November 7, 2019
Today was a bit of a whirlwind, we began with local festival and ended with a visit to the area where the parliament meets and saw many things in between. Thimpu is the National capital and has a population of 100,000; the population of the entire country is only 750,000!
Wang and Mr. Poo met us at 9 am and we immediately made our way out of the city so that we could witness a Tsechu, a local festival. This one was at a village about 30 minutes drive from the city. The festival took place at a temple of a protective deity of the country. It was being held today because it is the tenth day of the lunar month and honored the second Buddha.
The tsechus have a series of ritual religious dances that are performed by dancers in elaborate costumes. Some of the dancers were monks and some were from a national dance academy. We saw people walking great distances to attend and they were dressed in their finest clothing. Wang told us later that he wore a fancier gho, the traditional Bhutanese man’s outfit, because we were attending the festival. The Bhutanese believe they attain merit by attending.
During the dances atsara, we would call them clowns, mimic the dancers and perform comic routines. They wear masks and one of them carries a wooden phallus. We had to ask Wang about the phallus….he said this is used to seduce demons and also symbolizes fertility. Mostly, the same dances are performed at all festivals. There were two that were unique to this one.
The Prime Minister, who was elected last year, was in attendance. He is a urologist and still practices two days a week; he is the only urologist in the country. Both being well known as a physician and the fact that he promised wifi for the entire country helped to ensure his election! He was joined at the festival by numerous other government dignitaries, including the only woman minister who serves as the minster of health. This particular festival is fairly new. It started in 2003 to celebrate the end of an uprising on the southern border. It became open to the public about six years ago.
Here are some pictures from the festival:
We left at the same time as the prime minister, though the dancing wasn’t yet over. We made our way to town for lunch at what Wang told us is the best restaurant in Thimpu.
On the drive, we made a stop to look at the valley and saw the world’s highest nine hole golf course, as well as the parliament complex.
During lunch, Wang told us a bit about his family. He is one of ten siblings and comes from the central part of the country. His wife has three siblings and comes from the west. In Bhutan, the girls inherit the parents’ property. Wang’s eldest sister is tne one who inherited from his parents. When his father retired from teaching, his sister became responsible for paying for his education.
Wang and his wife lived together for a number of years until they had their son. When he was born, they got married so they could register the baby’s birth. His wife works in the fashion business in some way, I think she may do something in retail. It sounds like his wife may inherit her family’s farm. If that happens, Wang and his wife will be responsible for planning two ritual per year, in addition to managing the farm operations. This is quite a responsibility because they need to entertain the local villagers and everything must be perfect. In Bhutan, women are the primary farmers.
After our lunch, we visited the National Memorial Chorten, a Tibetan style stupa which was built in 1974 as a memorial to the third king. Each day many Bhutanese, particularly older people, come to pray, spin the prayer wheels and walk around the grounds. Many of the people spend the day there and walk around the stupa 500-800 times! This place was consecrated by an important llama from Tibet. It is held in place by four wires because it is so important, it must be “held down”.
Our next stop was high atop one of the hills where we saw was is reported to be the biggest Buddha in the world, the Buddha Dordenma. It is 51 meters tall and sits atop a huge three story building that houses a large chapel.
We visited a local weaving place where we were able to have a bit of retail therapy before coming back to the hotel for a very quick break. We then spent a bit of time walking through the downtown area. We saw the city’s traffic police at work. They attempted to put in a traffic light a few years ago but the people hated it and they returned to having the police direct the traffic. This is the only capital city that doesn’t have a single traffic light!
After our walk, we made our way to the Trashi Chhoe Dzong. We have learned that a Dzong is both a government and a spiritual center for a community. This Dzong is where parliament is located and houses the temple where the king is coronated. This complex is not the original one, it was restored in the 1960s to repair damage done by numerous fires and a severe earthquake. It is the summer residence of the main monk body. During our visit we saw the formal flag lowering ceremony before visiting the coronation temple.
We made our way back to the hotel and had a bit of down time before meeting for dinner. There is so much more I could write but it’s getting late. I’ll leave it with this for now.
Tomorrow we do a bit more in Thimphu before driving to our next stop, Punakha.
jrhnepalandbhutan2019 