November 28 – December 3, 2019

 “Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth.”

• Bhudda

Bhutan was the destination for this trip to my 32^nd country. This was another Meetup trip with Trekkup-Dubai.  This group of 24 trekkers was a little larger than the usual group, but with 13 countries represented it was as diverse as ever.  Also typical, the passport used for the trip by many of the trekkers doesn’t really tell the whole story of their background, with several having lived in many other countries and holding dual passports. The conversations with people from all over the world are a valuable part of the experience of these trips.

Bhutan is a small, high elevation, landlocked country in south Asia. Despite having the giants China (Tibet) on the northern border and India to the south, the country has never been colonized. Bhutan does things a little different than most countries. Here are a few interesting facts:

• Bhutan is small in area (133^rd), population (165^th, ~750,000), and wealth (per capita GDP 115^th)
• Bhutan pioneered the concept of Gross National Happiness, used as the guiding principal for government action to protect the welfare of current and future citizens. This concept emphasizes harmony with nature and traditional values. It was established in the Constitution of Bhutan in 2008 when the country became a constitutional monarchy (previously absolute monarchy).
• Bhutan maintains diplomatic relations with 52 countries and the EU but has no formal ties to any of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
• Bhutan is the world’s only carbon-negative country.  The constitution mandates that 60% of the nation’s landmass shall be maintained and protected as forested.
• Bhutan is primarily Bhuddist (77%), with the remaining population Hindu (increasing percentage as you approach India).
• Gangkhar Puensum is the highest mountain in Bhutan and considered so sacred that no one has yet climbed to its peak (at 24,840 feet).
• Possession of tobacco is not illegal, but smoking is not allowed in public, and tobacco has not been sold in the country since 2004.
• The capital city, Thimphu, is the only capital city in Asia with no traffic lights.  White gloved officers direct traffic.
• Hydroelectricity is the leading export, supplied to various states in India.
• Bhutan has recently doubled teacher salaries, making them among the highest paid civil servants. This is in keeping with their constitutional commitment to improve quality of life.
• The currency is the Ngultrum. Paper currency only is used – coins are not available. 100 Ng = $1.41 at time of trip.
• The official language is Dzongkha.

Travelling to Bhutan is not a simple affair.  This is intentional as part of a low impact – high value tourism policy.  First, the cost to visit is up to $250 per day per person, depending on the month. But this isn’t your normal visa – besides the $40 base visa cost, the fee includes a variety of normal expenses such as lodging, guide service, and meals, as well as a $65 tourism royalty that goes towards free health care, education, infrastructure, and poverty alleviation.  All travel arrangements must be through a state authorized travel agency. The visa is obtained on arrival but must be paid and approved before you go.  One of the benefits of travelling with Trekkup-Dubai – they take care of almost all these details. Sign up, pay, give them the documents they ask for, then show up and enjoy.

The flight into Bhutan is another distinctive feature to this trip. The town of Paro is home to the only international airport in the country, and you will find it on any “Most Dangerous Airport” list you care to look at. Cradled in a valley surrounded by high mountain peaks, less than two dozen pilots are certified to deliver passengers to their destination here.  Passengers can watch the nearby mountain tops pass by as they make the hard banks and rapid descent to the runway. Our trip was uneventful, and I enjoyed learning a bit about the country from a flight magazine (national bird – raven, national tree – cypress, etc.).

We arrived on a clear, cool morning. Passage through customs was painless. After working our way through the colorful terminal with native art and scale-model landmarks on the luggage carousels, our guides for the trip, Nirs and Sonam greeted us to the country with scarves. English was not a problem throughout the stay as English in school is mandatory for several years.  After the first of many group photos, we had lunch at an airport restaurant. My research that said Bhutan cuisine was characterized by lots of chilis was spot on, and we had chili-cheese for the first time. It would not be our last.

We loaded up in a pair of Toyota Coaster minibuses for our trip from Paro to Thimphu, a little over an hour away. We were introduced to prayer cloths when we stopped to see the first of many monasteries. These cloths are a common feature of the landscape, often along trails, bridges, and other roadside spots that are frequented by travelers. Of Bhuddist origin, the flags come in sets of five colors – green (nature), yellow (earth), white (air), red (fire), and blue (water).  They are printed with prayers, and the breeze blowing through the flags spreads compassion and good will to the surrounding spaces. They are held sacred because of the symbols and prayers on them – new flags are continuously mounted to renew hope for the future, and old ones are disposed with respect by burning. We encountered thousands of these flags during our visit.

We took a short visit to the gigantic Buddha Dordenma statue as we arrived in Thimphu.  This gigantic gold gilded bronze statue stands a whopping 52 meters high. Completed in 2015, this statue was completed at a cost of $47 million (built by the Chinese and funded with the help of several Asian countries).  The statue is in a nature park overlooking Thimphu and is dedicated to bringing peace and prosperity to the world. The construction is said to fulfill an ancient prophecy from the 8^th century that a second Buddha would appear here to promote peace and harmony. We arrived in late afternoon – not the best time of day for lighting on the statue – and a chilly breeze encouraged us to speed up our observations and snap our pictures.

Our destination for the night was Hotel Phuntsho Pelri.  The rooms were basic and comfortable with a big brass key on a big wooden keychain. I was unable to adjust the wall radiator and wound up turning it off and opening the window for our stay.  Many of us met downstairs before dinner for drinks and got to know each other a little. These chats are a real source of pleasure for me – Swiss, Lebanese, Saudi, Polish, Iranian (by way of Canada), Singapore, and others. For all our differences we are much alike.  Perhaps someday our political leaders will get together for a trip somewhere and many of our problems will go away.  We had dinner (chilis are a central feature in many Bhutanese dishes) at the hotel.  Some went out to investigate the area, some decided to prepare for the next day.  I was in the latter.

We were greeted the next morning with bright blue skies and a crisp 4°C. After breakfast, we loaded into the vans and headed out to Tango Monastery about an hour away.  Along the way we stopped by a roadside Prayer Wheel, in this case a couple of meters high, powered by water and enclosed in a small shrine.  We saw many prayer wheels during our stay, ranging from some meters high to small hand-held wheels. They could be rotated by hand, by water, or by wind, but the rotation must be clockwise and was the essential element to purifying negativity, generating compassion and enabling enlightenment. Monks were cleaning a giant Bhudda painted on the rocks with brooms to complete the peaceful scene.

The Tango Monastery is at an elevation of about 3000 meters. The hike to it was about an hour, gaining just under 300 meters along a pleasant forest trail with frequent benches and trash cans and plaques mounted to trees with bits of Buddhist wisdom on them.  Many spoke of the importance of protecting the environment, others were more philosophical and spoke about the transient nature of life. Along the way we passed a small room tended by a single monk with over 100 butter lamps burning. These lamps are in a small metal dish and traditionally burn clarified yak butter. Their illumination is said to aid in enlightenment by banishing the darkness of ignorance which covers the true nature of the mind. An unfortunate reality of the lamps is they present a very real fire threat, and several of the monasteries we visited had suffered from one or more serious fires over the years when mountain breezes disturbed the lamps.

I hiked alone for a little while as the group had spread out, enjoying the peaceful solitude.  We arrived at the monastery, each at their own pace. Much of the monastery was not open to us as repair work was in progress, but we enjoyed what we saw, and had a pleasant walk down the mountain. I marveled at the flowers still in bloom at the end of November at such a high elevation.  Perhaps Bhutan is genuinely blessed.

After lunch in Thimphu, we stopped for a visit at the National Memorial Chorten, a prominent center of meditation in central Thimphu. Built in 1974, this structure is located on a pretty green grass lawn along with a prayer wheel building with ten large prayer wheels over 2 meters high. Dozens of people meditated and worshipped, slowly walking around the prayer wheels, turning them as they passed.  Elderly ladies sat on the curbs, slowly spinning handheld wheels, while others walked slowly around the Chorten.  The direction of all movement – turning the large prayer wheels, spinning the handheld ones, and the walk around the Chorten was clockwise, always clockwise.

The next stop was Tashichho Dzong, a combination Buddhist monastery and government center (a dzong is a fortified building containing administrative and religious buildings).  As we entered the grounds, I noticed clusters of tall, thin white flags scattered across the surrounding hillsides. Our guide Nirs described these flags as memorials to the dead, to aid them in finding the right path to the next life.  Ideally, Bhuddist monks say fresh wood should be used for each pole (reusing indicates less effort), and a higher number of poles is more powerful. Unfortunately, this runs counter to the governments constitutional responsibility to maintain the country at least 60% forested since young trees are preferred and over 1000 trees were being cut each week. The government is working to promote using less flags and either reusing flag poles or using alternatives such as quick growing bamboo.

Much of our time in the Tashichho Dzong was spent in the monastery, where Nirs described in detail the Circle of Life.  This circle presents a cycle of birth and rebirth through layers and sections representing different things, but the most interesting part to me was his description of the three poisons at the hub represented by the pig, the snake, and the bird. They represent the three main poisons of life – desire, anger, and ignorance – that can trap us in an existence of pain, suffering, and counterproductive behaviors. The description of the whole circle was quite complex but the essence of the three poisons being the hub rang true to me.

The temperature was dropping with the setting sun, but we had one more brief stop for the day.  This was an archery session in town that was impressive to me for the simple reason the archers were aiming at a small target, outdoors in the breeze, a whopping 145 meters away!  The target was quite small, and in reality they only hit it a few times, still, this was an amazing display to me given the distance.  We returned to our hotel for dinner and more socializing.

After breakfast the next morning, we loaded back up in the cruisers for our trip to Dochula Pass, the starting point for our next hike to Lungchu Tsey Monastery. This was a 3.5 km hike increasing from 3025 to 3560 meters in elevation – our highest elevation for the trip – along a forested path with the ever-present prayer flags and an occasional yak.  The snow-covered Bhutan Himalayas towered on the horizon.  Clouds closed in as we approached the summit. We spent a few minutes inside the 18^th century monastery. As always, photos inside were not allowed.

We hiked back down the hill to dinner at the café at Dochula Pass.  108 chortens (monuments) are erected at the site in memory of soldiers who died in a 2003 battle against insurgents from India. Visitors here, as at every Bhuddist site, walked slowly in the clockwise direction around the memorial.  We boarded the cruisers and took the drive back to Paro, discussing all manner of cultural, philosophical, and political issues amongst the international passengers to pass the time.  A very pleasant afternoon.

We drove back to our hotel in Paro, but before we reached the hotel, we had about an hour to walk around the downtown and shop for souvenirs. The shops were full of candles, incense, yak wool scarves, shawls, and sweaters, hand painted Circles of Life, soaps, singing bowls, along with all colors and sizes of phalluses. The last we had seen in abundance in Athens, but I had not anticipated them here. The purpose is to ward off evil.  The world is an interesting place.  I picked up a nice baby Yak wool scarf for Lynn and a singing bowl for myself.  These interesting bowls produce a harmonic frequency when a wooden stick is gently rubbed around the perimeter, producing a sound said to clear the air around us of negative energy and emotional blockage. 

After shopping, we checked into our hotel, the Metta Resort and Spa. Not lavish or particularly modern but large and comfortable just the same. After another meal of dodging chilis, we enjoyed some local beverages and socialized.

Our trek the next morning was to the highlight of the trip, Paro Taktsang, commonly known as the Tiger’s Nest. The collection of buildings making up the monastery is perched on the side of a nearly vertical cliff 900m above the surrounding valley floor. This was a steep but short hike of about 2.5 km with an elevation gain of 500m through a forest of pine, oak, and rhododendron. The monastery itself dates back to 1692, when it was built on the site of a cave where the Guru Rinpoche is said to have meditated for three years, three months, and three hours. He is credited with bringing Buddhism to Bhutan in the 8^th century, flying from Tibet on the back of a tigress.  Entering the monasteries required us to remove our cameras, backpacks, and shoes. We were given a few minutes of private contemplation in one of them and looked into the cave (now sprinkled with donations) believed to be where the Guru meditated in another of the buildings.  I noticed small CFL lights in some locations, giving way to LED bulbs in others to supplement the light of the ever-present butter lamps (I often notice such anachronisms). I didn’t know if this was to reduce the risk of fire (one caused serious damage here in 1998) or simply to maximize the limited power available.

We headed back down the mountain, stopping along the way to enjoy a lunch prepared for us by friendly locals.  Our last event of the week awaited us – a traditional Hot Stone bath. Rather than benefit from natural hot springs, these wooden tub baths use wood fire heated river stones dumped into a receptacle at the foot of the tub to heat the water, with herbs and slices of aromatic wood floating in the water. A nice touch following the hike.

We had dinner in town, and one last trip through the souvenir shops.  Some enjoyed treats around a bonfire at the hotel when we returned under the clear cool Bhutan sky. As we headed out the next morning to the airport, Nirs thanked us for coming to his country in the simple sincerity we had come to expect from him.  One last spectacle awaited us. As we left the runway and exited the valley through a hard ascent with a series of sharp banks, the snow-covered Himalayas were revealed to us on a morning of perfect clarity. A great ending to a great trip.