Down Day!

Rick went back to climb Tiger's Nest, Takstang, with the folks from Mind and Life and Matthieu. He said that Matthieu was stopped about 12 times with people asking for photo or autograph and he was gracious every time. Rick had a great hike with the group. I was sorry to miss the conversation, happy to have a down day. Caught up on email, shopped a bit and went to a Buddhist chanting ceremony at a monastery. That was wonderful. Rick and I had dinner alone for the first time and burned mouths on the usual sneaky chile.

Our final two days were amazing. Fairly royal centered, but we've decided this king is basically bodhisatvah (sp?). It means he gives off an air of being "realized", on his way to being enlightened.

The first day, Rick and I had the morning free, caught up on email and then went out walking. It was the second day of holiday and now they had closed the roads through Thimphu in order to get ready for the king's processional. He left Panakha at 7am and was driving to Thimphu. However, he was stopping at every village, greeting people and then continuing on his way. It was both King and Queen, but the latter is new, beautiful, but not known yet. So mostly, it was about the king. We walked around, I was getting a jacket made from a piece of fabric our host, Eddie, had brought from Japan. I was picking up the pieces for a traditional outfit and taking pictures of people. Whole schools were gradually filling up the street in order to see the king. The kids were all in uniform, the smaller ones with flowers and almost all with the Bhutanese flags in hand. The uniforms here are the national dress and wonderful, not like the stodgy uniforms we have at home.

The kids discovered that if you blew through the end of the plastic flag stick, it was like a kazoo. So as we walked, kazoo noises followed us and chatter filled the air. The most remarkable thing was that 1000s of people filled the street all the way through town and it was completely calm and comfortable. No shoving for the best place, no rigidity about the kids sitting properly, kids sitting for hours. Just amazing. We were supposed to leave at 5 for dinner and the king was supposed to come through at 3, however as 3 approached, that clearly wasn't going to happen on time. He was 3 miles away at 4:30 which would be close except that he was walking most of the way because there were so many people waiting to greet him. We decided to go to dinner. We had dinner, leisurely, then came back into town at 8:45. We had to get off the bus to walk because of traffic because the king was still coming through town. We walked down a street, realized he was still coming, and there was, shockingly, an open space big enough for our group of 8. We looked down the street and saw the lights of the car rolling ahead of the king. We waited maybe 15-20 minutes? And then the king and his truly beautiful queen walked in front of us. He promptly stopped, asked where we were from, if we had dinner, how did we feel about his country, just amazing. The guy had been going for 14 hours at that point. And his wife had too! She looked so relaxed and smiling, especially at the children. There was a little girl next to me and the queen saw her and waved, but then bent backward as they continued to walk to make sure the little girl saw her in turn. Amazing.

The king has a remarkable air about him given that he's only 31. Seems relaxed and at ease with himself and his role, evidently is accomplishing big things as he ushers his country into this century while holding onto Buddhist principles. When you meet him, he is approachable and seems like a guy with whom you'd like to sit down and have a conversation. So that was the end of the day which was filled with great people watching.

Oh and Rick ran into a guy he'd rafted with in Alaska. He knew Paul was here, but hadn't been able to reach him. Paul's working at the hospital helping them streamline emergency medical practices. He says it's slow going and systems are very slow moving. Interesting to hear stories of how difficult it is to create change, while at the same time, things are changing so fast, ministers are working hard to maintain their culture.

LAST DAY:

We were up at the usual time and had breakfast. I then went to the front desk to see if anyone could help me get dressed. Seriously, the skirt is a piece of fabric big enough to be a gorgeous table cloth. A beautiful (they're almost all beautiful here) young woman came up and helped me get everything on and in place, securely. I guess a German woman at the hotel had put her traditional outfit by herself and when she sneezed at cocktail hour, her skirt fell off. Mine did not. And I walked all over. We then took photos and went off to the Thimphu ceremony to celebrate the king's wedding. The whole stadium was filled with people who'd been waiting starting around 3am. It was an incredibly colorful group of people. Most with the orange and red flag of Bhutan waving in the air. We were in VIP (not VVIP) tents on the field that were placed around the perimeter. We were at the end of the tents which meant we could see....nothing! But the people watching was incredible. Thai and Indian women in gorgeous outfits, not to mention the Bhutanese in their outfits. I could have sat there for hours just watching and listening to the music from the different dance acts. We got there around 8:45 and left around 2.
We saw people we had met, met new people and occasionally walked up to the edge of the crowd to see the dances. The first ceremony was actually right in front of us when the king and queen walked all the way down the field, accompanied by ministers, monks, dancers, a horse and two baby elephants. They lit butter lamps and then the largest Thanka in the country slowly rolled up a giant screen to be displayed for the stadium. People immediately began prostrating in front of it. Not so much the dignitaries in the tents, but when the bleacher crowd climbed over the fence and streamed into the field, many stopped right in the midst of the crowd and began their threefold prostration in front of the Thanka.
We thought our adventures were over, packing, having lunch and getting ready to go. However, we then had a final dinner arranged by Eddie. This was at a Bhutanese restaurant at a conference center up in the hills. The woman running it and cooking was a comfortable looking woman who had been the first female minister in the country. We sat around low tables on carpet covered benches and mixed it up with the other guests Eddie had included. All actors and singers well known in the country. Turned out that the woman who sat with us had been in the tent with us and I'd had a picture taken with her, really, because her outfit was gorgeous. We realized it when we looked back at Rick's photos. Anyway, we had butter tea, yak meat and traditional singing. Wonderful end to our adventure.

The colors are just incredible

Thangka

Bit blurry, but all the queen mothers watching

We always sked for permission; she had this wry grin as she said yes

A new friend, we'll definitely stay in contact

King giving announcement, queen to his right

Elephant at the celebration

In front of the giant Thangka

Three teens in their finery

Dogs EVERYWHERE, even at the celebration at the stadium. A whole story...

Inside the stadium

With Lopensherab

Leaving for the celebration

The little boy I'm showing his photo to looked just horrified until he decided he was pleased

Wanted her own photo!

They all wanted to be in the photo

Lining up to wait

Excited for the king and dressed in their finest

High school students heading up to the gate to wait for the king and queen

Thimphu gate-final leg of the king and queen's walk through Thimphu.
Incredible to see so little traffic.

At monastery near Thimphu. These three elderly women come every day and spend the day spinning the wheel and sending prayers into the air. This is where we went for the monks chanting and praying ceremony. Wonderful.

Seen from above as we're leaving

A gas station, our final shot of Thimphu

Phajoding Monastery

While traveling with his disciples, Tsangpa Gyare, the Tibetan founder of the Drukpa Kagyud sect of Buddhism, saw nine dragons rise out of the earth and fill the sky with flowers. After his vision, Tsangpa Gyare prophesied that another monk would meet great success in a land to the south. A century later, in 1224, Phajo Drugom Zhigpo traveled south from Tibet to Bhutan to spread the teachings of the Drukpa Kagyud, thereby fulfilling the prophesy. Phajo established a center for meditation perched on a mountainside, at a place that now bears his name: Phajoding. Consisting of ten temples and a series of meditation houses, Phajoding has since been the regional center for a spiritual tradition that seeks the divine through solitary meditation.

This was another amazing, amazing day. Maybe the highlight of the trip. We hiked about 2 hours, well ahead of everyone else even though we were going at a slow pace, love that Boulder training. LopenSherab was with us again, but since we'd already talked so much, this hike had wonderful periods of quiet. We were hiking through a forest most of the time even though we were going to 12,000+ feet. Their tree line is much higher. About 2/3's of the way up, we were met by two monks at a small chorten with tea, puffed rice to put in the tea and crackers. I'd been my usual lady-like self while exercising and was dripping sweat to the point of really wishing I had those tennis bands. Hot tea? Turned out to be perfect. Then we sat in the shade, a bit of breeze blowing and monks serving us tea. Oh and Sherab off to the side with paper and pen, on the cel doing work since the holiday started the next day. We marveled at the extent of the cel range here.  It was a great break. We then went the rest of the way up and waited for the rest of the crew who weren't that far behind us.

Welcome!

We got to the top and the monks had set up a gate with flags and two young monks (they start at 6) were waiting to start blowing these clarinet like instruments. The reason we were being hosted at all was because they are desperate for funders to rehab the monastery which is exquisite and decrepit at the same time. Think Ms. Havisham in her wedding finery. When a key member arrived, the trumpets started blowing and we walked through the gate (His face was, well, I'm grinning thinking of it. A modest guy.) Because of the situation, we were able to go through AND take pictures of this incredible place and I think everyone of us was ready to plunk down money.

The place is the first place that I've been that had such a sense of serenity and spirituality that I thought I could do a month+ retreat here. And, in fact, many monks do just this at this location. However, I'd want summertime and really good bedding and clothes, because this is a monastery of artistic splendor, huge historical significance and true privation. I'm going to send photos that hopefully convey what we were seeing. About 30 monks live here, a number of them young boys. At the end they were playing a cricketish game and had plenty for two teams. The wind blows so hard that one of the roofs had blown off last time one of our hosts had been there.  There were huge gaps in the plaster, walls propped up with poles, bricks and wood falling, plastic taped up above the little room where the boys study to keep plaster from falling on them. The bathroom building was built for them by some UN agency and was a great step up for them. It was so bad that one friend, a female, walked in and right back out again. However, I didn't have the luxury of walking right back out again and it was doable. Basically a building with 4 open stalls, trench running down the middle, low wall separating the trenches from a hose to wash with. Four windows looking out that the guys said made it really not so bad. Of course, they could look at the window....

I digressed. So we went into the main temple and it was fantastic. The Buddha was so big that you could see the head and chest from the second floor. So it was basically two floors of two different worship places, but with the same gigantic Buddha. Though, of course, there were other alters, other Buddhas, amazing paintings etc. We walked in and sat down on carpets and they gave us butter tea and butter rice with raisons (Carol, I thought of you). Really pretty good, just a bit of regret the next morning. Then we started touring this fantastic building with at least, hmm, run together a bit, maybe 3 worship areas? We had 5 architects and conservationists with us from the ministry and everyone was photographing. They were photographing ruin and we were photographing amazing.

We then went out and walked around this two story building to the back and there hung a Thanka that covered the whole backside of the building. Two stories high and building width. Unbelievable image. You stand back and see this incredible Bhuddha (I've about given up trying to remember which one whenever I see one) and then walk up close and see the incredible stitchery and applique that comprised this Thanka (religious painting or tapestry). Truly, truly awe-inspiring. It was created 230 years ago and this was the maybe the third or fourth time it had been shown (they don't keep records "like you do" the head monk told me). And we got to not only see it but take photos. I'm awe-inspired again just remembering.

We then walked up to the monastery where the monks live (how?!) and tiptoed around the broken floors and walls to see 3 more unbelievable worship areas. Just heart-breaking and really hope they get a more finalized plan and get some funding. When you looked out the window of one of the alter areas down into the courtyard where people used to enter even last year, it was filled with debris that had fallen off the building.

The monks were great, telling us stories, letting us throw the three dice and get our futures (Rick didn't throw, I did and got looks of surprise because I got a 13, I guess that was very good. They didn't take me over to the sheets of paper tacked to the wall that tell you what to do if you get a bad number.)

Then they served us lunch, siting out looking over all of Thimphu valley. We could see where all the royalty live, including the fifth or current king and all the queen mothers. I guess the fourth king wore himself out because he's off across the valley and up in another set of hills and rarely is seen in public anymore, though he's helping his son run things. Higher mountains behind, blue sky and clouds. Like above Boulder, but not.

Oh, forgot. Last thing we did was walk up behind the monastery. The head monk, in english they called him Principal, led us saying this was the last really important thing he wanted us to see. We walked along a trail with really amazing vegetation, moss, small flowers, fall colors just starting to turn the leaves and all in miniature. Made me think of that movie "Fairies". Something like that. We walked up, two monks ahead and they turned, in their red robes against the green and pointed up against a wall face. There on the bottom was a Buddha, unmistakable. A miracle. The skeptics amongst us said it was a tourist miracle. I believed. It was totally cool, not painted, just minerals run together. Think we have a photo. Rick was on this day with the camera.

We then marched back through flags and bugeling (sp?) and were off.
Isn't that an amazing day?

At the welcoming gate

Thimphu valley

On our way up

Love this one

Look at this one and then this next, same place

Playing cricket with piece of wood and broken ball

Monastery

Housing

Inside

	Hanging more prayer flags

Head monk wearing...Crocs!

Having tea at the chorten

Thanka

One small piece, couldn't even see the stitches, they were so small

Another piece

The group

Wash areas for everything

Kitchen

Schoolroom

Schoolbooks

Where the head monk sits to set pace of chanting and prayers

Looking up at the cliff wall

Wall face