Reb's Travels: Lunch with the Queen Grandmother

We drove from Paro to Thimpu, a city of 80,000, the biggest by far in Bhutan. We drove in and I talked about the Thimpu Festival that actually wasn't on our schedule, but sounded fantastic. So the whole group went really quickly into the hotel, dumped our stuff and right off to see a bit of the last day of the festival. This festival celebrates the start of Thimpu, tells Bhuddist history, how Bhutan become both Bhuddist and cohesive, all with dance and a few instruments. Similar to what we'd seen the night before, but on a grand scale. We had to have long sleeves and no hats to get into this formal scene, hundreds, if not thousands of people jammed into this Tendrelthang, an auspicious space, the 5th king was crowned there (the one we'll see get married). It was an outdoors amphitheaterish space attached to the Dzong, the main Dzong for the country. The colors of the attendees was unbelievable. Like a giant live flower garden. Everyone wears their best wear, only Bhutanese costume. Westerners stood out like weeds.

People crammed into the small passing spaces, all civil, calm while pushing to get to an increasingly rare seat. And oh man, it was hot. Men wear these cream sashes, received when they are 15, women beautiful more formal sashes received at 15, all beautifully draped across their shoulders. They'd sit down and the sashes came off and up and covered as many heads as they could since they're not allowed umbrellas or hats. Rick and I managed to find a standing spot alongside one of the banks of cement risers, pretty protected from the shoving crowd and we could see the action down on the large square. We only stayed an hour, our attention equally split between the dances being performed and the crowd passing between us. Every once in a while we'd see an "ugly" tourist with his camera, I swear, focusing right up at one of the wonderful faces in the crowd and snapping away. Everyone just took the weeds amidst the flowers in stride.

Rick and I were then whisked away by car to join the Ho;s for lunch with the Queen Grandmother, Ashi Kesang. My second lesson in quietly groaning about having to do a formal dinner. It was wonderful. Her house was maybe the size of ours? Couldln't see all of it, of course, but the dining room was small enough that we were split into two groups. There were 10 westerners and the rest, maybe another 10? Bhutanese. We sat around the living room in small couches for two and three or chairs that went around the perimeter. Usually a horrifying situation for conversation. Instead, no matter who I sat next to, we had a great conversation. One highlight, during lunch I sat with an older gentleman who excused his western attire (bright red vest) saying the Queen had given him permission because the gho was too uncomfortable to tie over his surgery from January. Anyway, he was full of life, had been instrumental in helping form the government, Minister of Health and Ed, then Culture and now Ecology. He runs a radio station, started the first one, going to the King and asking for radio facility. I guess everyone tuned into his Sunday morning program (young woman next to me confirmed this, saying no one would miss it.) In one of his (canNOT get these names so that I can write them or even pronounce them) earliest programs, he announced that from now on, Bhutan was not going to announce time according to Indian time. Instead Bhutan was going to have it's own time, 1/2 hour ahead of India. So as of now, it is 8:30am Bhutan time. The next morning, ministers were 1/2 hour late going to their meeting with the King, who couldn't believe it. So not done. They all said, we're on Bhutan time now. When I told Rick this story, he said no one is on the half hour. I said India is. I was 12.5 hours ahead when I was in India.

Then a new princess joined us, beautiful and in her 30's, everyone stood up when she came in, normal procedure and when she sat down this same gentleman told me that she was very active in helping volunteer organizations, a lot Christian organizations that help those with drug and alcohol addictions. She'd dress in common wear and go out with only a monk accompanying her. She'd then serve dinners, wash the feet of homeless, whatever needed to be done to get a sense of what the organization was doing and how effective they were. The queen grandmother was also beautiful, gracious, easily conversing. In her 80's, you'd never guess. Rick said, and he has to be right, that this is the most beautiful royal family anywhere.

At the end of the lunch, after coffee and tea back in the LR, the queen grandmother stood up, everyone stood up, shook hands, said thank you and left. I love how things end here with royalty. No lingering, can I go yet. Same thing happened at the next event. (Oh and for those who knew my angst with clothes for India, I've hit it dead on here, nice to be comfortable and not stand out like a yee haw.)

So the next event (are you tired yet?) was going to the monastery where astrologers are trained, Pangri Zampa Temple. We met the Queen Mother and the rest of the group there. The Queen Mother told us all of these facts and stories, she was truly wonderful and beautiful, of course, maybe early 40's? These boys apply to be an astrologer at the age of 12 and have 6 years of training at a minimum. The kingdom realized that the oulying areas of Bhutan didn't have enough astrologers and were having to travel long distances to learn about auspicious times for weddings, plantings, festivals, you name it. Also, they risked having the practice die out without a more formal way of training people. Thus they moved the group from their crowded quarters at the main Dzong (same place we went for the festival) to their own space out a bit from town.

According to legend, spellbindingly told by the Queen Mother, the original Shabdrung (an honorary title meaning "at whose feet one submits") was Ngawang Namgyal, an abbot from Tibet who fled persecution to Bhutan, arriving in 1616 and over the next 30 years, crushed all opposition and unified the country. He had been told by a protective deity in a vision that he should follow a raven and he would find a place with cypress trees, a river and a plain and know this was where he was to rule. Queen Ashi Sangay Choeden Wangchuck (found it in a book) told us The Shabdrung came with a staff and two sheep. When he found the place of his vision, he stuck his staff in the ground and it became a cypress tree that still stands. She had us hold hands, taking mine (!) and it took 23 of us, one of her general bodyguards ran around counting, holding hands and stretched out to get around it. The sheeps' skeletons are buried in the chortens that are the two orgiinal monastaries on the grounds. Pangri Zampa had two temples, both 400ish years old. They were actually present when he arrived, built to celebrate local deities as well as Buddhism.. There were paintings left from that era as well as paintings added after Shabdrung's arrival. Remarkable paintings and images, I'm beginning to realize that I probably won't see any paintings that aren't remarkable.

We had tea with the Queen Mother. I sat next to this wonderful woman who had started the Bhutanese textile museum at the request of the government. It was slow going, but they finally had an opening. There was a Wall St. Journal journalist there and he asked one of the curators why there was so little in the museum. The answer was that most of the ancient textiles were outside the country because they had been sold off by people who didn't know or needed money because they were a poor country. There were three individuals known to have a great deal of the textiles because they collected them. The journalist wrote the article, told the story and named the three. A Swedish businessman was traveling and picked up the Journal. He read this story and was struck by it. He'd never even heard of Bhutan before. He landed in DC, called a friend and asked if he could get an intro to the woman named in the article. He did and the woman said she didn't know what he was talking about. The guy was persistent and after a year, he presented to the textile museum 107 pieces of antique Bhutanese textiles. Amazing, right? The government asked him if he had any recommendations for them and he said that they should start a textile factory that specializes in finding and restoring textiles and preserving the ancient techniques and patterns. The woman I talked to was also starting this and it was just newly in operation. Then the Queen Mother stood up - worked again, I love it. We were off. For a free evening! Rick and I unpacked and had a quiet dinner. So nice.