Day Six

Up early and we got away at 7.45 after we had ‘lost’ Tsering for a while! On our way to Ura we had two passes to go over and between the two is a spectacular view of Gankha Punsum, 7541m, the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. We were in luck and had a wonderful view. Even though it is only 48 km it took us about 2hrs to get there. We saw the Lhakhang from the road with the village, just 40 houses, snuggled below it. There is a large square outside the Lhakhang where the dances take place. The festival, or yakchoe takes place over five days, with the three middle days involving spectacular masked dances telling the folk stories of the region. The first and last days see the bringing and returning of the image of Vajrapani from the hillside Geyden Lhakhang to the main lhakhang. There were two covered areas round the square, but these were for the villagers and the VIPs, so not for us. We twice got settled only to be moved on by the man with the whip! But finally, we found a seat on the water trough by some steps into the Lhakhang, with a great view of the proceedings.
First the clowns performed some antics, then the village girls came into the centre and to their own singing, danced a round dance, which went on for ages, with several changes of song. Suddenly, horns sounded and the band playing horns, conch shells, and drums came down from the Lhakhang from the far entrance and paraded around the square, leading in several dancers wearing yellow skirts, brocade tops with criss-crossed braid. They had smudges on their faces and deer-like masks. They danced a swirling dance, stamping their feet, which is to scare off the demons. When they had re-entered the Lhakhang, the ladies came back to ‘fill in’ before the next spectacular dance. The dancers need to change costume, and the ladies’ gentle dancing and singing is a calm interlude between some breathtaking performances. But they were hurried away as the large horns were blown, through the windows of the Lhakhang, and the band, once again, lead in a procession of dancers. This time they were dressed in colourful long, full skirted dresses, but best of all, they had black hats topped off with elaborate decorations. A swirling, colourful dance was performed, with different combinations of dancers twirling forwards and backwards as well as round in a circle. More stamping of feet warded off the demons, with appropriate accompaniment from the band, which was ensconced in a corner of the villagers’ stand. This is the dance that most tour groups come to watch, and there were plenty of them – the Japanese with several cameras round their necks and no qualms about pointing them right in the faces of anyone in national costume or any monk! And predictably loud Americans. When this dance finished and the ladies returned, Kinley suggested that we go and have our picnic up the hill behind the Lhakhang. Tsering was going to take us in the car, but this got inexplicably stuck in a puddle of water – and he didn’t seem to know how to use the 4WD. Just as well, as we found a great spot up the hill among the prayer flags – and it has to be said lots of dried up DS and sheep droppings!! Kinley unpacked two tiffin flasks, and served us rice, beef, beans and spuds. As I was being vegetarian, there was plenty of beef for Kinley and Tsering to have with their rice and chillies. We finished with a cup of tea – then back to watch the next dances. Even though Kinley mentioned I looked a bit pink, I forgot to renew my sunblock. It didn’t seem that hot, but we were at 3100m and there was quite a dusty wind blowing. The Bhutanese were really enjoying the festival, showing off new clothes and the children all had new toys to play with – the top favourites were the cap guns and the plastic cars. Some of them were fascinated by the pictures in our guide book. They knew exactly where Ura was on the map of Bhutan.
The dance we now saw was the animals dance. Each dancer represented a different animal and in turns they proved how they understood religion, dancing in the middle of the circle and round in intricate movements. There were fewer visitors now, and we were glad the very aggressive Japanese woman seemed to have gone away. When the dance was over, I went to look in the temple. A man, one of the village elders, asked if I had come for the greeting – I said no, but he told me that it was open to everyone and that we would be very welcome, so I went and collected Alan. We sat on the floor with several other people (+/- 20) and we had a short talk about the festival from the man and the lama also came and sat in his seat near us. The monks all came in and were served tea and rice, along with visitors to the village – not us! This is all part of the yakchoe in memory of the mendicant monk who visited a woman in the village, when it suffered a plague of leprosy. She had been spinning, but prepared him buckwheat pancakes. When ready, she came in to find that he had gone, but in her basket of wool she found a small statue of Vajrapani. This stayed in her house for three nights, then flew to Geyden. The moment it arrived, a nine-headed snake rose out of the ground and slithered out of the valley; taking the curse of leprosy with it.
Outside again, Kinley wondered if it was time to leave, but Tsering said we should stay and watch the start of the story of the stag and the hunter. So we found a place to sit and watched the story unfold – the hunter’s servant visited the soothsayer, with the help of various clowns – all quite funny! Then the stag and the hunter’s two dogs performed a dance, which ended as they exited into the Lhakhang. But this wasn’t the end of the day – the village elders came into the square and the band struck up a tune which they danced too. Gradually people joined in and we decided to as well. A tricky little step we just mastered as they changed the tune and the rhythm – so there we were all left feet again! It was great fun, but it began to rain, so we quietly left the dance line and made our way to the car. As we set off, there was a terrific hailstorm – low cloud shrouded the mountains, and Tsering had a tricky drive back to Jakar. On the way, we saw a sort of pheasant, one only found in Nepal and Bhutan; a satyr tragopan. This went with the white tailed eagle we saw on the way there. Back at the lodge, we hurriedly showered and changed for dinner at 7.45 – buckwheat noodles, aubergines, bitter gourds, potatoes, beef and rice.

Blue Poppy Tors and Treks