Bhutan 2014: Dochu La and Serchu Nature Trail

Early this morning, May 5th, a trio of horses trotted past the front of the Zhiwa Ling.

Today our guide Tshering showed his firm grasp of timing. The road between Thimphu and Punakha, which reaches an altitude of 10,200 feet (3116 meters) at Dochula, is undergoing a much-needed widening, and so is closed during certain hours. Tshering has scheduled our departure from Paro with this in mind.

Note: you will encounter spellings of Dochula, Dochu La, and Dochu-la. La is a syllable of many meanings; in this case, it means a pass. It is also an honorific or polite suffix, as in, "Ben-la, please close the door." It can also be used for emphasis, such as "Let's go, la!"

Before leaving the Zhiwa Ling the three of us attended a blessing ceremony to inaugurate our journey, in a shrine room on the third floor presided over by a resident monk. This shrine room has in its bones a history much deeper than the Zhiwa Ling; for example, much of the wood is originally from the Gangtey Gonpa (monastery) and was obtained when it was renovated. Joan and I had visited Gangtey both during (2005) and after (2009) its renovation. The shrine is not a tourist attraction. The blessing ceremony was very moving, even though we understood not a word.

Here is the Zhiwa Ling monk. He usually is full of smiles, but when he agreed to have his picture taken, he became very serious. The windows of the shrine room are visible in the upper left.

The ceremony also blessed a string of prayer flags that we were to put up in the pass of Thrumshing La several days hence. It is important to place them during an auspicious day, so we are to string them on our way out.

The road to Punakha skirts the southern end of Thimphu, the capital, and then starts climbing. We arrived at the end of the line of waiting vehicles only five minutes before the road opened.

The road is none too wide to begin with, but for all practical purposes it's the only way to move between Thimphu and Punakha. It carries heavy truck traffic in addition to passenger vehicles.

The first fifteen or twenty minutes at the pass was a steady rush of vehicles. All the tourist buses pause here to disgorge their chillips (the Bhutanese word for "foreign tourist"), who view the 108 chortens commissioned by the eldest Queen Mother to commemorate the deceased of the 2003 campaign to expel Indian separatists from southern Bhutan. If the weather is good there is also a panorama of the high Himalayas. This happens mostly in winter, and today it was misty.

I took this photo of the pass after the rush, from the steps leading up to the Druk Wangyal Lakhang, a new temple dedicated to the 4th King of Bhutan, the father of the current king.

This image was taken later, from ground level, with a couple of straggler tourist buses in view.

Visitors can walk among the chortens; there is a gate. To be respectful you should walk in a clockwise direction.

Each chorten displays art of carved and painted slate.

The lakhang was locked at first, but the guide for another family found the caretaker monk, who opened the temple for us all to visit. Photography of the interior was not allowed, of course, but I must remark on the contemporary style of its artwork. There are two levels of gallery, and, to quote from a longer article,

the mezzanine gallery, not found in other Bhutanese lhakhangs, depicts the story of the Wangchuck dynasty in aesthetic splendour. A genealogical mirror traces the royal lineage that identifies His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuck as the 18th direct descendant of Pema Lingpa. The gallery draws on scriptures, mythological accounts, historical texts, oral stories, and artistic creativity to narrate the historical details from the time of Jigme Namgyal.

I wish I could have shown this gallery to you.

Here is a panoramic view of the temple exterior, which is set on the top of a rise next to the pass.

Another view of the central section.

After Joan and I visited the lakhang it was time for lunch. Both the restaurant and the temple were new to us on this trip. In this picture, the restaurant is on the right while slightly higher and to the left is a compound with accommodations for the royal family.

The interior of the restaurant was bright and inviting.

After lunch it was time to push on. To work in walking on a day with lots of driving, and to synchronize with road openings east of the pass, Joan, Tshering, and I were walking on the Serchu Nature Trail twenty minutes after leaving Dochula.

The trail began through the caretaker's farm, but then began working its way up and down through several ravines.

There were footbridge crossings.

Joan spotted several birds, but none in a good position for my camera. This jack-in-the-pulpit, however, posed for me. Click to enlarge.

The color of this himalayan birch was an impressive sight for us North Americans, accustomed as we are to paler varieties.

Kaka and the van were waiting for us at the end of the trail, and we drove on to Punakha. We paused for some photos of the dzong, but did not linger. This dzong was the seat of Bhutan's government until the capital was moved to Thimphu in 1955, and continues to be the winter home of the monk body and Bhutan's religious leader, the Je Khenpo.

One of the glories of visiting in May was seeing the jacarandas in bloom.

Punakha dzong sits at the confluence of the rivers Mo Chhu and Po Chhu. We drove up the valley of the Mo Chhu to our hotel for the next two nights, the Uma Punakha.

While checking in we paused for a down-valley view from the terrace.

The pigs traveling with us on this trip, Thelma and Louise, approved of the view from our room.

The room was well appointed but smaller than the one in the Zhiwa Ling.

We were warned by the staff member showing us the room that the thermostat would be deactivated if the power went off. Joan and I didn't think much about this until the power flickered off for ten to twenty seconds several times the first night, necessitating a walk over to the thermostat each time. If this happens while you are asleep, you'll awaken to a stuffy room.

Tomorrow would be another active day, starting with a rafting trip down the Mo Chhu.