Trip Journal: Bhutan

June 2007

Bhutan - Beyond Trekking!

Paro
Thimphu
Punakha
Phobjikha Valley

Our June trip jounal gave an introduction to Bhutan and a description of a delightful trek from Paro to Thimphu: The Druk Path. We promised to follow up with tales of cultural tours and activities while we were in Bhutan.

Part of the excitement of traveling to a foreign country is visiting local places of history, museums, churches/temples, markets, schools, and theatres. This gives the traveler a sense of what makes the people who they are and helps define their culture.

Bhutan is rich with such local places! We were very impressed with the respect that people have for their historical sites, temples and monasteries and their cultural heritage. For the Bhutanese, these places are national treasures!

PARO and The Tiger's Nest Monastery

Most travelers start in Paro, because the airport is here. Paro is at 7,500 feet elevation. The town itself is one long street and is situated along a river in a beautiful valley with homes and hotels dotting the countryside.

View of Paro

The National Museum, as a first place to visit, is an excellent introduction to Bhutan’s history, religion and culture. We were unable to take pictures inside, but marveled at the exhibits and photographs depicting various historical landmarks and areas of the country.

National Museum with flowers

Downhill from the National Museum, is the Paro Dzong (the red and gold roofs in picture below), originally a fortress and now used as both an administrative headquarters and a monastery.

These two separate areas of the dzong can be visited, We were allowed to take pictures only in the courtyard area, where we could see monks and state administrators talking and conducting business. The Bhutanese architecture is breathtaking!

Courtyard of dzong

Our first introduction to prayer wheels was a very large wheel at the entrance. It required some energy to rotate as you walked around it! The prayers etched in the bronze (or wood) wheel are repeated every time the wheel revolves, making this one of the rituals practiced, when encountering one in temples, on trails or atop mountains.

Prayer wheel and Sandy

The dzong, as with other temples and sacred buildings, was rich with murals and frescos of religious symbols and stories. Our guide, Karma, taught us much about being a follower of Buddha and about being a practicing Buddhist. The murals, such as this wheel of life, were particularly meaningful.

We visited the area in the monastery where the young monks were reciting their prayers and chants (under the watchful eye of the head monk) and learned about their studies and life-style. We were amazed that they may start at the monastery as early as 5 years old!

We wondered how they managed to be away from their mothers!

On a side trip back to town, we stopped at a field where some men were playing archery, the national sport. The archery range is 140 meters. That means the archer is that far from the target! The target is only one foot wide by three feet high, stuck in the ground. We watched for quite a while and saw only one arrow hit the target! No surprise there.

The men (it is not a sport for women) use traditional bows for some competitions, but in this case they were using modern bows. They played with passion!

Archer

The Taktshang Goemba, or Tiger’s Nest Monastery, is a "must visit" for all visitors to Bhutan...if you are physically able! It cannot be reached by vehicles...only by a winding trail that is uphill most of the way.

trail to Tiger’s Nest

The hike to the monastery took us about 2 hours from the trailhead, with a stop at a restaurant on the way. This cafe offers lunches, but we just stopped for tea and pastries.

Cafe outside

The beauty of this area and the color of the surrounding vegetation with prayer flags, was stunning!

Just when you think you are at the monastery, you see that you have to cross a large chasm by descending and then ascending steps! When we arrived, we felt we had accomplished quite a feat! It was noted that there were other buildings in the same cliffs for monks on retreat.

We had a tour of the monastery and were able to see inside the temples. The number of Buddhas was confusing at first, since we were not familiar with Himalayan Buddhism. As we visited more and more temples during our visit, we became familiar with who’s who and some of the stories behind each follower of Buddha.

Tiger's Nest Monastery

In the spirit of visiting a variety of temples, we were able to spend time at the Kyichu Lhakhang (temple), just outside of Paro. This dates back to the 7th century, though much was rebuilt after a fire. Inside is a 16-foot statue of the Guru Rinponche, an eighth century Buddha. The outside of the building is surrounded by small prayer wheels

Temple

The Capital city of Thimphu

After our Druk Path trek of 6-days, we arrived to the city of Thimphu. Although this city is the capitol of Bhutan, you can only get there by car or bus. They have no airport. The elevation is 7,700 feet and the population is at least 80,000 and growing.

Traffic in city

Residents were proud to announce that they have no traffic signals! They drove as though they were in a hurry with little thought for the many cars, trucks, buses, people and animals in the street. (Surprisingly, we saw no person hit and no accidents!).

Gas station

Our first stop, after getting off the trail of the Druk Path trek, was the Takin Preserve, a refuge for Bhutan’s national animal, the takin. This strange beast is in a class all its own...literally! It has been described as a beestung moose. A myth surrounding the animal claims that a head of a goat was attached to the bones of a cow. We were able to observe one takin up close, as it came to grab some green leaves that we offered.

During a day of sightseeing, we soon realized that we wanted more time in Thimphu! There was so much to experience.

The School of Arts and Crafts was a highlight. This is a special school for older students (secondary school) who possibly couldn’t handle a more academic setting and who want to study some type of art or craft.

Woman painting mural

Acceptance in the school is very competitive, so the students are quite serious about their studies. Each student could choose to specialize in an art form of their choice: sculpture, engraving, weaving, bronze work, needlework, painting, murals, clothing design and so forth. Their work was exhibited and was for sale in a shop on campus.





School of Arts and Crafts

A tour of the Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory was next; we observed a fascinating process of making paper from Daphne, a native plant. We, of course, had to buy a few stationery items to take home with us!

Paper wet

Paper drying

After the visit to the paper-making factory, we were treated to a native dance performance by a local dance troupe. The Khujuluyang Dance Company gave us a Bhutanese native dance performance.

The troupe did dances typical of many parts of the country. It was very interesting and entertaining. This is a good alternative if you travel to Bhutan during a time when there are no festivals in progress!

Before leaving Thimphu, we had two more excellent tours. One was the Folk Heritage Museum, an open air museum with a traditional home constructed, to show how people lived in Bhutan about a century ago. Many of the homes today are constructed the same way.

The Textile Museum was last on our agenda. This started with a video of the textiles and clothing of different parts of Bhutan. Then we walked through the museum, seeing the various designs and patterns for the kira for women and the gho for men. Karma was very helpful in explaining the material and the clothing for today’s Bhutanese.

culture and adventure in punakha

The drive to Punakha was itself a "cultural tour"! Enroute from Thimphu we climbed and descended a mountain range, passing beautiful farms and rice fields as well as small villages.

Dochu La is the pass through the mountains and is quite amazing with 108 chortens (or stupas), symbolizing a respected Buddhist practice.

This hill of chortens was built a few years ago by the Queen of Bhutan, as a monument to the fighting that ended between Bhutan and the Indian invaders. It was quite a sight.

Punakha and the new town of Khuruthang are in a broad valley where the Mo Chhu (Mother River) and Pho Chhu (Father River) join.

Our primary goal for this area was the Punakha Dzong. This dzong is very impressive in size and history and includes three temples. We visited twice, in order to be able to see everything. There were few monks there at this time of year....they had gone to their "summer" residence in Thimphu. We thought this was unfortunate, because they missed the beautiful flowering jacaranda trees!

The entrance, temples and courtyards are impressive, as are the stories surrounding the history of the dzong. The main courtyard has a boda (or bodhi) tree, where a renowned buddha would sit to gain enlightenment.

Punakha provides a wonderful opportunity for river rafting in Bhutan. The Pho Chhu (father river) offers class 2 and 3 rapids for beginners. Other areas of that river and other neighboring rivers are even more challenging!

We chose a morning raft trip with a group of Bhutanese young men who were "applying" to be river guides with the rafting company. It resulted in a great fun and learning adventure! A highlight of the trip was passing by the Punakha Dzong just before we took our rafts out at the end of the trip. The dzong was awesome view!

It was an enjoyable hike through villages and rice fields to the Divine Madman’s Temple, formally Chimi Lhakhang. We will leave the details of one of Bhutan’s favorite saints to your reading; suffice to say this lama’s outrageous actions and sexual antics are well known throughout the country!

Enroute back from this hike, we passed children playing in the fields; they were having such a good time!

We also passed women hauling manure in baskets on their back. It didn’t look like they were having as much fun!

The Farmer’s Market in Punakha is marvelous, even if you don’t want to buy anything. It is a true mix of local village and farm people who are selling the produce in season. We saw delicious fiddleneck ferns and betel nuts, as well as the usual vegetables of chilis, peppers, potatoes and cucumbers. It was truly a delight to watch the shopper’s discuss the items and the seller’s to weigh the produce.

out-of-the-way phobjikha valley

Our final trip was over the mountains (again) to the Phobjikha Valley, famous for the black-necked cranes. Alas, the cranes are "in residence" during the winter months of November through January and we were there in May. Not a crane to be seen! They valley is lovely and has many oppotunities for hiking.

Enroute, we were treated to a "spotting" of the illusive Rhesus monkeys. They seem to enjoy hiding among the branches of the trees. We were fortunate that our driver spotted some out of the corner of his eye (hopefully he was mostly focused on the narrow winding road). We stopped for lunch, while we searched for photo ops!

There is a Crane Interpretative Center in the valley, where there are exhibits on the black-necked crane and the Bhutanese people in this area.

We were also able to visit the Gangte Monastery, a large building and temple overlooking the valley.

Our visit was complete with a tour of a carpet factory and a stop at an elementary school to drop off school supplies. The children were not in school, but we enjoyed a brief chat with three boys who were doing community work as part of their school assignments.

This is a good time to end our sharing of the many cultural activities for Bhutan. We drove back to Paro (6 hours drive) and were sad that our time in this incredible country was coming to an end. We vowed to be back soon!

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