TASHIGANG AND THE EAST
This is an elderly very sweet nun who asked me to take her picture. She held on to my arm and we had to do several circumambulations of the monastery together. The monk said that she is about 60 years old but no one here knows their birthdays.
The others are cleaning the butter lamps
This is an elderly very sweet nun who asked me to take her picture. She held on to my arm and we had to do several circumambulations of the monastery together. The monk said that she is about 60 years old but no one here knows their birthdays.The others are cleaning the butter lamps
Bhutanese 
boy friends.
boy friends.3 March ‘10
We’re on the way back to the border in the west with long drives along those high roads and hair pin bends. Snow has fallen since we last passed this way but already there are many more open Rhododendrons and Daphne in bloom, paper is made from the latter. I will leave Bhutan on the 6th for Sikkim.
The east was the most interesting part of the country for me. The people there rarely see a stranger and a group gather around quickly at each stop. The school children love to try their English and are full of smiles. Older people offer tea or coffee and everyone is very shy. There are many very poor people working on the roads. Women with children on their backs and other children
beside them are sweeping miles of road with a broom or actually working in construction. Men building a house in one town are hauling concrete and sand in a sling tied to a long pole up to a second story repeatedly. See a picture of the labour intensive building methods. We passed high passes covered with prayer flags. It seems that the white flags are to honour the dead and the coloured ones are referring to contentment and happiness in the present life. Talking about the dead – Mindup and his family wanted to honour their father when he died 2 years ago and show him respect for his hard work and endeavors in educating them so the eight of them paid $900 for a ceremony that lasted 21 days. He said that the entire village does all the cooking and work for such an occasion, an important lama or Rinpoche comes and about 40 monks to lead the prayers and chanting. The Buddist teaching is most obvious in every day life here. People take responsibility for elderly relatives who move in to their home even if they are not really close kin. Young girls are adopted in to families and educated by them if they have little money in their own family. Bhutanese walk in and out of kitchens in private homes even if they don’t know the family and food is always available for drop ins even if it is very plain like just rice. Trucks are gaily painted with “Welcome. We Love our King. Take care,blow horn. No girlfriend no tension” and other messages that usually show kind thoughts or advice. Driving along we passed by a woman up on a very high road with no houses in sight and she was prostrating herself every step and was probably going to do so for miles. We later passed by a monk doing the sam
e thing probably for merit or in reparation.
We stayed in Tash
igang and visited some little villages around where women were weaving on very primitive looms outside their 
houses. This area is renowned for silk weaving. Their patterns are most work intensive. A panel for the Kira, the women’s dress takes 4 months to weave and costs up to $1000 so most women weave he houses to fix lunch for us so that I could try a real farmhouse meal. She was glad to do it and also gave us some local moonshine called Ara which is traditionally served with a scrambled egg in it which seemed very odd but “when in Rome do as the Romans do” etc so of course I had 
a go. Not bad at all.
There was an Archery game going on using home made bows with the men doing ththeir own clothes. Mindup asked a woman in one of teir little dance each time an arrow hit the target across a huge distance. It was a holiday as it was the last day of lunar New Year.
Houses h
ere have painted designs on them including huge penises. This is said to promote well being, happiness and fertility.
One disturbing thing among the common practices is the chewing of the betal nut by so many which, of course, stains their mouth and teeth red. It is used a lot in Asia mostly by the hill tribes and elderly but here it is also used by young people. Ganga grows wild here but is forbidden by law and Buddism.
MONGAR
We were in Mongar yesterday for a visit to a ceremony that is going on there for a week. It was because of the earthquake in the east of the country and it took a long time to get the money together to have such a ceremony where a Reincarnation or Rinpoche is asked to come and preside over the event and it is attended by at least 1000 monks and thousands of people who all have to be fed for the duration. Everyone chants and prays and asks the Rimpoche for a blessing. It was organized by Mindups village and he personally gave $1000 towards the cost. The village is up too high to reach with cars so the event was held in the nearest town. The people setting it up were so weather worn, gentle and hard working. We were seated on two very nice chairs and offered tea and biscuits. The only ones seated. Everyone gathered around and those who could speak English tried to have a conversation. Yesterday we had a private blessing by the Rimpoche and he draped the traditional white scarf around my neck. I probably need it as a monk read my horoscope last week and it was only so-so. Mindups was not good so he has been trying to improve it by gaining lots of merit and doing good works. It looks as if all will be well for him however as he rolled dice in the monastery and turned up an eleven – a really good omen. We roll along in the car to his chanting at times, at other times he sings away and he just loves the tunes on my I pod and tries to lilt Irish music.
We’re on the way back to the border in the west with long drives along those high roads and hair pin bends. Snow has fallen since we last passed this way but already there are many more open Rhododendrons and Daphne in bloom, paper is made from the latter. I will leave Bhutan on the 6th for Sikkim.
The east was the most interesting part of the country for me. The people there rarely see a stranger and a group gather around quickly at each stop. The school children love to try their English and are full of smiles. Older people offer tea or coffee and everyone is very shy. There are many very poor people working on the roads. Women with children on their backs and other children
beside them are sweeping miles of road with a broom or actually working in construction. Men building a house in one town are hauling concrete and sand in a sling tied to a long pole up to a second story repeatedly. See a picture of the labour intensive building methods. We passed high passes covered with prayer flags. It seems that the white flags are to honour the dead and the coloured ones are referring to contentment and happiness in the present life. Talking about the dead – Mindup and his family wanted to honour their father when he died 2 years ago and show him respect for his hard work and endeavors in educating them so the eight of them paid $900 for a ceremony that lasted 21 days. He said that the entire village does all the cooking and work for such an occasion, an important lama or Rinpoche comes and about 40 monks to lead the prayers and chanting. The Buddist teaching is most obvious in every day life here. People take responsibility for elderly relatives who move in to their home even if they are not really close kin. Young girls are adopted in to families and educated by them if they have little money in their own family. Bhutanese walk in and out of kitchens in private homes even if they don’t know the family and food is always available for drop ins even if it is very plain like just rice. Trucks are gaily painted with “Welcome. We Love our King. Take care,blow horn. No girlfriend no tension” and other messages that usually show kind thoughts or advice. Driving along we passed by a woman up on a very high road with no houses in sight and she was prostrating herself every step and was probably going to do so for miles. We later passed by a monk doing the sam
e thing probably for merit or in reparation.We stayed in Tash
igang and visited some little villages around where women were weaving on very primitive looms outside their 
houses. This area is renowned for silk weaving. Their patterns are most work intensive. A panel for the Kira, the women’s dress takes 4 months to weave and costs up to $1000 so most women weave he houses to fix lunch for us so that I could try a real farmhouse meal. She was glad to do it and also gave us some local moonshine called Ara which is traditionally served with a scrambled egg in it which seemed very odd but “when in Rome do as the Romans do” etc so of course I had 
a go. Not bad at all.There was an Archery game going on using home made bows with the men doing ththeir own clothes. Mindup asked a woman in one of teir little dance each time an arrow hit the target across a huge distance. It was a holiday as it was the last day of lunar New Year.
Houses h
ere have painted designs on them including huge penises. This is said to promote well being, happiness and fertility.One disturbing thing among the common practices is the chewing of the betal nut by so many which, of course, stains their mouth and teeth red. It is used a lot in Asia mostly by the hill tribes and elderly but here it is also used by young people. Ganga grows wild here but is forbidden by law and Buddism.
MONGAR
We were in Mongar yesterday for a visit to a ceremony that is going on there for a week. It was because of the earthquake in the east of the country and it took a long time to get the money together to have such a ceremony where a Reincarnation or Rinpoche is asked to come and preside over the event and it is attended by at least 1000 monks and thousands of people who all have to be fed for the duration. Everyone chants and prays and asks the Rimpoche for a blessing. It was organized by Mindups village and he personally gave $1000 towards the cost. The village is up too high to reach with cars so the event was held in the nearest town. The people setting it up were so weather worn, gentle and hard working. We were seated on two very nice chairs and offered tea and biscuits. The only ones seated. Everyone gathered around and those who could speak English tried to have a conversation. Yesterday we had a private blessing by the Rimpoche and he draped the traditional white scarf around my neck. I probably need it as a monk read my horoscope last week and it was only so-so. Mindups was not good so he has been trying to improve it by gaining lots of merit and doing good works. It looks as if all will be well for him however as he rolled dice in the monastery and turned up an eleven – a really good omen. We roll along in the car to his chanting at times, at other times he sings away and he just loves the tunes on my I pod and tries to lilt Irish music.
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