The Punakha Dzong, considered the most beautiful dzong in the country. More steps up, up, up. Sometimes, the steps are so steep, people have to come down backwards.
Another life-sized prayer wheel. These prayer wheels have scrolls and scrolls of prayers written on paper and put inside the wheel. So when you turn it clockwise, all the prayers inside are said for you to provide you many, many blessings.
All the Kings of Bhutan are crowned here in the 100-pillar Coronation Hall. This is where the textile huge mural is dropped from the third story to cover the building for king coronations. It takes 100 men to roll it up and put it back in storage.
People were losing their minds to get a good photo of these roosters. I admit, I didn’t take this great photo.
This is a very religious mural of the different lives of a Buddhist showing the different levels of life a person can lead.
The wheel of life, also known as The Bhavachakra, is a symbolic representation of the cycle of existence that Buddhists believe in. Buddhists believe in the continuous cycle of birth, life, death. They believe that you can only be liberated from this cycle of rebirth when enlightenment is reached.
It’s possible to come back as an animal and VERY HARD to then come back as a human after that.
The photo on the left is where the parents of the four sister queens of the previous reign chose to live.
Another stupa with the eyes. And, again, shoes off means no photos. I believe this may have been the monastery and fertility temple, Chimi Lhakhang, dedicated to a famous monk known as “the divine madman’. Famous for being unorthodox and trying to make Buddhism more relaxed. He’s considered a hero in Bhutan.
He was not your typical Buddha. The madman was famous for drinking a lot and having sex with beautiful women. Therefore, one of his symbols is phallic. And the entire city of Paro is filled with wooden, painted phallic penises as a sign of good luck.
And there is no doubt about what they are meant to be when outside the souvenir shops have big paintings of the balls, hair and all, and a penis spewing out the top. The men in our group seemed to get a bigger chuckle out of it all, buying many for their friends.
The monastery is also a fertility temple and couples often come here who want to have children. Once they have a child, they return and pay homage to the madman.
This is where the monks were chanting in front of the huge Buddha statues, singing, chanting, doing burpees and down-dog. One monk poured holy water onto our hands and we could drink it or put it on our heads. I chose my head — can’t be too careful to avoid tainted water — blessed or not!
This photo is to show what a small world this is. Lana and Jean met the woman in pink on the plane to Thimphu. And then they saw each other again at one temple and again at this temple.
The hotel we stayed in in Punakha. Yes, it’s cute until you realize it has no elevators.
And this is to way you get to your room. I was on the third floor! Up, up, up
Beautiful view of the mountains and the rice fields, ready for harvesting.
LOOK at my room in Punakha. I’m so spoiled!! I love a bathroom that opens up into the hotel room. And YES I took a bath in this great tub!!
I had a bay window and was sad we were only staying for one day. I took the first photo when I arrived — beautiful view of the mountains. The next morning I took another photo — and you’d never guess there were mountains out there!
We did a silly Mandala creation class with different colored rice. The colors stood for greed, envy, etc. The first group designed this mandala that is supposed to be a dollar sign and I think it is fantastic. Ours was the other one; and it turned out to look like a Christmas card/snowman. Mandala MEANS circle. So we failed from the start!!
We arrived here after many many steps upward. These are monks practicing their musical talents.
The next morning we left the beautiful hotel in Pukhara and walked DOWN!!! DOWN I say, on a little path through the rice fields into a little town filled with phallic symbols — as I described above.
You would find these chilis (what we call peppers) everywhere. The people would harvest them and dry them out whereever they could — on a dumpster, on a sheet in the street, and many on rooftops. I just can’t get over the bird poop that must get in there!!
Here are the many and various wooden penises, and other wood carvings and paintings.
This was a home built in 1788 and we talked to the 11th generation woman who has lived in this family home.
We had lunch downstairs and this part of the house seemed livable — pot bellied stove in the middle of the room, a nice porch. But after lunch we toured all three stories and I can’t believe people live there. First of all, look at those stairs!! They really aren’t stairs, they are a ladder!!
And the floors used to be smooth; but after millions of steps on the wood after eleven generations, the softer wood wears away, and the knots are harder and wear less — thus the bumps in the floor.
This was the GOOD suspension bridge … which I walked across. The OTHER bridge is 300 years old, all metal, and too rusty to use.
Still more to come!!
Safe Travels.