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This is the second blog post regarding my two-week visit to Bhutan, a small Buddhist country in the Himalayas mountain range. This post will be focusing on the capital Thimphu. I arrived in Paro, the location of Bhutan’s only international airport. For the blog post about my first few days in Bhutan in Paro, click here.
MONDAY, September 17th
I woke up early to do some plane spotting from just outside of my hotel room. The Tashi Namgay Resort, where I was staying in Paro, was just across the river from the airport. My balcony was facing towards the airport, and I caught one of the early morning arrivals from India.
After breakfast and checking out, we departed Paro to drive towards Thimphu. Initially we actually drove in the other direction to visit one temple on the outskirts of Paro. The Dumtse Lhakhang was on the itinerary for the previous day, but was closed then due to a local election.
It’s a small, but historically significant temple, having been built in the early 15th century. Inside, there are some of the finest murals in Bhutan, representing hell, earth and heaven. It’s rather dark inside, and the butter lamps have added a bit of soot as well. Photography was not allowed inside the temple, which is the rule at almost all temples in Bhutan.
We left the Dumtse Lhakhang, and started driving south to exit the valley. After about 20 minutes, we arrived at the Tamchhog Lhakhang. It’s a 600-year-old temple situated on the other side of the river that runs through the valley.
To cross the river, you walk along a bridge with wooden planks supported by iron chains. It runs parallel to a much older bridge consisting entirely of iron chain links, that is sometimes closed due to concerns over its safety.
The closed chain-link bridge above, with the open bridge on the left. I took this photo after having crossed, on the temple side of the river.
The temple itself is in private ownership, and for that reason it was possible to take photos inside some of its rooms. Other, main parts of the temple complex weren’t open when we visited though.
We continued driving towards Thimphu, which purely based on distance doesn’t seem like a long drive. However, the constant winding turns through the mountain valleys makes the roughly 50 km (~30 miles) journey take over an hour-and-a-half, not including the stops we did. One stop that most tour groups do is at Chhuzom, which is the confluence of two rivers.
It is also where the highway from Paro branches off into two. One direction goes north towards the capital Thimphu. The other road turns south to Phuentsholing, Bhutan’s second-largest city in the lowlands along the border with India. Chhu is the Bhutanese word for river, and “chhuzom” means confluence of two rivers.
According to Bhutanese tradition, such a joining of two rivers is considered inauspicious. To ward off any possible evil spirits, three different shrines (chortens) have been constructed on the other side of the confluence. They are all in different styles, being Nepalese, Tibetan and Bhutanese in their design. We stopped to walk around and take photos of the shrines and the rivers.
After Chhuzom, we drove onwards to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan and home to over 100,000 people, out of Bhutan’s total population of just over 800,000. It is the closest that Bhutan gets to a metropolis, and it has a significantly more international vibe. A lot of young families move to Thimphu and leave their home towns, because it is more developed. That was the case for both my guide and my driver, who looked forward to the time in Thimphu, because they would be staying at home with their families.
We checked in at my hotel, and I just placed my stuff in the room and then met the guide and driver back downstairs in the reception. Then we went out for lunch at a restaurant near my hotel.
It was certainly one of the better meals I had in Bhutan. Like almost all other meals at restaurants, it consisted of various small plates that you could mix together as you’d like. But there was more to choose from. There was even more than one type of meat with both chicken and fish. Meat wasn’t always on offer at restaurants, as Bhutan’s Buddhist traditions oppose using animals for meat at all. Essentially, Bhutan imports all of its meat from India.
Next stop was the National Memorial Chorten. It is a Tibetan-style chorten built in 1974 as a memorial for the third king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, who passed away two years earlier. The third king is regarded by many as the “Father of Modern Bhutan” and he was very popular. He started a lot of reform programs to modernize Bhutanese society, importing some Western technology and ideas. However, it took until the 1990s before TV and internet was introduced. Many of his reforms were further developed by the fourth king, his son.
Because of the popularity of the third king, the National Memorial Chorten sees a lot of visitors. Many locals, especially elderly people, spend most of their day here. They either circumambulate (walk around) the chorten or spin the large, golden prayer wheels. The large prayer wheels in one corner of the complex are covered. They provide some shade under which a lot of the elderly like to rest. Spending most of their time off at the shrine for the third king is considered very good karma. This is why you’ll always see a significant group of locals at the complex.
After the National Memorial Chorten, we made a stop at a weaving centre, where I bought a gho. The gho is a traditional Bhutanese dress for men. In Thimphu we were going to attend two days of the large Thimphu Tsechu festival. There was also another, smaller festival on the schedule towards the end of the itinerary. I wanted to get a gho out of a sign of respect. Locals are required to wear these at the festivals. This piece of clothing is mostly a Bhutanese tradition, rather than being religious attire. I figured that having one would also be a really nice souvenir.
At the weaving centre it was also possible to see a handful of weavers at work. They produce ghos and the kira, which is the female equivalent.
Then, we visited the Changlimithang National Archery Grounds. Bhutan isn’t known much for sports on the international stage. However, archery has always been popular as the national sport, with soccer having become popular as well in recent years. Archery is steeped in tradition, and matches are a unique form of entertainment in Bhutan. We were hoping a match would be taking place as they regularly do. It was however only practice.
Still, we did get to see some archers in action. They were using modern composite-material bows, instead of traditional wooden ones. Some tournaments will allow modern equipment, others require using old bows. The targets in Bhutanese archery are a bit different than the bulls-eye discs used internationally. The target is a lot smaller, and close to the ground.
Next up we drove to downtown Thimphu, and my guide and our driver let me have a walk around the city on my own. Guides are compulsory for visiting sights around Bhutan, but not for simply walking around cities.
Given that I usually travel independently, this was a nice experience. The grid of streets in central Thimphu is fairly easy to navigate. Particularly because I had a map in my Lonely Planet book.
One of the more modern buildings in the town centre.
At the time, there was a holiday taking place in neighboring India, celebrating a Hindu god devoted to technology and science. As part of the celebrations, machinery and vehicles are decorated. Bhutan’s Hindu minority celebrated this holiday, but some Buddhists also joined in and decorated their cars.
I went for about an hour for a stroll up and down the main street, and bought some souvenirs as well. Along the way I passed a traffic cop, which isn’t so unusual unless you know the story behind it.
Bhutan has no traffic lights, not even in the fairly large city of Thimphu. The government tried to introduce one traffic light in a busy intersection in Thimphu many years ago. Drivers got confused, and many in this traditionally very conservative country found it too impersonal. It was perhaps even rude that a machine would be telling locals what to do. The traffic light was removed, and instead a small stand on a tiny island in the middle of the intersection was built for the traffic cops who would now be permanently directing traffic, in all types of weather.
By the time I returned to the parking lot where my guide and our driver were waiting, it was late in the afternoon. Because we just arrived in Thimphu, my guide and our driver were excited for an opportunity to see their families again. We didn’t have anything else on the itinerary, so I respected that.
They took me back to the hotel for the rest of the evening. I had dinner at the hotel, which was slightly disappointing. The restaurant was vegetarian, but served similar food as all the other meals. They would serve you a pre-selected meal, instead of a buffet. It was essentially the same greens and vegetables as all other meals in Bhutan, minus the meat. I returned to my hotel room and relaxed for a bit after dinner, before going to sleep.
TUESDAY, September 18th
After breakfast I met the guide and driver in the hotel’s reception. We drove up to the world’s tallest sitting Buddha statue, Buddha Dordenma, on a hilltop south of Thimphu. The statue was made in smaller pieces in China, then brought here on trucks to be assembled.
The statue is 51 m (~153 feet) tall, and inside are three storeys for different temples. Some of these aren’t yet open. We did enter one of the open temples, but as usual no photos were allowed. Inside of the large Buddha statue are 125,000 smaller statues in several different locations throughout. Imagine rows upon rows of mini buddhas inside glass cases along the walls.
Because of the Buddha Dordenma’s hilltop location, the views of the city of Thimphu are worth the trip up here alone.
We left the so-called “Buddha Point” and drove across town to a remote parking lot. From there we went on hike up to the Tango Goemba, a monastery north of Thimphu.
There’s been a monastery here since the 12th century, but the current building was constructed in the 15th century by the “Divine Madman” Lama Drukpa Kunley.
The Tango Goemba is a university for Buddhist studies today. For whatever reason, the caretaker for the main temple was nowhere to be seen. We had to make do with the smaller shrines around the complex.
On the way back, we had some nice views of the valley and the monastery itself.
For lunch we returned to Thimphu, to a nice restaurant. It wasn’t actually much different than what I got for all other meals, but I liked it.
Incase you’re wondering, the food offered to visitors in Bhutan is deliberately plain, in order to not offend anyone, and somehow best cater to everyone’s wishes. The guide and our driver were often offered a different meal. It is also necessary to consider the fact that Bhutan isn’t a destination for mass tourism. Instead of offering a long menu with a varied mix of international cuisine and ending up with food waste, the restaurants serve a pretty simple menu. It is often a pre-selected meal that’s relatively similar wherever you go. However, the salad dish and fried noodles that were offered for lunch at this particularly resstaurant were both new.
After lunch we stopped by the National Institute for Zorig Chusum, an arts & crafts school. For any young Bhutanese person with a passion for arts, or insufficient grades to attend university, the National Institute for Zorig Chusum offers courses that take between two to five years.
The school covers 13 different art subjects, such as painting, woodcarving, embroidery and many more. Students will specialize in one of them, and usually earn jobs with the Bhutanese government. Most of the students will use their skills for decorations at religious buildings or government institutions.
It was possible to enter the school and even visit most of the classrooms, seeing some of the students at work.
Just next-door to the arts school is the Folk Heritage Museum. It had a large building designed to look like a traditional Bhutanese farmer’s house, with indoor space for animals in the bottom floor. Throughout the house there were also various traditional tools that farmers would use. It wasn’t possible to take photos inside of the house. However, there were some outdoor installations that it was OK to photograph. One of these was a grinding water-mill.
Two large stones turn in opposite directions as the water-mill moves one of them, and this process enables the grinding of large quantities of flour from various grains. Bhutanese rural communities have used this technique for hundreds of years.
Our last stop for the day was the Takin Preserve on the outskirts of Thimphu. The takin is a very odd-looking animal unique to Bhutan, and as such it is the country’s national animal.
The takin is essentially a mix between a cow and a goat. The wild population is found in the Himalayas in Bhutan and parts of Tibet.
The Takin Preserve has been in place for several decades, but in the early 2000s the decision was made to release the captive animals into the wild. However, the tamed animals began wandering back towards Thimphu, roaming the streets for food. The takins were placed back in the preserve. The mini-zoo that houses them also had some deer and regular goats within its enclosures.
At this point it was evening and time to return to the hotel, where I once again had dinner. This time though, I did have to give credit where credit is due.
The steamed dim sum dumplings that they made for each individual guest on that night were a tasty addition!
WEDNESDAY, September 19th
After breakfast, it was time to put on the gho I had bought a few days ago. I definitely needed the help of my guide, Ugyen, and our driver, Tandin. It’s anything but straightforward to put on. There’s a very tight belt that goes around your stomach, just below the chest. The bottom part of the gho remains straight, while the top sort of slouches over the belt to cover it, and hangs more loose.
A picture of me wearing my gho with a kabney scarf, taken later during the day.
After getting the gho sorted out at the hotel, we drove towards the Thimphu Dzong. We were going to see the Thimphu Tsechu, a traditional religious festival. Unlike a small festival that we saw in Paro during the first days in Bhutan, the Thimphu Tsechu had a purpose-built arena behind the dzong itself. The Tsechu in Thimphu is the biggest of Bhutan’s festivals. It has large groups of dancers and has the most spectators.
Unfortunately, there was a reserved section for foreigners. I looked out-of-place with the gho next to people in denim jeans and t-shirts. That didn’t bother me much though.
We stayed for several hours of dances, which were all performed by monks from the local monastic order. The dances are meant to teach locals about the beliefs of Bhutanese Buddhism, particularly in regards to the afterlife.
Some of the dances are a celebration, some are a bit more dark. To perform the various dances, the monks will wear different costumes, and occasionally a mask, hat or a helmet.
Because the dances tell different stories or tales, they have to adapt and change to different costumes. They leave the stage to do so. In the meantime a women’s choir will perform a song or even do a little dance of their own. The women doing this are usually volunteers.
To keep the crowd entertained during the dances, the tsechu has several clowns that run around and tease the spectators. They might also assist the dancers if they get out of rhythm with the dance moves, after several hours out in the sun in warm costumes.
One aspect of the clowns that is very intriguing and unique, is that they all carry wooden phalluses. They point these at people in the crowd, or sometimes even throw them towards people, also to women. Yes, you read that right. What would be seen as very obscene in the West, is actually considered a blessing in Bhutan. Most people would think that this is a blessing for fertility, but that is not the case. It’s seen as a blessing for good luck in life.
By lunchtime we drove away from the Thimphu Dzong. Our destination was a hilltop outside of the city, for a picnic lunch. My guide and driver had arranged everything, and brought several pots with vegetables, plenty of rice and some chicken.
It was tasty, particularly considering that we had brought everything up to a hilltop, although most of that involved driving. The nice views of Thimphu were an added touch. The hill was however literally covered in prayer flags all over.
Between all the trees and sometimes from poles mounted on the hill, there were several lines of prayer flags. These flags are in the colors white, red, blue and yellow, each one representing a different natural element. However, plenty of these lines of flags had snapped off or broken. The hill was littered with dirty and damaged prayer flags all over the ground. I’m guessing it was considered better spiritually to keep the broken flags on the hill, instead of removing them.
We had brought so much food that we gave our leftovers to a pair of stray dogs that had roamed around us, attracted by the smell of our food.
After the picnic lunch, we returned to the Thimphu Tsechu festival. In the afternoon there were different dances on display than the ones in the morning.
One of the highlights was the Dance of the Stag and the Hounds, where the monks were wearing masks representing different animals. This dance tells the story of how a hunter was converted into Buddhism. While they were beating their drums, they also jumped up into the air. It looked quite spectacular, thanks to their colorful costumes.
At this point the sun was shining bright above the dzong. I sat for quite a while in the sun, and ended up with a sunburn on my face. Fortunately the gho covered up the rest of my body quite well.
After the dances had finished, we went back to the hotel, where I once again had dinner. The pre-selected meal on offer wasn’t exciting this time around.
THURSDAY, September 20th
Thursday was the third day of the festival, and the second day that we would attend. This time there were more people, already in the early morning. A big plus was that there was no foreigners-only section. I wanted to mingle with the locals, as I can always talk to Westerners when I’m back home. My guide had a friend of his reserve a place for us. This proved to be really practical. Those who showed up later were seated on the floor of the stage itself. There were even people left waiting outside of the arena.
There was a reason for the large crowd. The third day had the most spectacular dances, with very colorful and detailed costumes. The masks that the monks wore were quite unique too.
Not only were the dances more colorful, the dances on the third day were also the most important ones from a religious point of view.
It was seen as giving more blessings to attend the Thimphu Tsechu on the third day more than the previous days. Particularly for those who wouldn’t be able to attend every day of the festival.
The clowns upped the ante as well. First of all, there were more clowns than the previous day. At one point they even got up on the roof of the arena, and started hurling little rubber balls at each other.
The clowns certainly knew how to entertain the large crowd by goofing around.
By lunch we went for another picnic, this time closer to the Buddha Dordenma statue. This hill wasn’t covered all over in prayer flags like the one we went to on the previous day. There was a pavilion where we could sit, so it was a nice spot for a picnic.
Then we went back to the tsechu, and sat in the same spot among locals. One of the highlights of the afternoon was the “Judgement Dance”. It’s much more than a simple dance. It portrays the stories of two individuals who have passed into the afterlife. The two of them are having their actions judged to determine whether they will enter into heaven (nirvana) or hell. Most of the monks, dressed in costumes with masks representing different animals, sit in two long lines. At the end of the two lines, is the Lord of Death. Technically the Lord of Death was represented by a statue in the stands, not on the stage, because this would be most practical for later. The Lord of Death was accompanied by a black demon and a white god.
The first of the two individuals appears wearing dark colors.
The dark colors symbolize that he was a sinner. He had been cruel to animals. The sinner tries to escape, but he cannot.
He pleads for forgiveness, but the black demon argues that he should be sent to hell, and escorts him there.
Then another person appears, this time dressed in white. This is meant to symbolize that he was a pious individual.
The black demon still tries to argue his case against the white god, but the pious man’s good deeds enable the white god to win the judgement, and the man is brought into heaven.
Before the Judgement Dance’s end, we got up and left the seats, because locals were about to line up to get blessings from the Lord of Death statue.
This process involved almost the entire stadium passing by the statue in a long line one-by-one. What I found a bit odd was that there was a lot of pushing and shoving involved. There were plenty of police officers and security guards making sure everything went somewhat orderly. My guide knew this would happen, and that’s why we got out of the way early.
Worshippers passing by the Lord of Death statue, one-by-one.
We watched the last of the dances from an entirely different position, that was significantly less crowded. But it made for nice pictures with the dzong in the background.
After the dances had concluded, we took a short look inside the Thimphu Dzong and one of its temples.
The dzong was only opened after the tsechu dances had finished, so that was the only chance for visiting it.
What is special about the Thimphu Dzong is that it also has a wing for offices used by the royal family, in the back of the complex. This part of the capital’s dzong was off-limits for visitors.
We had entered the dzong at just the right time. It looked exceptionally pretty in the late afternoon sunlight.
After touring the Thimphu Dzong, my guide and our driver brought me back to the hotel. I once again had dinner at its vegetarian restaurant. It was the last night in Thimphu. Let’s just say I was happy to get a chance to eat somewhere else in the future.
For the next blog post regarding my trip to Bhutan, which covers a handful of days in Punakha and Bumthang, click here.