Thursday and Friday - Thimphu is the capital and they know how to throw a festival! We’re still not entirely sure of what the four day long festival is for, but we joined in all the same. In the Dzong or fort of every city, the monks live and the festivals are held. The courtyard fills with dancers in colorful costumes and wild masks. They spin like whirling dervishes and leap in the air as they enact religious or historical events. There are several men dressed as humorous demons and they dance around mocking the dancers and playing with the audience – kids love it and they are clearly the jokesters. One of them wields a huge wooden penis and teases people with it. Even the monks are laughing. More on that later.
We spend the morning there and return the following morning but it has become too crowded to see. We estimate that there are 16,000 to 20,000 people attending by the second – and they’re all wearing their most colorful silk finery. When we get a better internet connection next week we’ll post some really fun pictures.
And that brings me back to penises. Oh boy do they love ‘em here! There are statues of them everywhere – door handles, wooden carvings, post cards, pictures, paintings – you name it! In fact, as we go from town to town we have noticed large paintings and prints of penises on the outside of just about every house! Apparently this is their symbol of prosperity and everyone in this rather modest country loves it. Go figure.
Saturday - Our next adventure took us on a wild ride from Thimphu to Bumthang. That’s “boom – tahng” to you. What a journey! We awakened at 4:45 a.m. and boarded the bus at 6:00 for what was supposed to be a 10 hour drive. Almost 17 hours later, over the most treacherous winding mountain paths (I can hardly call them roads as there was, in many places, no pavement and only rocks, ditches, stones on one side and cliffs on the other.) we arrived in Bumthang. We traveled (survived) about 190 miles of the only eastbound road in north-central Bhutan during which we covered three substantial mountain passes, all above 9000 feet. The first was spectacular – we took many photos. The second was cold. We looked from the bus. The third was in the mud and rain and dark of night and we ignored it altogether. 16.5 hours of hairpin turns around mountains with rockslides left us queasy and tired.
At 10:30 pm we arrived at our hotel. We are no longer in 5 star luxury. In fact, as I write this, we have no power and are using tall skinny candles for light. There is some hot water and we had them push our twin beds together, but that’s about it for creature comforts.
Sunday - We spent today going to some local monasteries and a local home where some monks were doing a ceremony. We were invited to watch and photograph the ceremony in which the monks were seated around a room chanting from Tibetan scriptures. I sat down in the middle of them all, put my camera away and shut my eyes. Their voices swirled around me. It was an incredible experience.
After several hours - and a candle light dinner during which we all toasted Thomas Edison - the power finally returned – but only sporadically and on alternate floors. We are lucky – our floor has light. Time for quick showers before it goes out again! Tomorrow we will go to a nunnery, which should be very interesting. All in all, quite an adventure!
Monday - And so today we went to the nunnery and what fun! We arrived to see young girls (with the same red robes and shaved heads as the monks) playing badminton in the courtyard. They were also skipping rope and doing yoga. A number of us joined the yoga class and had a wonderful and welcomed stretch! The atmosphere was quite different than the monasteries with all the boys. The girls and women are more animated and excited to see us. It is much easier to interact with them. I spent a good deal of time photographing a young girl of about 8 or 9 who, by the end of our visit threw herself in my arms to hug me. Jerry says I cannot bring her home -same with the puppy from Calcutta and the kitten at the restaurant - but now I think I will try to bring home a baby yak).
Tonight we have a photo critique and then on with the adventure tomorrow! I am trying to post more pictures on Flickr but we have little internet access so it may still be a few days.
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