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.

Bhutan 2014: Rafting the Mo Chhu

The view from our window at the Uma Punakha on May 6th was worth studying. The small building in the foreground is the spa, behind it, a river -- the Mo Chhu.

The birds are most active in the morning. This black drongo was staring at me.

Our first activity today is rafting on the Mo Chhu. We'll float from just below our hotel to beyond the Punakha dzong, using the Druk Rafting Service.

We took some pictures on the adjacent suspension bridge while the rafting team inflated their rafts. First, one of Joan and me, taken by Tshering.

Then I took one with Joan and Tshering.

Then we discover that we are not the only pedestrians on the bridge.

The first raft is ready, now for the second one.

Ben in his rafting gear.

Tshering was familiar with my model of camera, so sometimes when he was in the better position he'd take a photo. This one is blurred from the motion of the raft, but I can't pass it up. The white-throated kingfisher is a spectacular bird.

It was along the slower, gentler portions of the river that I felt safe pulling out my camera. Sometimes we glided by buildings close to the waters.

This trip, taken before the summer rains, was comfortable, no more than a class 2 watercourse with just a couple of busy parts.

We see as we approach the Punakha dzong that today the monks are out bathing and washing out their robes.

The dzong is surrounded by the jacaranda trees, which we will admire more in the afternoon.

We passed under the cantilever bridge that connects the dzong to the parking areas.

Tshering in his helmet, with the dzong receding in the background. Joan and the front of the raft are visible in his sunglasses.

At the far end of the dzong the Po Chhu joins the Mo Chhu, and the combined rivers become known as the Puna Tsang Chhu. The waters spread out and we drift with the current towards Khuruthang, a town three kilometers or so downstream. Through a gap in the hills we can see the Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup lhakhang (temple) and nunnery, which we'll visit after lunch.

We disembarked from the rafts at a rocky beach in Khuruthang.

There is more description of Khuruthang in the middle of this post about our December 2009 visit.

Bhutan 2014: Tseto Gompa and Sangchokor Buddhist Institute

Our original itinerary called for walks near Cheli La, a 3810 meter or 12500 foot pass into the neighboring district of Ha. Tshering suggested a local alternative, pointing out that the clouds were too low to see anything up at Cheli La. Joan and I were to learn that Tshering was resourceful, knew Bhutan very well, and could summon alternatives for any day's activity.

When we first awoke we could see the high Himalayas above the rising mists of the morning. In May this is much less common than during the winter tourist season.

The birds were active, one of the reasons why we chose a May trip. Here is a russet sparrow, a bird we would soon come to dismiss as common.

The main building of the Zhiwa Ling caught the morning light.

This morning we're hiking to the Tseto Gompa, a nearby small local monastery. I'll outline the hike for you using this photo taken from across the Paro Valley later the same day. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

A ridge comes down from the high mountains and splits into multiple arms; some see a resemblence to the phurba, a multi-bladed knife that symbolizes cutting through ignorance and obstructions. Kaka drove us to the left green dot, where we disembarked from the van and began climbing the ridge. Tseto Gompa is just below the right green dot.

At our dropoff a new building is being finished. It will be a religious structure, but I'm not sure which type. It illustrates a trend in newer buildings here, having a flat concrete pad with a perimeter channel that will catch water from the roof's drip line. The older farmhouses and temples don't have this feature.

We immediately begin climbing. Below these prayer flags, through the trees on the right, you can make out the roof of the above building.

Most of the altitude on this hike is gained at the beginning. We were passed by a couple of young monks and then the lama of the monastery, who offered Joan his parasol.

As we climbed higher we encountered blooming rhododendron. Here Tshering stands in front of a tall one.

A closeup of the fabulous blossoms.

The next photo is of pieris formosa. Two related species are known in the United States as climbing fetterbush and mountain fetterbush.

This nearby tree, covered in ferns and lichens, also caught our eye.

The Tseto Gompa drew closer as we hiked along the ridgelines.

A closeup of the chortens on the grounds of the gompa. Each chorten contains one or more objects of religious significance, such as relics, prayers, sacred texts, or offerings. An architectural note: any building or structure with the red band around it is religious in nature, not secular.

We were received with great hospitality by the lama. The monks brought out milk tea and semi-sweet "biscuits" poking up out of a substantial bowl of crunchy puffed rice. (The biscuits are large crackers somewhat thicker than customary in the U.S.) Then apple juice was offered. I have one photo, of a corner of the "reception room." The wooden basins and the TV set illustrate the dual nature of life in Bhutan: one foot in the modern, and one foot in the traditional. Just outside the photo are some calendars. Even the auto shop calendar shows religious images.

Tshering was our interpreter, of course. At one point he asked the lama to guess my age and Joan's. The lama guessed low by twenty years, which Tshering explained was due to the "soft life" of Westerners. He elaborated that simply not working all day in the fields qualifies as a soft life.

One of Tshering's many projects is assisting the restoration of the gompa, which was damaged in the magnitude 6.9 Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011. This not only includes writing grand proposals, raising funds, coordinating with NGOs, and the like, but deciding what should be done with the sacred art. Given the Buddhist teachings on impermanence, the Himalayan cultures often prefer to create new paintings, tapestries, etc. as opposed to the Western ideal of carefully repairing and restoring the originals. Also the rammed earth walls of the gompa now show serious cracking. In this panoramic photo of the courtyard, you can see a major vertical crack near the center, and others at right. Click to enlarge. You also see Tshering, the lama, and one of the young monks in this picture.

Photos are not allowed in the temple portion of any monastery, nunnery, or dzong.

The views from the hillside outside the gompa were sweeping. Here, we look across to the switchback road up to the Sangchokor Buddhist Institute, which we will visit in the afternoon.

Directly across the valley is the famous Tiger's Nest, or Taktsang. Joan and I had a couldn't-be-better experience hiking there on New Year's Day, 2010, and decided not to repeat the hike this time. Viewing Taktsang from this direction, we appreciated for the first time how many other buildings are perched in its neighborhood. The complex barely right and below of center is the Tiger's Nest (click to enlarge).

There is also a long view down the Paro Valley.

A kitten followed us as we left the monastery. We attempted to discourage it during our steep descent, but it would not be thwarted.

What to do? Call the lama on his cellphone! He dispatched two of his young monks to fetch the wayward kitty.

Tshering asked for a photo pose.

We finished our descent to the farm road, where Kaka picked us up, and we returned to the Zhiwa Ling for a late lunch.

Then Kaka drove us up to Sangchokor. The road was full of switchbacks and narrow, but Joan and I knew that if you are squeamish about such roads, you will miss most of what Bhutan has to offer. We were reassured by Kaka's clear skill at driving.

The chorten next to the parking area at the Institute was built on a chunk of land that was not excavated when the area was graded into flatness. It was a Sunday, so not much was going on.

This is the main building of the Institute.

It was here that we learned about the gonkhang, a room adjacent to the inner temple that is the inner sanctum of protective deities. The door is usually painted black, with fierce figures and visages, and locked. One of the very few restrictions on women in Bhutan is that they cannot enter the gonkhang, not even the Queen or Queen Mother.

This picture from the Institute includes downtown Paro, the Paro Dzong, the Paro Chhu (river) before the summer rains fill it, and the airport.

Some fresh produce is available in May, and these first two days in Paro began our food adventures. We enjoyed fiddle head ferns, which taste similar to asparagus. Fruits, especially bananas, are of varieties and freshness unseen in the U.S., and the difference is stunning. The potatoes are better, and even the small young okra, called ladyfingers, are tasty and usually without the sliminess associated with that veggie. Food prep is straightforward in execution but the results are excellent.

Tomorrow will be a driving day as we move on to Punakha.