Mighty Thimphu

Mighty Thimphu
November 23rd 2010
In the morning Yuri and I made breakfast in our cold apartment. We were surprised to learn that the major river that runs through the city of Thimphu was right outside. Soon we were out the door and on the tour bus of our hosts. They were taking us and the rest of the Wheaton students on an adventure around the city of Thimphu. It seems I had arrived on the right day.
The bus drove for about 45 minutes to the university that was in the mountains surrounding the city. There we were early And because I was not allowed into the women’s dorm I walked out the area around Yuri’s place. I watched as students hustled to their morning class dressed in traditional outfits. After a little while, Yuri emerged shinning in a Bhutanese Kira and we met the other Wheaties on the bus.
Our first stop took us to a traditional paper making studio in Thimphu. We saw how the stuff was made and then we wandered around the gift store purchasing the sacred material. The grainy white sheets are perfect for the painting of Thangkas—painted depictions of Buddhist scriptures and mantras.
The sky around the small South Asian city were clear and cool. Our next stop took us to a museum of Thangkas. As we exited the bus our guide Tsewang reminded us that it was forbidden to prostrate in this museum—a funny warning I thought to myself.
Inside the museum was a collection of the most precious painted thangkas in all of Bhutan. The items had been exhibited (or were planning on making the trip, I couldn’t quite tell) at the San Francisco museum of Asian Art. I walked around the space with Yuri as my guide. She told me the meanings of many of the thangkas and I asked questions about Buddhism as a whole. Toward the end of the line I noticed that some of the Bhutanese visitors to the museum could not contain themselves and started throwing themselves at the statues of the Buddha. The guards did not stop anyone; they just stood there waving incense that thickly invaded the room.
Outside in the sunshine a group of dancers practiced a dragon dance that it was said they learned in Japan. They were preparing for a festival that was still months away.
I was getting desperate for lunch but we still had a stop to go. This time we ended up at the artisanal school where students about my age learn how to make traditional Bhutanese crafts. We went from building to building watching young people carve masks, sculpt with clay, weave textiles, paint thangkas and even shape silver. The rooms of skilled focused workers seemed to never stop. On the walls were slogans along the lines of “gross domestic happiness should be more sought after than gross domestic product” and “you must teach a student so he can help society.”
Lunch came a little late for my appetite but eventually we found ourselves spooning curry and chilly in cream sauce onto beds of rice. Before all of that I went with some Wheaton guys to try and buy a license plate at a store that displayed some in the window. The store turned out to be some sort of print/fax place that happened to make plates. When we asked how much they were the shop keep said that he would just give it to us.
After lunch we headed to a large neighborhood shrine in the middle of the city. The mid-afternoon haze had cleared and the sun was shining as we passed around the stupa and spun prayer wheels. The scenes of ancient Bhutanese women praying was simply stunning. Many elderly people were circumambulating the religious center of the grounds.
Back on the bus we headed to the top Thimphu where the world’s largest statue of the Buddha was being constructed. As we climbed into the thin air my altitude sickness was getting worse. At the top I looked for a spot to relieve myself and in so doing found a remarkable vantage point of the city of Thimphu. Yuri and I took some pictures of the beautiful golden Buddha glimmer in the sunshine.
At city level we were given a break from the tour grind and I escaped with Yuri and her close friend Sarah to a café across from the bank. I had an espresso which beat out my headache and gave me more energy to continue on the day trip. Yuri and Sarah walked me around the tiny downtown area of Thimphu and we ended up at an archery ground watching the daily matchup.
Archery is Bhutan’s national sport and many men spend a few hours a day competing with their team or practicing amongst friends. At this archery ground I could see semi-drunk Bhutanese taunting the other team with war dances. It looked very difficult to shoot such a long ways but it seemed that they had high quality bows and arrows.
The final touristy stop of the day was perhaps the most significant: the national dzong. A dzong is a religious and governmental fortress that is the most important building in the region. This one was particularly important and that is why Yuri had to wear a traditional kira with an ornamental sash. Along the way guards asked her questions in the regional language, to which she replied: “I’m sorry I don’t speak dzongka, I’m Japanese.”
Inside the monastery was a huge statue of Buddha adorned with offerings and yak butter candles. The atmosphere was peaceful and quiet—the monks had already finished their rituals for the day. Outside Tsewang explained some of the importance of this monastery and how it fits into to the larger scheme of things and Yuri and I took photographs of the monstrosity.
Our tour guide left us early to meet with the queen mother next door at her palace and the remnants of the Wheaton group headed to dinner. There we stuffed our faces to capacity with spicyness. My friend Sonam met us at dinner. She was my friend from Wheaton who got me the right documents to travel to Bhutan. After the meal I went with Yuri, Sarah and Sonam to have a drink at a nearby bar. After the bar Yuri and I headed back to the apartment.