skin. Follow me on IG: scent.guide

What a puzzle. Diving into a landscape of something lively, creamy, leathery and warm, a playful mix of cream and spice. It seems to fade quickly, and while the base remains quite long, I only get the faintest impression of patchouli, something woody and green.

I wore this today, and I kept thinking I’ve smelled this recently. I finally figured it out and sprayed my other arm with a sample of Dedcool Madonna Lilly. They are identical, Dzongkha has been resurrected! If you are missing the peppery, leather, woody smell of Dzongkha, give Dedcool Madonna Lilly a go, you won’t be disappointed.

Holy spice batman... My nostrils burn from the spice! Side note: It finally hit me days after experiencing this fragrance. This smells almost identical to Molton Brown' Re-Charge Black Pepper Body Scrub Bar.

Mainly black pepper. The wearing experience (sillage) is very close to epic man. Up close there is more detail. Becomes airy with your nose up on it.

Scrolling through reviews lately, I often read about iris used for depicting stone, marble, temple walls and so on. Here is one of the best examples of this. With peony and incense in equal parts, Dzongkha gives a very clear picture of a temple adorned with flowers. A temple, indeed. They don't bring flowers like this in the church, or incense like this. And when you sense a little bit of tea and smoke along with the coldness of shrubby vetiver and papyrus, you'd know it's a mountain landscape and the picture gets complete. In their website, L'Artisan Parfumeur talk about "captured ambience". It's exactly this. As for the notes, I enjoy peony the most, because it gives unexpected amount of color over the otherwise harsh landscape, uses it as a background to bloom in its green, almost vegetal floralness. Duchaufour's Dzongkha, Kyoto and Timbuktu (plus Jubilation XXV) are among the best examples of how incense can be used outside of the Christian church implications. Since incense always wafts in the spiritual dimension, I find this approach not only original and unexpected, but broadening a human perspective far beyond the fragrance realm.

Incensey, leathery, green iris. To be honest, I like the leather-iris combination here a lot more than I do in Iris Malikhan - I found that too sweet and too sticky in the drydown. This one remains pretty green and icy throughout. I prefer my irises lipsticky, but this one is a very masculine rendition, and if you're a male iris fan, consider giving this a shot.

هجویه ای از ترکیب ادویه های مختلف و تداعی فضای عطاری در یک بستر اینسنسی و گرم متفاوت و خلاق ولی نه مصرفی ----------- Scent & Quality: 8/10 Longevity: 8/10 Sillage: 7/10 Creativity & Uniqueness: 7/10 Affordability: 6/10 ----------- Overall: 7.2/10

I could have sworn there is elemi here but its not listed in the notes. There is an almost medicinal sharpness from the spices on opening which does persist to a degree. This sits on a smooth, sweet, incense base. Overall its lovely, definitely the high Himalayas sharp woods and smoky incense but its also elegant and mysterious. Truly unisex. This is lovely to wear from time to time when the right mood hits.

A very unusual scent, very typical l'Artisan Parfumeur composition in terms of performance, structure, and style, but definitely in the realm of strange. Very fleeting top notes, more of an embellishment rather than anything substantial, a touch of the pink hue of peony. That is the only sweetness you will get from this fragrance and if you look in the wrong direction you may miss it. However I do get the cardamom for the first 10 mins or so. Underneath I get the dry salty essence of vetiver, a snuffed out incense, not intensely spicy or gritty, rather smooth and transparent, a dry woody interpretation of warm spices, and a clear parchment like papyrus note resonating throughout. I don't believe there are actual leather or tea compounds in this composition, rather the papyrus, vetiver and incense slightly hint at a worn and tenuous leather and a dry earthy black tea, along the lines of a Pu Er. Very dry, woody, slightly smokey. A cold and transparent composition, devoid of sweetness or moisture, great name, Dzongka, indeed the dusty snuffed out incense after a tea ceremony in an old semi-abandoned Tibetan temple.

The original Santal 33, this is what it was inspired from. If you know, you know.

Dzongkha for me was not love at first sniff, but this scent rewards patient noses: elusive peony and litchi (for me both are like ghost scents, I don’t get them they fade before I can make sense of them). Then comes the good part: spicy tea, smoky note, vetiver, incense. Inspired by Bhutan. I like about this scent is that it does not try to please the crowd and tell another story of roses, vanillas and ouds (nothing against those notes, but how many do we need of those in perfumes?). I have to be in the mood to wear Dzongkha, otherwise I feel it wears me. Papyrus note always intrigues me (santal 33, mixed emotions, tiger's nest).

The first few seconds smell like hospital hallways: antiseptic and iodine then a dry ashen iris appears, followed by the faint blush of peony/rose. Suddenly we are outside the hospital walking a path through vetiver grass and extinguished bonfires towards a cedar forest strewn with oakmoss. I have tried both the vintage and the new release versions and they are very close in notes/performance etc.

Have had this for years but wore it today for the first time in months, I’d wear it more often if I could be sure that the current version performs as well as this one, the original, bought ca. seven years ago. Funny how the cardamom is listed as a top note since that’s the most prominent and the most long lasting. It’s now 8pm and I can still feel it, soft and warm on my skin, and I sprayed it on more than twelve hours ago! I guess it would be optimistic to expect as much of the current version, since lasting scents are killed off one by one by most perfume houses these days.