Day 4
Thursday October 9, 2008
Thimphu, Bhutan: Temperature Glorious
Druk Hotel
After a good but not long enough sleep it was time to get ready for our first full day in Thimphu. Thimphu is the capital of Bhutan and is home to over 50000 people. Thimphu is unlike any other world capital in that it does not have traffic lights but rather has a traffic police at a key intersection and the rest are roundabouts. It’s a rather quiet city with huge traffic jams.
The traffic police in Thimphu
Dogs are a problem in Thimphu as there are way too many. So the government has built a shelter outside Thimphu where they round the dogs and place them in this shelter where they live out the rest of their lives. However, the problem still exists as very few of the dogs have been fixed. According to Kunzang, the government is in a quandary on what to do. But I was relieved to know that putting them to sleep is not even an option in Bhutan. Margot read about an English lady who lives in Bhutan to help the dogs. She is interested in meeting her and I told her I’d be glad to get to know her also. We’ll have to ask Kunzang how to get in touch with her.
After breakfast at our hotel, which was packed with German tourists, we meet with Kunzang and Chencho to go to the Tsechu festival. Tsechu (literally "day ten") are annual religious Bhutanese festivals held in each dzong of Bhutan on the tenth day of a month of the lunar calendar and celebrates the good deeds of Guru Rimpoche.The festival takes place in Thimpu’s Dzong, named Tashichoedzong which is HUGE! The seat of the government resides in this Dzong today. The history of the Dzong is rich as it dated back to the 13th century but became important when Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal took over and united Bhutan and the fortress became the summer residence of the Shabdrung. After the 3rd King, H M Jigme Dorje Wangchuck, had made Thimpu the permanent capital, he enlarged it to what is now. It was completed in 1969.
View of Thimphu's Dzong
While walking from the parking lot to the Dzong, we saw everyone dressed in their best gho’s and kira’s with the fanciest shoes making their way to the festivals. It was a kaleidoscope of colors with wild cosmos adding more color around them.
Luv Those Traditional Boots!
We first had to segregate into male and female lines as we had to go through security check. The lines were long but a family of girls let us go in front of them. Walking into the Dzong was surreal. I felt like I was in middle of a Bernardo Bertolucci film. I cannot describe the feeling as it was too powerful and beautiful. We perched ourselves on the steps and enjoyed the Dance of the Black Hats (Shanag). This is a dance in which dancers representing Tantrists with supernatural powers take possession of the dancing area to drive out evil spirits and purify the ground with their footsteps. Beating drums as they dance, the “Black Hat” dancers proclaim their victory over the evil spirits.
The Colors were Magnificent!
The Black Hat Dance: Margot and I kept on asking Kunzang: "what's the name of that dance with the black hats again?"
After about an hour in the scorching heat, we decided to go back. It was so hot with the sun beating down on us and although I wanted to stay longer, we decided to head out. Our next stop was the Folk Heritage Museum where we learned how the Bhutanese people lived years ago and still live in the countryside. What amazed me most was their ingenious use of water as the country has tremendous amount of water power. They built a watermill that basically grinds the rice and buckwheat. What was also interesting and similar to traditional Japanese houses is that there is a special room for the monk including a special toilet! In Japan, it’s similar to the chahitsu or tea room. It was fascinating learning about their lifestyles. Unfortunately we ran into rude tourists from India who pushed their way into joining our group and would not stop taking pictures even after told several times not to. At the gift store, I found a book on the Divine Madmen (explained later) whose phallus is painted on many houses and buildings , which I was looking for as he is known for some witty songs and poetry.
The flowers at the Gardens of the Folk Heritage Museum were glorious
Folk Heritage Museum: Lonely Red Pepper in the Pepper Field
Folk Heritage Museum: The house was located next to a rice paddy
The Water Mill
After the Folk Heritage Museum, we were to go to the School of Arts and Crafts but it was closed so went to the student shop instead. There we saw the most beautiful religious paintings. I was not planning on buying anything but saw the most exquisite painting of Green Tara that will match my White Tara. Since the shop accepted VISA, I splurged and bought the painting. Margot splurged too and bought a very beautiful painting of a mandala. As all art work in Bhutan is religious none of the paintings have original design but differ in intricacy and quality. However, none are signed by the artist. We were lucky though and the teacher of the shop knew that the artist was painting in his studio so introduced us to him. Our paintings were rolled and wrapped in beautiful Bhutanese paper. Our artist signed it and we took pictures with him. We spent over on hour in the shop as it was full of beautiful paintings and crafts.
Pemba the Artist who created my Green Tara painting and Margot's Mandala. He is only 25 years old!He showed us his latest painting – the Current Buddha:
We then headed to our next stop which is the Textile Museum. It was built in 2001 and is under the patronage of the Queen. In addition, to showcasing all the different weaving techniques, it also houses the royal families costumes, textiles and crowns. The crowns were interesting as they were made of cloth albeit with intricate embroidery. As the raven is the official bird of Bhutan, there is always a raven on top of the crown. What was most interesting to me is to see the plants they use for dying the material and also the differences in thread. I learned that the Bhutanese use both fine silk and wild silk but their silk is rougher as they do not kill the caterpillar and thus use silk from broken cocoons.
After the tour of the museum, it was time to see the weavers! We visited an organization, which promotes traditional Bhutanese textiles. First thing we noticed are the dried peppers and pumpkins outside on the sidewalk. The colors were beautiful! Once inside, we saw the amazing women make their magic. They sit and weave and many of the patterns require so much detail that a piece of cloth for a kira could take half a year! I was most impressed with the silk weaving and the vibrant colors they use. We did look at the store later and considered buying some textiles but as already spent money on the Green Tara, despite the urge to own one of the handmade silk textiles, I did not buy anything.
The Weavers were drying pumpkin and red peppers outside their workshop.
Pumpkin:
Peppers:
The Weavers in Action:
Sample of the Beautiful textiles they make
After the textile museum we went to visit the Memorial Chorten which is an impressive monument with its golden spires shining in the sun. Its about 200meters high and was built in 1974 in memory of the third king. The king wanted to put in tangible form the three traditional pillars on Buddhism; the Word, Body and Mind of the Buddha. He was able to complete the word and body but passed away before completing the mind. He wanted the Mind of the Buddha to be represented by a Chorten so his mother fulfilled his wish. It was fascinating to be there and inspiring to see people say prayers and carry beads and walk clockwise around the Chorten. We even saw many devout people sitting in front of the large prayer wheels praying. The inside of the Chorten was elaborately decorated and the highlight was that we met Mr. Wangchuck an 11 year old boy who wanted to be a guide so followed us around and acted as Kunzang’s assistant. He helped us climb the stairs and in his perfect English pointed things which he thought was important like prayer wheels. He was so cute that we all wanted to take him home.
The Memorial Chorten
Many people were walking around the Chorten praying
Mr. Wangchuck – our volunteer junior guide
Praying by the Prayer Wheels and the Memorial Chorten
Our next stop on our busy day was the Changangkha temple which is perched above Thimpu and had magnificent views of the city. But I really enjoyed the temple. It was founded by the father of the Drukpa school. It was a small but beautiful temple and monastery. There we met an astrologer who was selling prayer flags. I gave him the year I was born and he said I’m an ox and my material is iron so I’m a stubborn but powerful ox. Thus I only need two prayer flags. One was multiple color which was for luck and wealth and a yellow one for long life. Caryn and Margot had to get more. I asked why I can’t get more and the astrologer said if I do, I’d be unbalanced. I loved the astrologer as he understood a bit of English, smiled a lot and exposed his red dyed lips from eating betel nuts. After we had fun getting our prayer flags, we went inside the temple which was quaint but magnificent. There we were able to roll the dice and make a wish. I wished for a long and good life and basically was told I could get it but had to work hard. We also were able to tour the temple where we saw a footprint of Guru Rimpoche and just beautiful paintings and statues.
Changangkha Temple
Monk at Changangkha Temple: He hoped he looks better photgraphed than in person!
Bhutanese Style prayer flags at Changangkha Temple
After a long, very educational and tiring day, it was time to go back and get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was at a new restaurant where I finally had the opportunity to meet with Lemo. As I expected, she is an extremely generous and intelligent woman. I also found out she is a vegetarian. She is an extremely busy woman where in addition to her tour company she is the first person to open a vegetarian restaurant. She became a vegetarian when her father became ill and her monk brother decided to stop eating meat hoping the spirits will then cure her father. Her father was cured so she then became a vegetarian. Thus she opened the first vegetarian restaurant in Thimphu. As all Bhutanese she is religious but I was impressed with her depth of knowledge. She is also a very intense business woman where I can tell that she will only accept perfection. After a nice dinner, it was time to say our goodbye’s and we agreed to meet again tomorrow nite for butter tea and biscuits.