Bhutan 2014: From Mongar Back to Jakar

The next morning (May 13th) we traveled from Mongar back to Jakar. Our first stop was at a roadside market just below Mongar town.

This was fiddlehead fern season, a treat reminiscent of asparagus. Joan and I enjoyed it several times on this trip.

A local specialty is toasted corn ... a heartier, unadulterated version of corn flakes. Eastern Bhutan grows a lot of corn.

We continued on after Tshering, our guide, bought some items, and began the climb to Thrumshingla, a gradual ascent at first.

Roughly in the vicinity of the Shongar ruins Joan called out for us to stop. She had spotted tigers that she had first seen on our drive into Mongar, two days earlier.

It has been a long tradition in Bhutan to create a small elevated platform in a farm field, where the farmer might sleep (or not) to protect the crops as they near ripeness. Raiders that must be deterred can include creatures up to and including wild hogs. This inventive farmer created or obtained faux tigers to take the day shift. A second one was more in the shade.

Tshering was impressed with Joan's eyesight and spotting skills; these photos were taken at 20x zoom.

In this corn field, or one just down the road, we spotted a yellow-breasted greenfinch.

And within minutes thereafter a fearless oriental magpie robin checked us out.

At sites where there had been quasi-permanent shelters erected for the road repair crews, there were permanent warning signs. (DOR is Department Of Roads.)

Some other roadside signs we remember are, "Shooting Stone" (what in the US would be "Falling Rocks") and "Inconvenience Regretted" ("End Construction"). Joan is fond of a slogan painted on one truck, "Must believe in my selfs."

On this segment of recently repaved road, we took advantage of the pullout and I photographed the leaning tree.

Kaka drove the van higher and higher on our way to the pass. We left the repaved road behind and drove by a cow.

Then fog descended. For several minutes I was concerned that our already modest pace would be slowed further all the way to the top,

but the foggy zone did not last long.

The steep-sided Himalayas often produce rockfalls that sweep away the pavement. Maintaining the national road/lateral highway is a constant struggle, especially during and just after the monsoons.

It requires delivery of stone and sand.

Our weaving along the concave and convex curves of the road was suddenly interrupted by a blood pheasant. I had only a few seconds to take this photo through the windshield. The GIMP helped me reduce the windshield effects.

Sometimes you can see the road ahead,

and sometimes you hope there is a road ahead.

The section leading down towards Ura, the easternmost town in the Bumthang district, stitches together hairpin switchbacks.

The outside of one of these curves was large and grassy, and became our picnic lunch spot. Yum! The big pot is a rice and corn mixture, a specialty of eastern Bhutan.

From our stop we could see the valley town of Ura peeking over a hill (click on the photo to enlarge).

While Tshering and Kaka cleaned and packed up, Joan and I strolled down the road, bird-listening and bird-watching. I did get a picture of a Mrs. Gould's sunbird.

A bypass has largely been finished from just east of Ura to Nangar, on the national highway just south of Jakar. The first few miles were still unpaved, but most of it is new, remarkably straight pavement. Kaka found it boring. Just after we turned onto this bypass, Joan spotted a Eurasian Cuckoo with prey in its beak. It was further away than I would have liked, but I did get a blurry photo. Are you getting the idea that Joan is an excellent spotter? Good.

From Nangar we continued on to Jakar, traversing a section of the highway that we had skipped when hiking from Tharpaling to Jakar. However, today's story was not yet over.

First, when we arrived at the Yu Gharling Resort (Hotel), they assigned us to room 202, not, as our guide Tshering thought he had arranged, a room in the same building as three nights before. A consultation between Tshering and the manager ensued, including the manager's comment about "a large tour group." We decided to take a look at 202, did so, and said it would be OK.

Then as we unpacked we noticed that some spots in the floor flexed, like walking across a trampoline. This wasn't reassuring, but we could walk around them. As we began to clean up, and Joan was undressed, the door between our room and the one adjacent began to open. Our previous room had not had such a suite-creating door. Joan called out "Excuse me!"  and the door-openers shut it. I went over to lock that door, but even with leaning on it and pressing both up and down to take out any slack, it would not latch. The deadbolt was at least a centimeter (perhaps 3/8") out of vertical alignment with the catch.

I pushed a chair against the door and in a position to block the lever-style handle from moving.

Tshering met us at dinner and told us that he would dine tonight with his brother-in-law at the Noryang restaurant. We told him that while, having unpacked, we would remain in 202 for one night, we needed to move for our second night. Tshering said if we packed before we left for tomorrow's activities the staff would move our stuff.

Joan and I had our private dinner. Near the end a woman from a couple of tables away came over, and the usual inter-tourist conversation began. "Where have you been so far?" She talked, and talked some more. Then she asked to sit down, and we said, "Sure." Oops. We were told about how many places she'd been in addition to Bhutan, how many languages she spoke, what an excellent traveler she was, and how clever she was. It was a strictly one-sided conversation. At about the half-hour mark her husband joined us, but her verbal assault did not abate. When the restaurant had emptied Joan and I deployed the "I think the staff needs to clean up" defense, and we both prayed that she would not follow us all the way back to our room. Fortunately she paused at the parting of our routes and Joan and I made our escape. Inside, we laughed at the absurdity of it all, but resolved to keep an eye out and not approach her orbit again.

Tomorrow we would explore more of the Bumthang region, including a hike. Sneak preview: it was a great day.

Bhutan 2014: Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup and Punakha Dzong

After lunch in Khuruthang we drove up to the Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup, a nunnery and temple complex that's only a few years old. Nuns and visiting artisans were bustling around the grounds, picking up trash, planting greenery, erecting poles for prayer flags, and such, because the Shabdrung Kuchoe holiday was in three days (May 9th). The Shabdrung (also spelled Zhabdrung) Ngawang Namgyal first unified Bhutan in the 17th Century, and established the system of parallel civil and religious administration. The tenth day of the third month in the Bhutanese calendar is the observation of his death, which was kept a secret for 54 years to forestall the return of regional warlords. The official pronouncement was that he was on retreat and in meditation.

The nunnery sits prominently above rivers and valleys. This image looks to the east.

Looking west Joan and I saw many burnt trees from a 2012 fire that came perilously close. In this picture nuns are planting more trees in advance of the Shabdrung Kuchoe. The road up to Dochu La is on the far side of the valley.

The central grounds of the complex include not only the requisite temple, but a chorten/stupa patterned after the famous Boudhanath stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. This aerial image (from Google Maps) shows the stupa near the center.

I neglected to take a picture of the stupa, but here is one of the temple. A minor architectural feature we didn't see elsewhere are the rain chains; rather than being a series of links, they are a series of cups or small pots.

The shrine of every lhakhang (temple) features a large central figure with smaller flanking statues. The focal statue is chosen from the personages most important to the Bhutanese and to the temple sponsors. Probably the most frequent is Guru Rinpoche, known in Sanskrit as Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan in the 8th Century, converting the deities, demons, ogres, and ogresses of the Bon religion to Buddhism and enlisting them as protectors of the Dharma. On our trip we also saw the place of prominence given to the Shabdrung, the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, the Buddha of the future, Maitreya, and bodhisattvas such as Chenrezig. Here at the Sangchhen lhakhang the central figure is Chenrezig, known in Sanskrit as Avalokiteshvara.

English is taught in the Bhutanese schools, along with the offical language, Dzongka, and both of these are likely in addition to the local language spoken by the family. Some failures of the ear to distinguish sounds are understandable.

Joan suspected that this visit to Sangchhen was suggested by Tshering to "vamp for time." We now backtracked to the Punakha dzong, and indeed, it turned out to be a great time of day to visit.

I took this picture as we crossed the cantilever bridge.

We weren't the only ones on an outing today.

Some visitors were relaxing among the jacaranda blooms.

Bees live here, in hives like beards hanging from the dzong. Individual bees cover the hive, darkening it. They are not disturbed in this Buddhist land.

Before entering the dzong I took another jacaranda photo.

I held back while Joan and Tshering climbed the stairway into the dzong. Tshering is wearing a kabney, a large scarf that's almost a shawl. The kabney is worn by men on special occasions or when entering a dzong. The color of the kabney signifies rank, such as member of parliament, local judge, and so forth. White is for commoners, and only the Kings and Je Khenpo can wear yellow.

If you look closely at the women at the top of the stairs (click to enlarge), you'll see that they are each wearing a narrow embroidered sash directly over the left shoulder, known as the rachu, which serves a parallel purpose to the kabney.

An image of the Shabdrung graced the central courtyard with the Shabdrung Kuchoe only three days away. His remains are still guarded over within the dzong.

Let's zoom in.

Dominating another face of the courtyard is the entrance to the large, multi-story temple of the most important dzong in the religious landscape of Bhutan. Large ceremonies with hundreds of monks can take place here. Tshering used the scenes on the walls therein to give us a rundown on the life of the Buddha.

Then the three of us (Tshering, Joan, and I) decided to do a kora, or circumambulation, of the dzong on the outside. We soon encountered a young man whitewashing part of the wall, suspended in a open-weave rope basket and belayed from above and below. This would not pass an OSHA safety inspection.

Another lovely jacaranda in the back.

We couldn't identify this tree, but the yellow-orange stems are striking close up and at a distance.

We admired this oriental magpie robin during our kora.

After completing the circumambulation we returned to the Uma Punakha for dinner, and to pack for tomorrow's drive to Trongsa.

There are more descriptions and photos of the Punakha Dzong and its extended environs in this post from our December 2009 visit.