Day Three

Our starting time is 8.40 precisely, and we were all ready for the off - bags in the car. Kinley suggested a visit to the weekend market, where all local produce is on sale. We saw beans, asparagus, potatoes, okra, bitter gourd, onions, mangoes, tomatoes, and dried fish; there were herbs as well as dried leaves and spices to burn in the family altar room. Of course, there were piles and piles and piles of various types of chillies. We also saw how the Bhutanese make up their ubiquitous 'chewing tobacco'. This is a piece of areca nut wrapped up in a half betel leaf smeared with lime paste - as in calcium carbonate. This neat parcel is popped in the mouth and chewed, producing the infamous red juice which stains teeth and lips and which is spat out, staining roads and pavements with little red splatters. It is awful for teeth, gums, oesophagus and stomach, but as smoking is banned, it is the local equivalent. Its mildly narcotic effect makes it quite an addiction. On sale were fresh and dried nuts and lots of people were buying including monks. They bought all the separate ingredients as well as ready pasted leaves and chopped up nuts, and ready made parcels. We saw some people buying, then being given a ready bite to sample. Moving on we at last found nakey for sale, looking like thin green beans with curly ends. Then at almost the last corner was a 'local' yak herder with all his yak products. He came from 6 km outside Thimpu - so it must be somewhere in the high mountains as yaks only live above 3500m. On sale here was yak cheese in various forms. There were great slabs of greenish brown stuff as well as the dried variety which comes in small cubes threaded in long strings. He also had something looking rather revolting. This turned out to be dried yak leather - that really is the skin of the yak, air dried and one chews away at this. Some say it lasts well over six years. He also had several yak hair belts. He was a very jolly chap ready to explain everything via Kinley. Then just across the aisle from him we noticed a woman with a Bhutanese dragon-headed lute. This was a quite plain one, so it was easy to see the construction. Tsering held it up for us to photograph. I think the woman was quite bemused at our interest. She told us that she didn't play herself. We got Kinley to buy us some little bananas for our journey, then it was time to leave.
We began the journey to Punakha, stopping first at the checkpoint on the road out of Thimpu. All foreigners need permission to travel and here our permits were checked and stamped. As we waited, there was another couple also waiting who turned out to be Belgians. They had been in Sikkim and were also going to the Ura Festival. He was smoking a pretty revolting pipe, but they were interesting to speak with. Back on the road, we climbed up and up to a pass called Dochu La. (3140m). It was blowing a gale and so cold we had to put our jackets on. 108 chortens were built here in 2005, to help to put at peace the people killed when the Bhutanese army eventually went in and ousted the Assam terrorists who had secret bases in Manas National Park (Dec 2003). It is a very peaceful place, with a hillside next to it, covered in prayer flags. We walked on the paths between the chortens and were rewarded with a tremendous view of Bhutan's Himalaya. We were very lucky as this is usually at its best only in the winter. Back to the car and down the other side - not stopping at the cafe as we still had some distance to travel. We were passing rhododendron and magnolias in flower; and all along we were seeing drongos, bulbuls and shrikes. As we descended it got warmer and warmer. By 12.30 we reached the pretty resort of Meri Puensom about 1350m, just up a hillside outside Punakha. We were shown our room, just down from the main building in a block of rooms with en suite facilities and a lovely balcony looking down towards Punakha. Lunch was served - rice, noodles, pork, chicken, mixed veg, brinjal (aubs) - all very tasty. This over, we were off again to visit Punakha Dzong. This is the second largest dzong and was the seat of government until the mid 50s. We are very lucky to be visiting it now as the jacaranda trees are in bloom. Their pale purple flowers look very picturesque against the white wall of the dzong. Tsering parked the car and we then walked across a temporary bridge slung across the river. Once there had been a box bridge here, but the monsoon flood had washed it away. Nevertheless, it is still attractively festooned with prayer flags. As we looked across at the Dzong, Kinley told us that the Guru Rinpoche had predicted that it would be built by a man named Namgyal in front of a hill shaped like an elephant. And you can see that is so, the dzong becoming the end of the elephant’s trunk. This is also at the point where the Mo Chhu and the Po Chhu meet. Crossing the river, the first building seen is the old 14th century dzong. Then the Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal had his vision and the Pungthang Dechen Phodrang (Palace of Great Happiness) was constructed in 1637/8. 600 monks came here to join the Zhabdrung from the Cheri Goemba in the Thimpu valley. Even today, monks 'overwinter' from Thimpu in Punakha Dzong. The day they make the move is officially the start of winter when the men are allowed to cover their legs under their khos, usually with thermal underwear or nowadays sometimes tracky bottoms. The dzong is very large, and we had a steep climb up stone stairs and an almost vertical set of wooden steps to get to the gateway. Our permit was scrutinised and then we were allowed in to the first of three courtyards. This is the largest, with offices down the sides. In the middle are a white chorten and a large shade tree. At the far side is the huge utse whose entrance is in the second courtyard. The second courtyard is surrounded by the monks’ rooms but also has two halls; one is where the first King of Bhutan was presented with the Order of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire by John Claude White in 1905. In the third courtyard we visited a large hall - the hundred pillar hall, which has 54 golden pillars and walls covered with the story of the Buddha’s life. There are three very big statues here, of the Buddha, Guru Rinpoche and the Zhabdrung. As we were about to leave the hall a gong sounded and we saw a monk walking up and down the terrace along the exit wall of the hall, swinging a three line whip. He walked all around the square as the gong continued to sound. Kinley explained that the monks were being called to pray and to have tea. They came running from all sides to gather in the square, waiting for a signal, and then they were allowed to enter the hall opposite the one we had visited. Kinley led us up some stairs and we found ourselves on a landing overlooking the monks who were being served butter tea and rice. They are allowed to add flavouring - usually chilli, but they need to provide this themselves. This was the end of our fascinating visit, so we walked back out again, crossed the bridge, to find Tsering waiting for us. A little way back down the road - even passed the turning for the hotel, we parked the car at the start of a short walk to Chimi Lhakgang. The Lhakhang is across the valley, so we had to walk through the terraced fields to the tiny hamlet of Pana (field), down to Yoaka (in the drain) and up a slope clothed with cactus, to reach it. Built in 1499 by a cousin of Drukpa Kinley, the divine madman, it honours his subduing of the demoness of Dochu La. She had been giving a lot of grief to local citizens and travellers, so the clever Drukpa went to the pass, lay down playing dead, all but his penis which he kept erect. This was his so called 'magic thunderbolt of wisdom'. The demoness was naturally fascinated by this and he was able to subdue her and convert her to Buddhism and charge her with protecting all sentient life. We sat on the bench overlooking a small pond as we waited for a large party of tourists to come out of the small temple. At last we entered the small courtyard and then the equally small temple. It is beautifully decorated with scenes of Drukpa Kinley's life. The main statue is of the lama and his dog, which accompanied him from Tibet. We also saw statues of the Zhabdrung, with his wise man's beard, the historical Buddha, Sakyamani and Chenresig who is the bodhisattva of compassion. This latter is a special guardian of Bhutanese religion. At the side of the altar we saw two phalluses and the lama's bow and arrows in a case. Kinley gave a ten nultrum note and got a roll of three dice to divine an answer to his secret question. Apparently there would be a successful outcome. He has to visit this Lhakhang several times during the year as it is where he got his name and he has a special attachment here. He was, apparently brought up around here. This is a temple many women come to, to ensure fertility. We were given some holy water, but luckily we weren't blessed with either the wooden or metal phallus. As Kinley was describing the wall paintings, the gong sounded and lots of very young monks came rushing in, sitting in rows side on to the altar. They were served tea and a slice or two of bread, while chanting went on. Time for us to leave, and we walked around the outside of the building, noting the prayer wheels and slate carvings. Back at the car, Tsering drove us up to the hotel, and we took tea on the terrace. Then we showered before having dinner with Kinley. On the walk from our room to the main hotel, there are pots full of orchids, some already in flower. One of the staff told us that they are all local species. One of the buffet dishes was fish and chips - small pieces of battered fish with crisps. There was also a tasty mushroom dish with fried cottage cheese squares - looking a bit like tofu.

Blue Poppy Tours and Treks