Bhutan: Thimphu

Thimphu was our destination, and it meant climbing back up to Dochu La (10,000 feet). We stopped at the same place for lunch as we had heading out, just a short walk (one bend of the road) from the pass, and the clouds felt magnanimous, granting us peeks at the high ranges. Here is the wide-angled view from my camera.

Here is a zoom-in.

Then it was back down the mountain, to check in at the Taj Tashi hotel and freshen up before heading out again. The Taj is an international-class hotel that was just a construction site in 2005. As we pulled in dancers and singers were there to greet us.

The lobby, and all the rest of the hotel, was breathtaking. The display in the lobby included a gingerbread house, stacks of gaily wrapped boxes, and a creche.

There were only a few guests in evidence, probably because it was off-season, and during the holidays, and because of a big drop in tourist bookings due to the economy, particularly high-end ones.

Our first destination was the national Textile Museum. No photos here, but a stunning collection. One gallery is devoted to the various ethnic costumes from around Bhutan, displayed on mannequins. Large and larger religious hangings adorn one high wall. Adjacent to the gift shop, you can watch women weaving on traditional hand looms. The resulting fabrics dazzle with their colors and intricate patterns; some of the weaving for the royal family takes place here, and some of the items on display are on loan from the royal family.

After leaving the Textile Museum we went to the traditional paper-making factory. Here the paper is made from the bark of the daphne plant, which results in a durable and insect-resistant paper. Such a paper can be used for religious texts, envelopes, paper lanterns, and inventive artwork, such as the bookmarks with embedded flowers that I bought. In checking YouTube, I found a video (not mine) that just has to be from this factory.

Then it was time to change into our dinner clothes. Geographic Expeditions/Yangphel Adventure Travel had arranged a dinner with five Bhutanese to complement our five trekkers. These were, in the order printed on our list,

• Mr. Tenzin Dorji, Chief Research Officer, Royal Privy Council
• Ms. Sonam Choke, IT Graduate, North Bangalore University
• Mr. Wangay Dorji, Head, Bhutan Infocom & Media Authority
• Mr. Ugyen Yoeser, profession cyclist
• Mr. Kharma Lotey, Bhutan director, Geographic Expeditions/Yangphel Adventure Travel.

Ugyen had originally been scheduled to be our trip leader, but had a conflict (big archery tournament) and we were lucky enough to get Tsewang Rinchen.

As the seating worked out, I spent much of my time with Tenzin and Wangay. These gents work hard to represent and develop Bhutan; as middle-aged professionals they represent, I feel, the progressive edge of Bhutanese administration, which is sometimes sluggish (imported from the Indian interpretation of the British bureaucracy). Tenzin, as a member of the Royal Privy Council, basically works on whatever project the royal family throws at them. Wangay's duties also seem far ranging -- overseeing media censorship, checking cellphone tower coverage -- just about anything to do with media or telecom. He had the whole table laughing at his experiences traveling abroad and encountering officials who thought his Bhutanese passport was obviously something made up. The South Koreans detained him, thinking him a likely infiltrator from the North, until the Korean Information Minister rescued him. Sad to say, yours truly was too tired have the forethought to take a picture of our hosts. My bad!

Tenzin and Wangay also made it clear that persons with skills useful to Bhutan were more than welcome to volunteer. IT and medical professionals (both represented in our trekkers) would be among those at the top of their list. Typically you might receive a visa to consult for, say, three months and then tour for three months. At least, that's what I think I heard!

Back to the Taj Tashi and our beds. We awoke the next morning to find that yesterday's sunshine had disappeared. It was snowing.

Through our window we saw a canine friend standing lookout.

It turns out that if snow reaches the valley floor at Thimphu it is a big deal, an unofficial holiday. Tsewang delayed our departure for half an hour while he called to see what places/attractions would be open, and which would be closed. The manager of the Handicraft Emporium sleepily suggested that it might open at noon. (It didn't.) As we left the hotel, a musician was playing.

First we tried the National Institute of Traditional Medicine, but that was closed. Then Tsewang took us to the National Library. That too was closed, but Tsewang took off in search of someone to let us in. The snow had stopped after a couple of inches had fallen, and all over Thimphu snowmen were being made and snowball fights conducted. We were no exception. (Tshering has quite an arm.)

Our ever-resourceful Tsewang found a staff member who found a caretaker with a key, so we were able to briefly visit the ground floor of the old National Library, adjacent to the new. The focus of this visit was the largest book in the world, a visual study of Bhutan spearheaded by Michael Hawley of the MIT Media Lab. 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide, weighing over 130 pounds, it's certified by Guinness:

Jillian posed to give the book some scale.

You can purchase a coffee-table version of this book from Amazon. Joan and I have a copy, and it's a treasure. You can also purchase a full-size copy from Amazon, but the price seems to have jumped from $15,000 to $30,000 at some point.

Next we visited one of favorite animals, the takin, at the Motithang Takin Preserve. Here, in a photo from 2005, is the origin story of the takin. It involves the Divine Madman. (Click the picture to enlarge.)

Right away we found one of our friends.

The snow was a grand attraction, though. At the entrance there was a father-daughter team watching another family's snowball fight.

Namgay felt we hadn't had quite enough frozen sport yet.

Around the bend -- the preserve is high on a hillside, the top of which sprouts telecom towers -- was a grand view of the Thimphu valley.

Driving back down, we stopped at another viewpoint and got a good look at the Thimphu dzong, the seat of government and religious administration. The parliament building is just out of the frame, and a nine-hole golf course just in front.

As our bus continued down the hill, who did we see but Toh, our camp manager from the trek! Warm greetings were exchanged and plans for lunch were laid.

Our final morning stop was the Memorial Chorten, dedicated to the third king of Bhutan. The three-story structure is one of the central points of the city, visited by tourists, pilgrims, and people wishing to socialize. Here is a figure just inside the gate, carrying a vessel for blessing water.

The three stories of the chorten can be climbed, and shrines visited, if you have the time. (The stone floors were extremely cold in November 2005.) We circumambulated the chorten but did not go in.

A side building holds several large prayer wheels. Some of the older Bhutanese settle in here for a session of visitation while the wheels rarely stop spinning.

On departure I zoomed in on some of the artwork of the gate.

We, including Toh, had lunch at the best pizza shop in Bhutan. The royal family orders out from there, we're told. It was good. I had a plain multi-cheese pizza, but the Bhutanese fellows had beef and chili (of course, chili) pizza. Nobody ordered the day's special, yak meat with blue cheese and greens on top. (It might have been the greens.)

The first part of the afternoon was dedicated to independent shopping. Joan and I visited handicraft stores, art stores, and even a couple of bookstores. We encountered our fellow trekkers once or twice, and gathered together at the bus with our loot in mid-afternoon. It was time to bid adieu to Thimphu and drive back to Paro, our final stop. On the way out of town, I took a through-the-bus-window photograph of the largest Buddha statue in the world, under construction. It is more than a statue; it will be a complete complex.

And then we were pack in Paro, where we began this auspicious trip. One more day, and one more hike.

After two snows ...

After two snows in less than a week, we have about 16" of snow on the ground here in Reynoldsburg. Such an accumulation happens only every three or four years in this neck of the woods, so it's quite an event, and most schools, churches, presentations, etc. are canceled. Here's our house after the second shoveling. If there's another snowfall, we may run out of room to put the stuff.

The deer have become quite fearless. Part of it may be hunger, but they'll come up into the yards and between the houses even in summer. The primary culprits are deer overpopulation and loss of habitat.

There's a large group/troop that's been in the small neck of woods behind our house for the last several days. (Some of the neighbors are feeding them.) How many deer can you see in this photo? (Click to enlarge).

Well, here's my answer: 13. I might have seen 14 at once this week, but not in this photo.

 

Bhutan: Punakha

Our trip from the Phobjika valley to Punakha began with a winding descent to lose over 5,000 feet of altitude. Our first leg-stretch was at the small roadside stop of Nobding, best known for some exuberant wall paintings.

The tourist is supposed to place himself or herself such that the camera sees him or her grasping the item on the left. I did not, but found a nice snapshot of a turquoise-background scene.

We had lunch in Khuruthang, a new town just a handful of miles downstream from the Punakha dzong. After lunch we walked about. Joan and I spent most of the allotted time inspecting a stupa and temple complex, between the main road and the river, that was built through donations of the local community and not royal or monastic support. Here the large stupa is in the Nepali style, with a Bhutanese chorten in the right background. Joan and I circumambulated the stupa (clockwise of course) and spun all the prayer wheels.

Here is the adjacent temple.

And a closeup of one of the front pillars.

Then we drove to the Punakha dzong. Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the first unifier of Bhutan and designer of the dual system of civil and religious administration, had Punakha Dzong built in 1637. Upon his death, his advisors maintained the fiction that he was alive but in retreat. This was the official story for 54 years, by which time surely nobody believed them. (The Shabdrung's preserved body is kept in Punakha Dzong to this day, attended by two high lamas who are the only persons allowed to see it.) The district governors grew stronger and more independent until the country was reunified under the current monarchy (originating from the governors of Trongsa) in 1907. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan until 1955, when it moved to Thimpu. It is still the winter residence of the main monk body and the religious head, the Je Khenpo.

Punakha is a big deal, in other words. The dzong, whose full name is Pungtang Dechen Photrang Dzong, has been central to the country for hundreds of years. Here is the view as you come around the river to the confluence where it sits.

A closer view shows the dzong and the cantilever bridge giving access to it.

Here's a closeup of the bridge.

The dzong and town have suffered from glacial lake outburst floods -- where pent-up glacial lakes burst free and rush downstream along either the Ma Chu or the Pho Chu -- in 1957, 1960, and 1994. When Joan and I were here in 2005, access was by a temporary suspension bridge, so the cantilever is quite new.

Here's a final closeup of the outside.

Here is the entrance to the main temple within the dzong. I love the artwork panels, including the Wheel of Life. Inside, the hall was a single open area, two stories high, large enough for the main monk body to hold ceremonies. Three walls were covered in illustrations of the life of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. The fourth wall was a multi-story shrine whose centerpiece was the Buddha flanked by his two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana (spellings may vary.)

Are you dzonged out yet? Stupa-fied?

Our group left the dzong for a short walk to a very long suspension bridge. On the way we encountered a woman of one of the nomadic tribes, down from the north to trade for supplies. She wanted to sell us some of her jewelry handicraft, but Jen wanted her hat. The one she was wearing. The price was too high with all the beads, but they struck a bargain for the hat with fewer strands of beads. Here the woman is removing the unbought strands.

Jen has taken possession of the hat. Quite jaunty, I think.

Continuing on, we soon reached the suspension bridge.

A view from the start. I especially noticed the anchoring cables that keep the bridge from swaying too much over such a span.

Two older gentlemen came across as our group reassembled before embarking. They were pleased to have their picture taken, and both proud at their longevity and amused at their condition.

At the far end, construction was continuing on a new building.

Part of the construction technique is rammed-earth walls. The damp earth is poured between forms and then pounded. Here, two ladies pound, singing. It is traditional for them to invent lyrics about the passers-by.

We took leave of the construction team and recrossed the suspension bridge, to rejoin Tshering and the bus. Our overnight would be at a hotel just beyond and above Khuruthang.

Now, dear reader, we will dash on to the next morning. On our way out of the Punakha valley we pass by the temple dedicated to the Divine Madman, Drukpa Kunley. According to tradition, he defeated an ogress that was harassing people near Dochu La, and the ogress transformed herself into the form of a dog and fled to this spot, where she disappeared down a hole in the earth. Drukpa Kunley built a chorten on the spot to make sure that she never escaped, and later a full temple was built on the hill. Here is a view from near the main road. To get there, we have a short walk on paths through rice fields and clusters of houses.

One change from 2005 is a new cafe, open but not quite finished, near the start of the path.

Here we are closer and have a good view of the hill entombing the ogress.

Here is an old chorten in front of the temple.

The light was better on the other side of the temple, though.

A ceremony or instruction was going on within the temple, with a lama/teacher and young monks. We were allowed in to view the art on the walls of the temple, particularly the bits relating to the many stories of the life of the Divine Madman, to make any offerings at the shrine, and to receive a blessing from one of the youngsters. As at other shrines, the monk would pour a splash of water from an elegant silver pitcher into your cupped hands. You would pretend to put it to your lips and then rub it in your hair.

After leaving the temple and walking back to the bus, it was time to drive on over Dochu La and have our time in Thimphu.

Bhutan: Phobjikha, capturing the culprit

At one point in our stay in the Phobjikha valley, it was mentioned that several black-necked cranes had been lost recently to a predator. A wild dog? A jackal? There was some concern that the cranes might leave the valley, although some degree of predation is normal. At the least, the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature wanted to understand what was happening.

In January the culprit was caught on camera, but the link for that has disappeared. So I'll just tell you: it was a leopard!