November 11, 2019
Today is the birthday of the Fourth King and also Constitution day. We chose to celebrate by visiting the Tiger’s Nest Monastery, the highlight of any visitor’s trip to Bhutan.
For this holiday, the children go to school but they have a celebration at school instead of regular classes. There were also celebrations all over the country. We saw some local people visiting the monastery for the day.
Before telling about our day, I have wanted to tell you a little bit about Bhutanese architecture. I’ve never seen buildings quite like the ones I have seen here. I’ll describe a typical house.
-At the top is a prayer flag.
– The shingled roof is sometimes held down with stones. We always see stones on smaller structures near a house, but not always on the house itself. Wang told me that they have gotten better at attaching the roofs to the houses so they don’t need the stones like they did in the past.
– Under the roof is an airy attic area that is used for storage and for drying chilies. We have seen a lot of chilies drying on the roofs!
– Under the attic is an elaborate wooden cornice.
– Below that, is the living quarters. I showed pictures of those in a previous post.
– The lowest level is often used to store grain or house livestock.
– Many of the houses have a wooden phallus hanging from one corner of the roof.
– There is almost always painting, on the outside of the door at a minimum. These paintings are generally of a Garuda with a snake in his mouth and a phallus. Houses of the more well to do residents usually have more, and more elaborate artwork. These paintings have to be repainted regularly, only the wealthy can afford to have a lot of artwork regularly redone.
So now , back to our expedition. We departed from the hotel at about 8 am. Wang had an early night at snooker so was well rested to lead us on our expedition. Tiger’s Nest was founded in the late 1600’s. It is perched on a rocky ledge about 900 meters (almost 3000 feet) above the valley floor. Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche flew to the site on the back of a tigress to subdue a local demon and then meditated in a cave there for three months. The monastery had a bad fire in 1998 but efforts have been made to repair it back to its original state.
Hiking to the monastery is not for the faint of heart. The three of us agreed in advance that we would go as far as we could, but that if we couldn’t make it all the way it was ok. This hike made our hike the other day seem like a stroll in the park. We took our walking poles from Mr. Poo and the three of us, Wang, and Mr. Poo began to make our way up the mountain.
The path is mostly dirt, with tree roots and rocks. It is steep for the entire walk. We began at about 8:40 am. We soon came upon these structures that have prayer wheels inside, they wheels are turned by the water from a stream that flows from the mountain top.
As an aside, I am not sure I have described a prayer wheel. We see them everywhere! They come in all sizes, from huge ones that one walks around to small ones that are hand held. Each one is filled with printed prayers that are “activated” every time the wheel is turned. Like everything else, they must be turned clockwise!
Now, back to our hike. As we made our way along the path, I found that my legs were doing quite well, but I could not catch my breath. The altitude was really getting to me. It has affected me for much of the time in Bhutan, but this trek really tested my limits. As we kept moving along, Kathy began to feel the effects. As we got closer to the tea house, a stopping point about 500 meters up from the staring point, (Remember, the starting point was at about 2100 meters) Maryse began to feel heaviness in her chest! We were all ready for a rest! We had some tea and crackers at the rest stop.
After catching our collective breaths, we decided to soldier on, only to find that the next part of the path was even steeper than what we had already traversed. We had gone about another 100 meters up but we all decided that it was time to turn back. At that point I figure we were at about 8600 feet up. Wang assured us that even if we didn’t make it all the way, we would still get all the good energy from the site.
It was at this point where we hoisted our prayer flags. Mr. Poo climbed the trees to attach them and they are now at a prominent place along the walk. After they were hanging we said a blessing as instructed by Wang and then had time for our own prayers. It was quite touching.
Here are some scenes from our hike.
After our walk, Kathy’s tracker indicated we had gone 5.1 miles, 12,659 steps and 92 floors! And, we didn’t go the whole way!
Since we finished earlier than anticipated, we had lunch at a home restaurant in the valley instead of up at the tea house. They do seem to change arrangements for meals and visits all the time!
The plan for after our hike was to go for a hot stone bath. Since we finished early, we had to kill some time before the bath. So, guess what? We went to look at a Dzong and to see a temple! The Dzong is Drukgyel, which was built in 1649. It is undergoing renovation and isn’t open. I think we were all just fine with looking at it from a distance.
We headed for our bath, but still had some time to kill so we stopped at the Kyichu Lhakhang temple. It reportedly dates from 649, making it one of the oldest in the country. There are actually two temple halls inside. We watched a family that had come for a special service. When we asked Wang what it was about, it turns out that the family was there to ask for blessings for their new car!
Finally, it was time to go for our hot stone bath, a treat for our aching bodies. This treatment is a traditional one in Bhutan. The reason that we had to kill the time was to allow the people to heat the rocks.
We arrived at a very basic farm and had to walk through the fields, past cows, to the bathing area. I think we were all surprised to find that we would be receiving this treatment in buildings that looked like outhouses!
After a very full day, we made it back to the hotel with time to regroup before our departure tomorrow. As the unofficial group leader, I invited my fellow travelers for a group party in my room before dinner. Maryse brought Bhutan wine and Kathy brought masala snacks. It’s easy to have a party when your guests bring all the food and drink!
Wang and Mr Poo met us for dinner since it is our last night together. We learned more about Mr Poo he has many siblings, more than ten, I think. He is 57 and has three children and five grandchildren. He will be off the road for a bit after our trip so he can go home and help with the harvest at his farm. We have grown to love Mr Poo. He is quiet, but a great driver and a very thoughtful man.
This was a very full day! Tomorrow we head back to Nepal for the final leg of our trip.
jrhnepalandbhutan2019 