Bhutan: Kudra

Early in the morning we had a long downhill to  negotiate. Joan and I were glad for our walking sticks. Here, the trekkers pause to regroup at a chorten.

Some of the porters catch up to us (we aren't nearly as tough as they are).

We get to the bottom and cross to the next ridge.

What goes down must go (back) up.

Partway up the long climb, we came to a rock which contains, it is said, a footprint of Guru Rinpoche and an impression left by a dakini. Guru Rinpoche, also known by the Sanskrit name of Padmasambhava, was a Buddhist saint/master of the 8th Century, widely traveled in the Himalayan region including Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. He is the founder of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and is considered by some to be the second Buddha. It's impossible to overstate his effect on the region. In many of the temples that we visited, his statue was the central and largest one in the shrine, and the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni) would be one of the supplementary statues. Of course, sometimes it would be the other way round.

Some of the phenomena attributed to Guru Rinpoche may be apocryphal -- "George Washington slept here" -- but his presence in this area is factual, including Nabji, where he negotiated peace between two kings (Sindha Gyelp of Bumthang, and King Noeche), and imprinted their thumbs on each side of a large stone.

The cavity on the left is Guru Rinpoche's footprint, and on the right, from a dakini (a female celestial being, or a female embodiment of enlightened energy).

Lunch was at a viewpoint overlooking the valley of the Mange Chu. We had been heading south, but now we would turn west and trek around a tributary valley, first on the north ridge, headed for the village of Nabji, and then return on the south ridge. Here we look down the Mangde Chu. The haze is largely due to blasting for extensions of the highway.

Some ponies caught up with us at lunch.

We were also greeting by a delegation from the village of Kudra, where we would be camping for the night. According to the trip literature, Kudra has only a few houses and a small school, so the size of the greeting committee was impressive.

Grandma was taking it all in with amusement. She was born into a land without even the concept of money (taxes were paid in commodities such as lampblack, or by labor for the King), and now Bhutanese with cellphones and chilip with digital cameras are visitors.

It was time to hike on. The trail gets narrow in spots, but it's nothing we hadn't seen already hiking in the Canadian Rockies.

Then we came across a rufous-necked hornbill (female). The bill and the blue eye-rings are striking.

Here's an impressive tree fern.

For a while the path wound along the edge between cultivated fields and the woods. Birds frequent this kind of habitat, and we were treated to a good look at a golden-throated barbet.

We came to a viewpoint where we could see across the valley, to villages we would walk through in a few days.

It became cloudier and cooler late in the afternoon, and with the diminishing light I neglected to capture any pictures of the Kudra campsite. It had the same elements as them all -- the camping terrace, outhouse, pavilion, cookhouse. Tomorrow, we would head to Nabji.