Gasa Weekend

This past weekend we had a three day weekend in honor of the death anniversary of Zhabdrung Ngagwang Namgyal. Zhabdrung is the third most important person in Bhutan history (behind Buddha and Guru Rinpoche). He is known for uniting Bhutan and building multiple dzongs throughout the country (including Punakha Dzong).

This was definitely my favorite weekend in Bhutan so far! We experienced hail stones (which are literally the size of small marbles). We saw the king and Je Khenpo (the head monk in Bhutan) at the Punakha Dzong. We drove an eight passenger jeep without four wheel drive on muddy roads along a cliff and survived. We made a new friend with our driver and cook, Ugyen. We soaked in the Gasa Hot Springs (known to have special healing properties).

I can't fully explain how amazing the weekend was - all I can say is that we had great karma and definitely contributed to the Gross National Happiness of Bhutan :-)

Punakha Dzong

The King is in the middle of the picture in yellow and Je Khenpo is on the right in yellow. We were not allowed to take pictures of the king so I stole this one off of the Kuensel website (one of the local Bhutanese newspapers).

Bhutanese lining up to receive their blessings

Me in front of the Punakha Dzong - 2nd oldest dzong in Bhutan

Ugyen - our faithful driver, cook and new friend carrying our rice up the hill to Gasa Village

Sunrise over the Himalayas

Little monks posing for the picture

Bhutanese friends (Samtin and Pema) who cooked for us the whole weekend!!

Archery - the national sport of Bhutan

Morning Walk

Our little apartment is about a 10 minute walk from the Changangkha Lhakhang. It is one of the oldest temples in Thimphu and was recently renovated in 1998. It is a perfect morning walk and very peaceful as well. Throughout the morning, locals walk up to circumambulate the temple while spinning the numerous prayerwheels. The monks walk up as they prepare for the monastic school that is also held at the temple. It is a great way to start the day and I will definitely miss this little temple when I leave Bhutan

View of the Temple

Prayer Wheels

View of Thimphu from the Temple

Weekend Market

One of my favorite things about Bhutan is all of the fresh fruit and vegetables at the weekend market. The market is held Friday thru Sunday and they sell the best produce at CHEAP prices!! If we need produce in the middle of the week we go to the Hong Kong Market although it is a little more expensive. Here are some pictures of the market –

My favorite vendor at Hong Kong market -

The Bhutanese love their chilis!!

Eggs, which are more expensive than in the US because of the recent bird flu outbreak -

Grain market - selling rice and cereals

Weighing system in Bhutan

Sunday Afternoon Hike

This past Sunday, the Physio Department Head, Sanga took us for a 6km hike with 3 other physiotherapists from the hospital. It was a gorgeous hike – it started off relatively flat (for Bhutan that is!!) and we arrived at a monastery about an hour into the hike. We entered the monastery and saw the footprints of a monk who prostrated so many times that the outline of his feet were etched into the wooden floor. One of the monks told us that he prostrated upwards of a 100,000 times - talk about dedication. We then sat down and had tea and snacks. The Bhutanese are serious about their tea – Sangay (a friend of one of the physios) carried it in a huge canister the entire hike!! After some snacks and tea, we embarked on the second part of the hike which was definitely more treacherous than the first half – definitely got my workout for the weekend!!

Karma, Sangay (carried our tea the entire hike!), Sangay, Sanga (our faithful, blind guide), Thinley

Wongduetshe Monastery

Bhutanese woman drinking

Little girl spinning the prayer wheel

Prayer Wheel

Me - loving Bhutan and my life here :-)

Meditation Class

Every Tuesday night, Lama Shenphen Zangpo hosts a meditation night at Deer Park, a center for art and contemplation. Lama Zangpo is an author of Buddhist texts and teacher/ mentor for new monks. This past Tuesday was the first time I have meditated and I really enjoyed it. I thought that it would be really hard and my thoughts would wander too much but it was actually very relaxing and therapeutic.

We started out with ten minutes of meditation and moved on to a five minute reading from a Buddhist text. The cycle repeated four times. I thought that ten minutes would seem like forever as I tried to clear my mind and focus on my breathing. However, it went by quickly. Maybe all the years of trying to clear my mind during Shavasana in Yoga helped -

After the class, I walked home and enjoyed the feeling of peace that I felt after my meditation practice. Later, the effects of my practice had worn off. However, when I saw Lama Zangpo at a local coffee shop yesterday (yes Thimphu is a VERY small town), I remembered my meditation practice and am looking forward to my next meditation session.

Paro Tsechu

This past Sunday, we went to the Paro Tsechu - a 5 day long festival that is in honour of Guru Rinpoche, the saint who brought Buddhism to Bhutan and the Himalayan world. That morning, Stanley and I went down to the market to buy a Gho (the men’s traditional dress) and get help putting on my kira. It was so entertaining! Unfortunately neither of us had cameras so we have no pictures to document the experience. There were 5 teenage boys dressing Stanley while he stood in a woman’s stall in the market. By the end of the experience, there were about 10-20 Bhutanese surrounding the stall watching as we were dressed by the locals. Here is a picture of me in my full kira -

A religious dance during the tsechu. The Bhutanese people believe that by attending a tsechu you gain merits and blessings.

The crowd watching the tsechu.
Monks watching the tsechu
In front of the dzong in my kira -

It is believed that turning a prayer wheel clockwise sends thousands of prayers into the spiritual atmosphere to cleanse negative karma for all sentient beings. Inside the wheels, Om Mani Padme Hum text are written on rolls of thin paper, which are then carefully wrapped and placed inside the prayer wheel. The six syllables of the mantra, Om, Ma-Ni, Pad-Me, Hum, are believed to purify the six negative emotions: anger, pride, greed, jealousy, desire/lust, ignorance while simultaneously engendering the six qualities of the enlightened heart: generosity, harmonious conduct, endurance, enthusiasm, concentration, and insight.

Bhutanese man wearing a gho and hand-made traditional boots with a kabney across his shoulder (Bhutanese men must wear the kabney to enter a dzong or political office).

Solo Expedition

I went on my first walk alone after Bernadette and I visited the Kurjey Dzong. I decided to walk the long way home - I thought for sure that I would get lost but I was pleasantly suprised. I experienced my first suspension bridge which was gorgeous and covered in prayer flags. After I climbed up from the bridge, I got stuck in an area surrounded by barbed wire. I looked around and wondered to myself how much barbed wire would hurt if I tried to climb over it. So I looked around and wondered if I should try and crawl under it. After I decided that neither of these choices sounded good, I started to look for a way around the barbed wire. And I found it on the edge of the cliff overlooking the river. So I skirted around the barbed wire and found my way back to the road. It was kind of a scary experience but disaster was avoided!
Kurjey Dzong - the Bhutanese proudly proclaim that all of the dzongs are made without a single nail!
A women with her prayer wheel circumambulating the Dzong.
Suspension bridge with prayer flags
Prayer flags - they are fabricated in five colors which symbolize water, wood, fire, earth and iron. Almost as beautiful as the ones my Rancho family made me for my going away party -

Completely unknown to me, it was Guru Rinpoche’s birthday (Book Club – remember the guy on the road trip??). He is known as the second Buddha and is recognized as bringing Buddhism to Bhutan. So he is kind of a big deal around here – his statue is probably in almost every dzong in Bhutan! Since I happened to visit a dzong on his birthday and pretended I was with a tour group, I was able to enter into the main alms room and view the ceremony performed by the monks. It was a completely surreal moment –

At the end of the day, we decided to take a break from traditional Bhutanese food and we had Himalayan Pizza. As you can tell from the pictures, we were basically in someone’s living room. The little girl in the picture handed Stanley the remote and left halfway through our meal. We stayed there for almost an hour more ordering beers so that we could watch their TV!!

Wow - I think that was my longest post yet! Hope you all had a great weekend!