Dear readers,
Imagine a country where pollution is non-existent, where there are forests, rivers and mountains as far as the eye can see, where capitalism has not yet overtaken tradition and where the importance of respect, happiness and kindness overrule all other concepts. This is Bhutan.
I have recently returned from a week in what I can only describe as a magical land which far exceeded every hope and expectation that I had for it. How to best conceptualize Bhutan? Picture Nepal, but smaller, emptier, cleaner and much more authentic.
The flight from Kathmandu to Bhutan was comfortable enough and took no more than 1.5 hours. After checking in with Drukair Royal Bhutan Airlines, it took me a good 2 hours to clear immigration, and security due to a horendous amount of traffic in the airport. The flight itself was as comfortable as one could be hurtling across the Himalayas in a metal tube and the landing itself (infamous for its tight landing) was executed with apsolute precision as we hoped over the mountains, took a tight turn in the valley below, skirted around some very unwisely positioned house before diving down to the runway below. I think it was the only time that I felt green from a flight.
I was met at the very fancy new airport by my 28 year old guide Kinley and my 50-ish year old driver Tshering and their fancy 4x4 Hyundai (it even had small cushions on the backseat and curtains on the windows!) and off we went! My first impressions of Bhutan was how little traffic there was and how good and well maintained the roads were! I had forgotten what driving on tarmac felt like. The buildings and architecture also struck me as very traditional, minimalist and beuatiful with all buildings following the same uniform design of white concrete bases, wooden upper floors and roofs and space between the roof and the top floor to store hay in the winter. These people have it figured out. We arrived in the capital Timphu an hour later having made two stops along the way; One, to visit the oldest chain bridge in Bhutan built in the 14th century by the Bridgemaker (a lot of the deities in Bhutan have very obvious names) where Kinley explained the difference between the Lotus Buddha, the Present Buddha and the Founder (i.e. the Founder of Bhutan - more on that later). The second stop was to look over the side of the road/cliff to see an upturned car laying below having driven off the road a few minutes earlier. That is when I discovered that drinking in Bhutan was a serious problem with the locals left with very little else to do to pass the time in the winter, after their crops had been harvested. In any case no one seemed overly concerned. Apart from me...
Bhutan hosts a population of around 800,000 people, the majority of which are farmers and small business owners. I later discovered that the majority of the population still wear the traditional dress (out of choice!) which consists of a long skirt and silk top for the women and a dress/cardigan like garment which reaches just above the knees for the men with very long woolly socks to protect against the cold. It looked beautiful and definitely added to the country's atmosphere. I also found out that the food in Bhutan is very similar to that of Nepal but minus the Indian influences. It consisted of rather bland (no pepper and salt really) rice and curries and the locals added dried out chilies to give it flavor. The go-to dish in Bhutan are cheese and chili (one or two potatoes can occasionally be found in the stew). Needles to say that I no longer have functional taste buds. I spent my first night at the very fancy Namgay Heritage Hotel which confirmed to me that not only would I not be needing my sleeping bag, but I would also not have to force myself through baby-wipe showers.
The following day I learnt that the previous King has 4 wives, each having provided him with a shed-load of children. His son now rules with his wife and their baby prince, his father having both relinquished the throne to him and having declared that he was mistaken to have married 4 wives ad this should not be repeated by the future kings. Funny how that works isn't it? We visited the Chorten memorial in Timphu, a small temple built by the 4th Queen for the son (the current King) and popular among students for worship before their exams. We then visited the gigantic bronze Buddha Dordenma up on the hill which still has me in awe. It sits very majestically looking over Timphu and was by far one of the highlights of my trip. On the interior of the Buddha lies a half-finished bronze temple decorated with thousands of miniature bronze Buddha statues along the walls. Incredible. Kinley explained that the Buddhe cost near to $47 million to build (they have not yet finished building the grounds underneath it). Shocking. And this was the first of a lot of construction and investment that I witnessed going into the country.
We then visited the zoo where I met a very friendly Takin (Bhutan's national animal) which looks a lot like it has the body of a deer and the face of a moose that has been stung by a bee. Finally, I met the lovely Tara at the 'Simply Bhutan' cultural center who explained the importance of the 'phallus', yes you heard right, in Bhutanese culture as a symbol of fertility. In short, there are penises all over Bhutan. They are carved, they are painted, they hang from the roofs of houses, decorate mantle pieces and come in all shapes and sizes. STRANGE. Tara also showed me how to shoot and arrow and how to wear the traditional dress, before introducing me to butter tea (exactly what it sounds like) which is served with sprinkled roasted rice on top. It tasted delicious but sat very heavy on the stomach. We then drove towards the town of Punakha where we would spend the nigh, taking a break half-way there to visit the Dochula pass, which boasts a collection of 108 Bhutanese style stupas located in the middle of the road in an awkward cluster. Very beautiful. I later found out that 108 is a very important number in Bhutan and is often the number of stupas built together, is the number of memorial flags traditionally (and if the family can afford that many) placed together on the top of the hills to commemorate the death of a loved one and is the number of yak horn beads on the Bhutanese rosary.
According to legend, the Founder united the clans of Bhutan by taking them over one by one, forming what we now recognize as the kingdom of Bhutan. As he was doing this, he was confronted by a very large demon that threatened to hinder his efforts. Thus, in an effort to vanquish the demon, the Founder built 108 temples throughout Bhutan and Tibet in just a single night. We visited 4 of them on our trip, the most impressive being the Punakha Dzong (Dzong = Fortress) which lies at the fork of the male and female rivers (perhaps similar to Ying and Yang?). In essence, a Dzong is a huge fortress built for protective purposes with large thick walls and few and highly placed windows to protect the region from invaders. The Dzongs mostly consist of three parts: The administrative buildings which are now used by the government, the temple in the heart of the Dzong and residences currently occupied by the monks that look after the temples. The Punakha Dzong in particular, is especially important as it is where the coronations take place. The other three included the Paro Dzong, the Khazi Dzong (I think) which was burnt to the ground by a butter lamp accident and the Timphu Dzong which now houses modern parliament. As is custom, before we entered each Dzong Kinley had to wrap a white scarf around him in a particular way as a sign of respect for the deities of the Dzong and the Founder.
We visited the Druk Wangyal Llakhang Temple in Punakha which is a 1.5 hour hike up a hill and stands proud and obvious with its bronze roof gleaming in the sunshine as it overlooks the valley below. It was stunning with 4 floors of very intricate and delicately painted murals of the various gods vanquishing their demons. There was something quite spiritual about the concept even though most of the gods were portrayed in very aggressive and quite frankly ugly forms with many heads, eyes, claws and teeth. Creepy. I was disturbed to find out (after a lot of probing) that what are now worshiped as gods and demons were actually people back in the day. So the stories literally explain how the gods (people with many followers who helped spread Buddhism throughout the land) killed the demons (people who opposed them) in the most violent ways. And here I thought that Buddhism was a peaceful religion. I still can't quite swallow that concept.
We then visited the Temple of Fertility, Kinley's favourite as that is where he got his name from, which had a unique collection of phalli for me to see. Brilliant. Traditionally, when children are born in Bhutan, they are taken to a temple of the parent's choice from where they will receive the deity's blessing and adopt one of the deity's many names as their own. The temple itself was a little underwhelming but sported a fantastic story that Kinley recited with much enthusiasm. The story told the tale of the Crazy Monk who spent his days spreading Buddhism throughout the country and conquering demons with his 'flaming thunderbolt' penis. He would spend his nights at local people's homes who would house him, feed him and offer their daughters and wives to him. Once the monk had slept with one of the women, the house would then forever be blessed in many ways, namely with fertility. Basically, and according to my translation, he went round murdering people and raping women and he was praised for it. The Bhutanese do not see it that way of course and don't try to tell them any different. It will result in an awkward silence as you both stare a a phallus garden.
I spent the night at a homestay, which ended up being a young family's farmhouse up in the mountains. They gave me their nicest room at the top of the house and provided me with 3!! duvets, a bottle of water, some slippers to wear around the house (shoes are not worn inside temples and homes in Bhutan) and an electric heater that I was very grateful for. I was shown around the fields by the family's 4 and 6 year old sons who introduced me to their six cows and the neighbours, who ended up being their cousins. I learnt that the boys would walk for 2 hours each day to get to and from school, that arranged marriages although not common definitely still existed judging by the age difference between the 20 year old mother of three and her 50 year old husband and that Bhutan has a huge Doma-chewing problem.
Cigarettes have been banned and you can no longer buy them or tobacco in the shops, so the locals have turned to chewing a beetlenut leaf smeared with burning lime and half a beetlenut. It basically looks like a huge bulge in people's cheeks, it smells and it dies the teeth either a brown or red colour. Its disgusting and they love it. Dental hygiene is not thing in Bhutan as I noticed that both Kinley's and the young boys' teeth were stained dark brown at the roots. I felt sad knowing that they would probably start losing teeth very soon. It also resulted in me having to brush my teeth over the hole-in-the-floor toilet as there was no sink or shower in the house. I honestly cannot comprehend how they stayed clean and hygienic in such an environment. I spent the night playing a version of 'Go Fish' with the eldest son and then we had dinner all together sat on the floor, them eating with their hands' and me attempting to swallow what I can only describe as pure burning fire as my eyes sweated and my nose ran. It was a beautiful sight. I slept fitfully due to the sounds of mice scuttling on the roof, or next to my ear - I wasn't sure - and was finally grateful for Maggie's sleeping bag which I had schlepped all that way.
The following day we drove for 6 hours along winding roads and climbing altitude from Punakha to the Haa Valley. I was ferociously motion sick and by the time we arrived in Haa all I wanted to do was fall asleep. Haa is very small and rather barren if I might say so, but is worth visiting due to the Black and White Temples which date back to the 17th century. The white temple has been explanded to included residences for the monks that worship it and now boasts a large forecourt built to host the valley's annual festival. In comparison, the black temple is small, humble and off the beaten track. This was the first time I had ever witnessed Tshering join us in the temple where he paid tribute to the gods and left monetary donations as Kinley had often explained was custom. I guess it made the whole thing all that more real to me but at the same time confused me all that much more as his devotion was both moving and strong.
We then drove via the Chelela pass which at 3988 meters is the highest pass in Bhutan before we descended into Paro. It was freezing up there but the view was breathtaking. When in town we visited the national museum which was rather small and in need of some TLC but hosts a great room of ceremonial masks and a documentary on the country's regional festivals. There, we visited the Paro (Rinpung) Dzong and its very round and unusually built watchtower before we checked in to the very fancy, rather westernized Malaysian owned hotel, whose name I forget.
The following day was my final day in Bhutan and Kinley had very appropriately saved the best for last; (queue the drum roll) the Tiger's Nest Monastery! It took us 1.5 hours to walk up to it and as we walked, what seemed like a white room with a roof built half way into a cliff's edge slowly showed itself to be a very elaborate, colourful and big monastry. We were joined on our ascent by a lot of locals who had chosen to visit the temple on their day off. The climb itself was not too bad as I was probably used to the dusty roads and creeping hills by this point. Kinley was determined to out-trek me but I could feel that he was also struggling in the heat a little. The temple finally showed its true form at the first viewpoint (which conveniently has a a tea house) and so we stopped to have some tea and admire the temple from a distance. We then continued upwards, pausing to pay tribute to the small cave/temple where the 69th head of religion of Bhutan had allegedly been born before we descended 340 steps crossing the bridge over the waterfall just under the temple, and completing our final 270 step pilgrimage up to the temple's gates. Locals were only allowed in with traditional dress and I was asked to leave my bag with all my electronics behind. Kinley had very kindly gotten a key off his friend at the tea house as all the lock's had been taken!
Tiger's Nest is actually a cluster of 8 temples all housed under one roof. I was able to drag Kinley through 7/8 of them as the 8th was closed to visitors. According to Kinley, the Buddha was said to have alighted on the hill riding his tigress who was also his consort in the 8th century as he travelled through the land preaching Buddhism. He then proceeded to enter a state of meditation for 3 years, 3 months and 3 days before he awoke again, enlightened. FYI the floors of the Temple were FREEZING as there was no electricity or sunlight to warm the stone and wooden floors and as one is entering temple after temple, there was no point taking our shoes on and off repeatedly so we rather chose to skip (quite literally due to the cold) across the floors. The temple worshiped the same gods and deities as the majority of the others. Most temples in Bhutan worship the lotus Buddha, the Founder and the Present and/or past Buddha. One can commonly find small statues of the goddess of compassion and the god of prosperity and energetic (he looks particularly terrifying) within them too.
We then returned to the tea house for a buffet lunch in the sunshine and with a spectacular view of the Tiger's Nest before returning to Tshering who was waiting with the car running and the heating on as always. As I mentioned, I lived a week in Bhutan as a VIP. Easy to get used to, hard to leave behind.
On our walk Kinley and I discussed a variety of things including how Bhutan does not have any homeless people, how the government had provided the Tibetan refugees with lodging, food and eventually citizenship and how the country's monks outnumber the military. We discussed how Bhutan's healthcare was free and I proclaimed my confusion at the very humble abode that the King and Queen resided in. The royal palace consists of a one story building with a big garden, two guard posts and a fence. It is shockingly small, humble and right in the middle of town for everyone to see. Kinley explained how they hoped to set an example for their people and other kingdoms in the world, choosing to offer the Dzongs to the state's and people's use. We discussed the dating scene in Bhutan and how the youth can now choose who they want to marry and when, and how Kinley believed that Bhutan would eventually be amalgamated into India.
All in all, the people in Bhutan were all very welcoming, kind and curious to hear my story and share their own with me in return. I never felt threatened, unsafe or uncomfortable and can honestly say that I connected with the country and the spirituality that it emits. I felt calm, relaxed and at ease on my own taking time to process each day's events and come to terms with the way of life in Bhutan. I will miss Bhutan and the peace and tranquility that is offers. Strangely, the more I think about my lessons in Bhutan and the concept of Buddhism, the more open to its principles I become. In short, if you are a good person in your life, you will be reborn as a good person and have a good life. If you are a bad person, you will go to hell and suffer there for all of eternity. Pretty black and white really but it might explain the country's way of measuring its wealth as its people's happiness per capita. As the world's only country with a negative carbon footprint and with very little internal dispute and unrest, I feel like the rest of the word has a lot to learn from the small and easily overlooked nation.
Imagine a country where pollution is non-existent, where there are forests, rivers and mountains as far as the eye can see, where capitalism has not yet overtaken tradition and where the importance of respect, happiness and kindness overrule all other concepts. This is Bhutan.
I have recently returned from a week in what I can only describe as a magical land which far exceeded every hope and expectation that I had for it. How to best conceptualize Bhutan? Picture Nepal, but smaller, emptier, cleaner and much more authentic.
The flight from Kathmandu to Bhutan was comfortable enough and took no more than 1.5 hours. After checking in with Drukair Royal Bhutan Airlines, it took me a good 2 hours to clear immigration, and security due to a horendous amount of traffic in the airport. The flight itself was as comfortable as one could be hurtling across the Himalayas in a metal tube and the landing itself (infamous for its tight landing) was executed with apsolute precision as we hoped over the mountains, took a tight turn in the valley below, skirted around some very unwisely positioned house before diving down to the runway below. I think it was the only time that I felt green from a flight.
I was met at the very fancy new airport by my 28 year old guide Kinley and my 50-ish year old driver Tshering and their fancy 4x4 Hyundai (it even had small cushions on the backseat and curtains on the windows!) and off we went! My first impressions of Bhutan was how little traffic there was and how good and well maintained the roads were! I had forgotten what driving on tarmac felt like. The buildings and architecture also struck me as very traditional, minimalist and beuatiful with all buildings following the same uniform design of white concrete bases, wooden upper floors and roofs and space between the roof and the top floor to store hay in the winter. These people have it figured out. We arrived in the capital Timphu an hour later having made two stops along the way; One, to visit the oldest chain bridge in Bhutan built in the 14th century by the Bridgemaker (a lot of the deities in Bhutan have very obvious names) where Kinley explained the difference between the Lotus Buddha, the Present Buddha and the Founder (i.e. the Founder of Bhutan - more on that later). The second stop was to look over the side of the road/cliff to see an upturned car laying below having driven off the road a few minutes earlier. That is when I discovered that drinking in Bhutan was a serious problem with the locals left with very little else to do to pass the time in the winter, after their crops had been harvested. In any case no one seemed overly concerned. Apart from me...
Bhutan hosts a population of around 800,000 people, the majority of which are farmers and small business owners. I later discovered that the majority of the population still wear the traditional dress (out of choice!) which consists of a long skirt and silk top for the women and a dress/cardigan like garment which reaches just above the knees for the men with very long woolly socks to protect against the cold. It looked beautiful and definitely added to the country's atmosphere. I also found out that the food in Bhutan is very similar to that of Nepal but minus the Indian influences. It consisted of rather bland (no pepper and salt really) rice and curries and the locals added dried out chilies to give it flavor. The go-to dish in Bhutan are cheese and chili (one or two potatoes can occasionally be found in the stew). Needles to say that I no longer have functional taste buds. I spent my first night at the very fancy Namgay Heritage Hotel which confirmed to me that not only would I not be needing my sleeping bag, but I would also not have to force myself through baby-wipe showers.
The following day I learnt that the previous King has 4 wives, each having provided him with a shed-load of children. His son now rules with his wife and their baby prince, his father having both relinquished the throne to him and having declared that he was mistaken to have married 4 wives ad this should not be repeated by the future kings. Funny how that works isn't it? We visited the Chorten memorial in Timphu, a small temple built by the 4th Queen for the son (the current King) and popular among students for worship before their exams. We then visited the gigantic bronze Buddha Dordenma up on the hill which still has me in awe. It sits very majestically looking over Timphu and was by far one of the highlights of my trip. On the interior of the Buddha lies a half-finished bronze temple decorated with thousands of miniature bronze Buddha statues along the walls. Incredible. Kinley explained that the Buddhe cost near to $47 million to build (they have not yet finished building the grounds underneath it). Shocking. And this was the first of a lot of construction and investment that I witnessed going into the country.
We then visited the zoo where I met a very friendly Takin (Bhutan's national animal) which looks a lot like it has the body of a deer and the face of a moose that has been stung by a bee. Finally, I met the lovely Tara at the 'Simply Bhutan' cultural center who explained the importance of the 'phallus', yes you heard right, in Bhutanese culture as a symbol of fertility. In short, there are penises all over Bhutan. They are carved, they are painted, they hang from the roofs of houses, decorate mantle pieces and come in all shapes and sizes. STRANGE. Tara also showed me how to shoot and arrow and how to wear the traditional dress, before introducing me to butter tea (exactly what it sounds like) which is served with sprinkled roasted rice on top. It tasted delicious but sat very heavy on the stomach. We then drove towards the town of Punakha where we would spend the nigh, taking a break half-way there to visit the Dochula pass, which boasts a collection of 108 Bhutanese style stupas located in the middle of the road in an awkward cluster. Very beautiful. I later found out that 108 is a very important number in Bhutan and is often the number of stupas built together, is the number of memorial flags traditionally (and if the family can afford that many) placed together on the top of the hills to commemorate the death of a loved one and is the number of yak horn beads on the Bhutanese rosary.
According to legend, the Founder united the clans of Bhutan by taking them over one by one, forming what we now recognize as the kingdom of Bhutan. As he was doing this, he was confronted by a very large demon that threatened to hinder his efforts. Thus, in an effort to vanquish the demon, the Founder built 108 temples throughout Bhutan and Tibet in just a single night. We visited 4 of them on our trip, the most impressive being the Punakha Dzong (Dzong = Fortress) which lies at the fork of the male and female rivers (perhaps similar to Ying and Yang?). In essence, a Dzong is a huge fortress built for protective purposes with large thick walls and few and highly placed windows to protect the region from invaders. The Dzongs mostly consist of three parts: The administrative buildings which are now used by the government, the temple in the heart of the Dzong and residences currently occupied by the monks that look after the temples. The Punakha Dzong in particular, is especially important as it is where the coronations take place. The other three included the Paro Dzong, the Khazi Dzong (I think) which was burnt to the ground by a butter lamp accident and the Timphu Dzong which now houses modern parliament. As is custom, before we entered each Dzong Kinley had to wrap a white scarf around him in a particular way as a sign of respect for the deities of the Dzong and the Founder.
We visited the Druk Wangyal Llakhang Temple in Punakha which is a 1.5 hour hike up a hill and stands proud and obvious with its bronze roof gleaming in the sunshine as it overlooks the valley below. It was stunning with 4 floors of very intricate and delicately painted murals of the various gods vanquishing their demons. There was something quite spiritual about the concept even though most of the gods were portrayed in very aggressive and quite frankly ugly forms with many heads, eyes, claws and teeth. Creepy. I was disturbed to find out (after a lot of probing) that what are now worshiped as gods and demons were actually people back in the day. So the stories literally explain how the gods (people with many followers who helped spread Buddhism throughout the land) killed the demons (people who opposed them) in the most violent ways. And here I thought that Buddhism was a peaceful religion. I still can't quite swallow that concept.
We then visited the Temple of Fertility, Kinley's favourite as that is where he got his name from, which had a unique collection of phalli for me to see. Brilliant. Traditionally, when children are born in Bhutan, they are taken to a temple of the parent's choice from where they will receive the deity's blessing and adopt one of the deity's many names as their own. The temple itself was a little underwhelming but sported a fantastic story that Kinley recited with much enthusiasm. The story told the tale of the Crazy Monk who spent his days spreading Buddhism throughout the country and conquering demons with his 'flaming thunderbolt' penis. He would spend his nights at local people's homes who would house him, feed him and offer their daughters and wives to him. Once the monk had slept with one of the women, the house would then forever be blessed in many ways, namely with fertility. Basically, and according to my translation, he went round murdering people and raping women and he was praised for it. The Bhutanese do not see it that way of course and don't try to tell them any different. It will result in an awkward silence as you both stare a a phallus garden.
I spent the night at a homestay, which ended up being a young family's farmhouse up in the mountains. They gave me their nicest room at the top of the house and provided me with 3!! duvets, a bottle of water, some slippers to wear around the house (shoes are not worn inside temples and homes in Bhutan) and an electric heater that I was very grateful for. I was shown around the fields by the family's 4 and 6 year old sons who introduced me to their six cows and the neighbours, who ended up being their cousins. I learnt that the boys would walk for 2 hours each day to get to and from school, that arranged marriages although not common definitely still existed judging by the age difference between the 20 year old mother of three and her 50 year old husband and that Bhutan has a huge Doma-chewing problem.
Cigarettes have been banned and you can no longer buy them or tobacco in the shops, so the locals have turned to chewing a beetlenut leaf smeared with burning lime and half a beetlenut. It basically looks like a huge bulge in people's cheeks, it smells and it dies the teeth either a brown or red colour. Its disgusting and they love it. Dental hygiene is not thing in Bhutan as I noticed that both Kinley's and the young boys' teeth were stained dark brown at the roots. I felt sad knowing that they would probably start losing teeth very soon. It also resulted in me having to brush my teeth over the hole-in-the-floor toilet as there was no sink or shower in the house. I honestly cannot comprehend how they stayed clean and hygienic in such an environment. I spent the night playing a version of 'Go Fish' with the eldest son and then we had dinner all together sat on the floor, them eating with their hands' and me attempting to swallow what I can only describe as pure burning fire as my eyes sweated and my nose ran. It was a beautiful sight. I slept fitfully due to the sounds of mice scuttling on the roof, or next to my ear - I wasn't sure - and was finally grateful for Maggie's sleeping bag which I had schlepped all that way.
We then drove via the Chelela pass which at 3988 meters is the highest pass in Bhutan before we descended into Paro. It was freezing up there but the view was breathtaking. When in town we visited the national museum which was rather small and in need of some TLC but hosts a great room of ceremonial masks and a documentary on the country's regional festivals. There, we visited the Paro (Rinpung) Dzong and its very round and unusually built watchtower before we checked in to the very fancy, rather westernized Malaysian owned hotel, whose name I forget.
The following day was my final day in Bhutan and Kinley had very appropriately saved the best for last; (queue the drum roll) the Tiger's Nest Monastery! It took us 1.5 hours to walk up to it and as we walked, what seemed like a white room with a roof built half way into a cliff's edge slowly showed itself to be a very elaborate, colourful and big monastry. We were joined on our ascent by a lot of locals who had chosen to visit the temple on their day off. The climb itself was not too bad as I was probably used to the dusty roads and creeping hills by this point. Kinley was determined to out-trek me but I could feel that he was also struggling in the heat a little. The temple finally showed its true form at the first viewpoint (which conveniently has a a tea house) and so we stopped to have some tea and admire the temple from a distance. We then continued upwards, pausing to pay tribute to the small cave/temple where the 69th head of religion of Bhutan had allegedly been born before we descended 340 steps crossing the bridge over the waterfall just under the temple, and completing our final 270 step pilgrimage up to the temple's gates. Locals were only allowed in with traditional dress and I was asked to leave my bag with all my electronics behind. Kinley had very kindly gotten a key off his friend at the tea house as all the lock's had been taken!
Tiger's Nest is actually a cluster of 8 temples all housed under one roof. I was able to drag Kinley through 7/8 of them as the 8th was closed to visitors. According to Kinley, the Buddha was said to have alighted on the hill riding his tigress who was also his consort in the 8th century as he travelled through the land preaching Buddhism. He then proceeded to enter a state of meditation for 3 years, 3 months and 3 days before he awoke again, enlightened. FYI the floors of the Temple were FREEZING as there was no electricity or sunlight to warm the stone and wooden floors and as one is entering temple after temple, there was no point taking our shoes on and off repeatedly so we rather chose to skip (quite literally due to the cold) across the floors. The temple worshiped the same gods and deities as the majority of the others. Most temples in Bhutan worship the lotus Buddha, the Founder and the Present and/or past Buddha. One can commonly find small statues of the goddess of compassion and the god of prosperity and energetic (he looks particularly terrifying) within them too.
We then returned to the tea house for a buffet lunch in the sunshine and with a spectacular view of the Tiger's Nest before returning to Tshering who was waiting with the car running and the heating on as always. As I mentioned, I lived a week in Bhutan as a VIP. Easy to get used to, hard to leave behind.
On our walk Kinley and I discussed a variety of things including how Bhutan does not have any homeless people, how the government had provided the Tibetan refugees with lodging, food and eventually citizenship and how the country's monks outnumber the military. We discussed how Bhutan's healthcare was free and I proclaimed my confusion at the very humble abode that the King and Queen resided in. The royal palace consists of a one story building with a big garden, two guard posts and a fence. It is shockingly small, humble and right in the middle of town for everyone to see. Kinley explained how they hoped to set an example for their people and other kingdoms in the world, choosing to offer the Dzongs to the state's and people's use. We discussed the dating scene in Bhutan and how the youth can now choose who they want to marry and when, and how Kinley believed that Bhutan would eventually be amalgamated into India.
All in all, the people in Bhutan were all very welcoming, kind and curious to hear my story and share their own with me in return. I never felt threatened, unsafe or uncomfortable and can honestly say that I connected with the country and the spirituality that it emits. I felt calm, relaxed and at ease on my own taking time to process each day's events and come to terms with the way of life in Bhutan. I will miss Bhutan and the peace and tranquility that is offers. Strangely, the more I think about my lessons in Bhutan and the concept of Buddhism, the more open to its principles I become. In short, if you are a good person in your life, you will be reborn as a good person and have a good life. If you are a bad person, you will go to hell and suffer there for all of eternity. Pretty black and white really but it might explain the country's way of measuring its wealth as its people's happiness per capita. As the world's only country with a negative carbon footprint and with very little internal dispute and unrest, I feel like the rest of the word has a lot to learn from the small and easily overlooked nation.
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