Bhutan – pierreo.com – Join me on my journey

Bhutan 4 – The People and the Festivals

Posted on 5 June, 20125 June, 2012 by pierreo

I am sure I have said so before.

When I travel, I still marvel at the architectural, natural and historical sites that I visit – those are usually the reasons why I travel to a particular place.

However, more and more, it is the people I meet, and those I just accidentally cross paths with, that I remember and who make the places I go to most memorable. In that respect, Bhutan is no exception. We saw, and met, and crossed path with wonderful people everywhere and only very few of these are represented in the photographs that follow.

We were scheduled to attend at least one day of the Paro Tsechu, and annual festival held just outside the Paro Dzong. What we did not expect was to happen onto another festival in a small temple near Wangdue. As we approached, we heard music, and what we saw after that was pure magic. I will do my best to try and share these with you in the next photos – there are a few more than my usual posts, but I am sure you will agree with me that this was worth it.

Coming back from one of our very firsts walks, we ran into two school girls going home after class. They were very impressed by the fact that they ran into foreigners I believe, but what I like the most about these is the expression of Lebo in the first and Kipchu in the second picture.

In another village in the Haa Valley, we ran into an old couple doing work in their “garden”. They stopped briefly to look at us go by than he went right back to work.

In the same village, we ran into this lady petting he puppy in the local temple.

A constant theme for the whole trip was the devotion and superstition of the people we encountered. We ran into several people who were walking with these “contraptions” which had been blessed at the temple and were to be located around the village to ward off evil spirits.

We went to the Farmer’s Market in Thimphu, which is an incredible mixture of sights, sounds and smells! This lady had a great selection of vegetables of all different colours – however she was unimpressed by the fact that I was taking her picture …

Her attitude changed once her friends started to clown around to have their picture taken. Look at her smile now.

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Culture, Travel

Bhutan 3 – Phobjika and Punakha

Posted on 26 May, 2012 by pierreo

We left Thimphu to go up to Phobjikha.
However, in between the two, there are two high passes and a very low valley; so this was to be the longest driving day of the whole trip.
We started by driving up to Dochu La, a pass at over 3500 m from where, on a rare clear day, you can see the Black Mountains and the high Himalaya, with several peaks over 8000 m. Considering that we had had a lot of smoke everywhere we went due to forest fires, we had limited expectations, until we arrived at the top and saw this!

The bus erupted in enthusiastic applause… These photos do not do justice to the spectacle that was in front of us. We could see many high peaks including the highest mountain in Bhutan, somewhere on the right of these photos.

Near the temple that was built by the wife of the fourth king to celebrate his victory against Nepali insurgents in the South of the country (this sounds like it should have occurred in the 1800 but actually was in the late 1990!), we were given access to high power binoculars that gave us an even better view. The person responsible told us that this was the first day in many where the view was this good. The previous day was totally blocked by smog!

A more limited view, but closer to some of the peaks – this is a single photo as opposed to the panoramas before which were made up of many photos. This one shows the highest peak in Bhutan – flat top above and to the right of the trees.

Opposite the temple, the Royal Mother also built 108 chortens in honor of her husband.

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Culture, Travel

Bhutan 2 – Thimphu and Paro

Posted on 6 May, 2012 by pierreo

I am not going to try to cover this trip chronologically. We made several passages through Thimphu and Paro and I will cover these as a separate topic now.

But still, this starts at the continuation of the previous post. After Chuzom, we headed directly into Thimphu where we had lunch in Clock Tower Square, the center of town. Compared to Paro, Thimphu is a very big city and growing quite fast. A short walk in the city gave us much more of an urban feeling that we had seen anywhere else.

After lunch, we headed for “Monk University”, or Tango Gompa. On the way there, we stopped in front of this huge rock painting of Guru Rimpoche. Guru Rimpoche is a very important character in the history and folklore of Bhutan – there is not always a very distinct line between the two. He is credited with bringing Buddhism to Bhutan and in his travels across the country founded several temples and monasteries. The painting is relatively recent but already a very important location as evidenced by the number of prayer flags that surround it.

Tango Gompa (as the name indicates – Gompa is only used for temples and monasteries that are located on the side of a mountain with steep climbs to get there) is reached by hiking up for about 1 1/2 hour. On the way, we see more rhododendrons in bloom. These are very different than the ones I was used to in Belgium.

We are now used to climbing at this altitude and therefore are able to do it relatively easily, but still breathing hard. It is very nice though when you finally get your first glimpse of your destination. Here is the final approach to Tango.

Before going into the monastery, Kipchu explains more to us about the history of this temple. It is a good opportunity for me to get a general view. Tango Gompa is the oldest and largest college for Buddhist Studies in Bhutan.

Lebo and Kipchu have once again put on their more formal attire and we are ready to go in.

The main courtyard is accessed through a rather narrow passage. The shoes are there because of a small temple on the left of the entrance – we did not forget to take ours off!

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Culture, Travel

Bhutan 1 – Paro and the Ha Valley

Posted on 3 May, 2012 by pierreo

I do not know how to say this any other way. I have been in Shangri La!

I have just made the most incredible trip ever, and I am going to have a very hard time trying to help you share this with me with just a few of the most memorable sights that I was priviledged to see and just a few photos to try to make you enjoy these as I did.

We flew from Bangkok to Dakka (in Bengladesh) and then to Paro on Druck Air – the National Airline of Bhutan which boasts a grand total of three airplanes. On the road between the airport and the town of Paro, we ran into a goup of people playing ‘darts’ – but not the pub game most of us are familiar with. The darts are much bigger and heavier and the target is smaller and much further away. As you can see from this photo, it takes quite a bit of effort to throw the dart.

Whenever a player hits the target, which you can see below, all competitors do a short celebratory dance. You can see the target behind the player in the foreground – it is on the ground with a red and blue circle – yes, that is the target. You can also see a dart in his hand.

We continued our journey into Paro where we stopped for lunch. Paro is not a large town, just two or three parallel streets and 10-15 cross streets in all. Most of the budingsarerelatively new, but they are still built in the local, very distinctive style, like this house where we had lunch.

After lunch we went to visit the National Museum which provides an excellent introduction to Bhutanese history and culture. The entrance is very impressive.

The building where it used to be housed is even more impressive. This is the old watch tower of the Paro Dzong, which is located a few meters lower down the hill. However, the building was significantly weakened by a strong earthquake that occurred in 2011 and can no longer be used for the museum.

It is very strange that I do not remember hearing about this earthquake. It was quite significant (6.8 or 6.9) but fortunately very few people died because it happened in a sparsely populated area between India and Bhutan – there was only 1 fatality in Bhutan. Unfortunately, it caused a lot of damage to many historical monuments and still now there are some that will have to be significantly rebuilt to be made safe.

It is sad, however, that the media does not seem to attach much importance to some event, just because not enough people died.

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