World Bhutan Punakha

India, Bhutan and Nepal

Druk - The Land of Thunder Dec 29, 2008

HIGHLIGHTS

• Drive to Punakha

• Dochula Pass – 3,000 metres

• Druk, i.e. The Land of Thunder and the Wangyal Khangzang Chortens

• Visit Sangay’s parents

• Punakha Dzong Monastery

DETAIL

The road from Paro to Punakha rises from 2,000 metre to 3,000 metres and then descends to Punakha at about 1,800 metres. The road is much better than yesterday but continues to wind back and forth and up and down.

We come to the Dochula Pass, 3,000 metres and there are 108 Chortens, i.e. Stupa’s to guard the pass. Sangay and I walk around these Chortens and I question and question him and he’s able to answer all the questions I put to him. He is very knowledgeable about Bhutan and their particular ‘brand’ of Buddhism.

This Buddhism sect separates the type of religion I am aware of and religion in the tradition sense. On one hand is the psychology and philosophy of the Buddhism that I know but the religion is similar to Hinduism, consequently loads of Gods and deities – strange concept.

On the way we stop at Sangay’s parent’s house and they are holding something similar to ‘Thanksgiving’. The house is full and in one room there are relatives and neighbours and in another there are monks, even an abbot and a small shrine.

I am so very privileged to partake in the ceremony of eating and blessing. Sangay’s elder brother is a captain in the army and we chat away. His uncle is a lawyer so naturally I tell him a few lawyer jokes. I am offered rice wine and I accept, of course and out comes a gas can and I am poured a drink. It’s not too strong as sake and I seem to have made an impression as they all giggle away and they graciously make nice comments about me. It’s great to be invited into a home and see first hand how people live.

We leave and we start our decent into Punakha and I feel it get warmer but not that much.

We check-in to this brand new hotel but it’s not as nice as last night however I came for the temples, not the room. I go for a spot of lunch and here come the dishes – six in all. They play to westerners so the food is tame and unfortunately I can’t seem to get traditional Bhutanese food but it is tasty and lots of it.

Next to the Punakha Dzong Monastery which is in fact a fort built in the 12th century. Today it houses 450 monks ranging in age from ten through eighty.

There is a sort of a festival going on and people lining up to stare though a magnifying glass at a piece of rice – like, OK, to each his own. The way a Bhutanese views superstition is completely different as in the west – it’s a belief.

The building has been restored but not in what I would call in the traditional sense. For example, a restoration is to put back or try to put back what was originally there. Not here for there are paintings only five years old and not originals fresco’s touched up.

The houses are very similar in style to the pictures I have seen in Tibet. They are large square wooden constructions with a flat roof and then an angled corrugated galvanized steel over-roof. The reason the houses are large is because they have large families!

Buddhism was introduced here in the 12th century but Buddha died almost 1,500 years previously. I ask a question: “What would Buddha think if he came back today and see all the different sects of Buddhism and the Gods?” The mythology here is outstanding. Everything I have studied about Buddhism suggests that there really is no God per se rather that we are all God or God is within me or I am within God. What is this human compulsion to believe in a God or God’s – beats the heck out of me.

Lastly, the mysticism and isolation of Bhutan. Until 1960, there were no roads in or out of Bhutan. The first being the road in India, the one I had travelled on yesterday. The British tried to get into the country but even with there weaponry they could not imperialize Bhutan due to the rugged terrain. In other words, the Bhutanese lived in a vacuum and it has only been fifty years since their entry into the world.

It’s an interesting country: within fifty years from bows and arrows to mobile telephones phones. But they are catching on fast charging USD250 per day!

I head for dinner and say hit to a couple – they’re Italians. We chat away and I ask if I may join them. They’re originally from Sicily and have lived in Hong Kong for eight years. We chat and chat and it’s a good couple of hours.