The King and I

Well, tonight I am back in Thimphu, a little sad as it means my visit to Bhutan is nearing an end...
Today we visited the Phunakha (?) Dzong which was one of the more picturesque of the Dzongs that we have seen. A Dzong is a building that houses both Monastic and Secular regional leaders, ie government offices and a Monastery. Anyway, we reached the Dzong quite early and something seemed different to all the other Dzongs, there was a greater police and military presence and everyone was rushing around looking very stressed. It turns out the 4th King (ie. the Father of the current King) was coming to visit. He was on his way back from visiting the Bumthang fires and was calling in to the Dzong as today is a very holy day on the Bhutanese calender. We were luckily still allowed in the Dzong and we were able to visit 4 different temples within the Dzong area, and we were also able to see the 4th King, so that was quite exciting although we were not allowed to take any photos of the King. From Phunakha we then headed further down the road to another temple, this one was the Temple of Fertility and it was on the top of a hill, it was a very interesting temple and if you wanted you could be blessed with a large wooden phallus that is rumored to have once been owned by the divine madman himself!!
From there it was on to lunch and the drive back to Thimphu.
Tonight we had a lecture from a guest lecturer, Kunzing Chorden, one of the leading women in Bhutan and an expert on Bhutanese Textiles. She is a most interesting and very engaging woman and the lecture was fantastic.
Just thought I should mention what we did yesterday. So we were in Trongsa for the evening, maybe I shall go back to the day before that...
We left Bumthang as the King was expected to arrive to meet the people affected by the fire, the plan was to get to Trongsa for lunch and then visit the Museum and Dzong in the afternoon.
The Museum was fantastic, it was situated in the old watchtower for the Dzong and showed the Bhutanese history, both in the monarchy and the Buddhist traditions, it was such a well set out museum and easy to follow, except there were SOOO many steps, which I must admit I am getting a bit sick of at altitude...
So from the Museum (which the King was set to visit the following day also) we had to then walk all the way back down the stairs to the Dzong. The Dzong was another interesting building, again containing both secular and monastic components. There was some beautiful artwork in this one which Karma, our Bhutanese lecturer explained to us. Then we moved on to the Monastic area of the Dzong to find the Monks all practicing for Mask Dance celebrations. It was beautiful to see the grace of the teacher and very funny to see the VERY enthusiastic monks who didn't have much of an idea, and then there were others who were just lost. I really could have watched them all day, but alas we had to go.
So, yesterday, the only thing on our schedule for the day was to drive from Trongsa to Kichu resort, with a visit to a school on the way. All I have to say is I think I should be a grade 2 english teacher in Bhutan. I had such a great time, and I think I may have been there about 1/2 an hour longer than I should have been, but at least every child in that class had a paper crane b the time I left.
Anyway I had better go now, it is late and the hotel staff are hovering around, I think they want to turn the computers off and go to bed.

Tantric Buddhism and the search for Emptiness

So here I am in Bumthang, Central Bhutan. High in the eastern Himalayan mountains and loving it. Although i have been threatened to be droped off in a far eastern Bhutanese Nunnery, apparently that is the punnishment for a single woman travelling in Bhutan alone. I think I could manage apart from having to shave my head....
Two days ago we spent the day at a local festival which was fantastic, although the foreign tourists nearly out numbered the locals which was a bit sad, but it was amazing to see the beautiful dancing they do at such religious festivals. Yesterday we headed off to another valley nearby, driving over one of the highest passes on our journey at somewhere around 3500m. It is amazing traveling around here, Ura, the town we visited was about 50km from where we are staying, but it took us 2.5 hrs to get there, the roads in this part of the world are very special, considering that we were on the main East West highway of Bhutan!!!! We were so lucky to visit Ura as we were able to have a wonderful luch with the family of our Lecturer and guide, it was such a beautiful experience to see a local house and to meet his family.
Today we headed off to yet another valley in the area, this time the Tang Valley, the road out to this valley was only 38km and took 1.5 hrs to get there, and then we still had to walk the last km or so as the bus could not go along the road any further. We visited a museum on the top of a hill and had a picnic lunch over looking the valley. Really you can't get much better than this.
Although it is a very sad day for the local community today. There was a fire in town overnight and wiped out the livelihoods of around 22 families in the village. The fire started around 2:30 and by 3am all of our guides were down in town trying to help, by 7am Karma had begun collecting money for the local villages. Apparently this is a national tragedy and the former King is coming to visit the village either today or tomorrow. They think that 1 person was killed and it is amazing that there were not more as all the buildings are timber.
Anyway, the power has already gone out once tonight so I am not going to push my luck, speak again soon.

And about the title, I am still too confused to explain.......

Bhutan - Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon

WOW!! So I have been in Bhutan for 3 days now, and it is just amazing. Even the flight in was breath taking. The plane had to weave down the valley turning around the mountains to land on the narrow short runway in apparently one of the widest valleys in Bhutan. From there it has just gotten better. We have had a couple of very full on days so far visiting Monastaries and forts and museums as well as having our first official lecture last night. It has rained almost all day today here in Thimphu, but we have been inside most of the time. With a visit to the Institute of Natural Medicine this morning where I found out that most of the herbs I cook with are so good for me, fantastic, I now just have to do it more often.

We landed in Paro two days ago and after checking in to the hotel we were off wandering around the town and out to an ancient Dzhong, we also saw the Tigers Nest, where we will visit on the last day.
I did get a bit of altitude sickness on the first day, we are higher here than the highest point in Australia. Mostly due to dehydration, but I have been drinking around 2 litres of water a day since, much better.
So today I got to wander around the city of Thimphu for a couple of hours before visiting the national library, full of the most amazing scriptures, all in the traditional budhist style of individual paper between blocks of wood. From there we headed off to the local Dzhong, which is also the King's offices and a very important building.
Now it is time for dinner, so I must go.
Chat again soon, maybe.