DAY 10, MARCH 31, PUNAKHA

PUNAKHA

At eight thirty, forth we sallied,
Then cruised a gorgeous valley.
We found green birds and a monkey to like
When we did our nature hike.
Lunch at Village Restaurant was right up our alley.

After but a mile of walking,
We visited Temple Chimmi Lhakhang.
Nor was it any hassle
To tour Wangdu Castle
Where Dorji did the talking.


It was mostly cloudy today, but it didn't rain.

Dorji told us we were starting the day with a nature ride to look for wild birds and mammals. We drove for quite while on a narrow two-lane paved road down a beautiful, rugged canyon with high, steep walls and a wonderful white-water stream (the Punatschangchku). And it is a canyon where initial work is in progress to build a dam. So there were a lot of dump trucks on the road. Dorji said this project will not force the moving of any families. It looks to me like it will flood a few terraced farms but only a few. Currently Bhutan produces 3,000 megawatts of electricity, and she has a goal to produce 10,000 megawatts by 2020. Perhaps hydroelectric power, sold to India, will make Bhutan and its people wealthy like oil has done for Kuwait.

We took an exit and drove steeply up hill on a very curvy one-way road, parked and walked leisurely down the road looking for wildlife. In the trees we spotted a few small, mostly green birds and a monkey.

We then drove back up the canyon and to the Wangdue Phodrang (fortress, castle, palace). According to Dorji, a phodrang is a palace while a dzong is only a fortress, but they look the same to me. Dorji gave us a nice tour inside the phodrang, and we actually watched a fairly large group of monks having their noon prayers in preparation for lunch. The fortress sits on a strategic position at the top of a high hill beside the Punatschangchku River. Construction was started in 1639. It's not known when it was completed. It was built by the unifier of Bhutan to guard against possible enemies from Tibet or possible enemies from the east of Bhutan before unification. Wangdue means “brought under control.” Like other such buildings, it was built entirely of wood (no nails, spikes or other metal). The phodrang is also a temple. There are 2007 temples in Bhutan and 35 fortresses. Wangdue Phodrang houses some 200 monks. It also serves as office quarters for some lower lever government officials.

Next to the phodrang is a very old village of approximately the same age. This village is unusual in that there are no houses in the usual sense. You see ramshackle shops adjoining one another along the road, and they also serve as living quarters.

The lunch we had was wonderful, certainly the best meal (not counting breakfasts) we've had so far. I particularly loved the eggplant. The restaurant is in a farming community. I complimented the proprietor of Village Restaurant, Kiney Penjor, who gave me his business care.. The address is Lobesa, Punakha, Bhutan. Lobessa is a village within the town or city of Punakha.

It was from the restaurant that, after lunch, we started our hike of approximately a mile on a pathway across the terraced farmland to visit the Chimmi Lhakhung temple. Starting out, we passed a fine new house under construction – mostly wood, although mud bricks are used a lot in construction. Some of the fields had tall, green barley. Many were newly plowed. Dorji says the plowing would have been done with oxen, but some farmers use rototillers. Some hemp was pointed out, but I missed it. We saw a few farmers -- men and women -- working in the fields. We saw a few scattered cows grazing in some of the fields. It was interesting that loads of firewood were being carried on the backs of young men and women from across the road where we started, out to a stupa about 1/3 mile out, where it was being stacked. Dorji told me, it is stacked overnight, then carried the other halfway to their homes the next day. The firewood, he said, is purchased from the government.

Lhakhang means temple. Chimmi means “no dogs,” but there were a few dogs snoozing outside the temple. The temple was built in the 17th century by the brother of Lama Drupka Kunley, “the Divine Madman,” a legendary Tibetan monk who advanced Buddhism as he wandered about Bhutan and Tibet. It is said that women who are unable to conceive, if they visit this temple, will be blessed with conception. We took our shoes off and had a tour inside the temple, including the altar room where we watched some monks bowing to the altar. You can't take pictures in such a room. But we were allowed to take photos in a room where young monks were studying. They were using sheets of the type I described in connection with the National Library.

Back at the hotel, Dorji gave a little slide show with his laptop about a trek on which he had led a German couple way up to 12,000 feet. Horses were used to carry the luggage. Dorji said this was the only such trek he has led, and he won't do any more. The problem is altitude sickness, some of which apparently is inevitable.

At 5:30 we all gathered in Dick and Judy Opsahl's room for a pre-dinner social time with beer and peanuts, which had been purchased in a tiny store just before we left Lobesa.

After dinner, with his computer, Dorji showed us some pictures of his wife and home. In September they expect their first child. Dorji is 29, has been a tour leader since receiving some brief training for the career right after high school.

Cynthia Springer was sick and stayed in the hotel, unable to join today's activities.


Punakha is a province as well as a town. Likewise Wangdu. Whenever you cross from one province to another there is a guard station with a gate and a few officers standing around. I don't know what they're interested in. They don't appear to be doing any checking.

You never see bare legs above the ankle on men or women in Bhutan – nor, I guess, India. So I did not bring my Bermuda shorts.

Miscellany from Dorji:

The workers, or most of them, on the dam project are Indians, not Bhutanese. Maybe Indians are willing to work harder.

Bhutan's overall literacy rate (can read and write) is 45%. But it is about 85% for people 30 and younger.

A man is permitted to have multiple wives in Bhutan. The king is not married yet, but his father has, I think Dorji said, four wives. The first wife must agree to a second wife. Eighty percent of married men have only one wife.

Bernie :-)