The Finish

Wednesday 24 Oct 2016

We leave for Thimphu on our last full day in Bhutan with an auspicious full moon.

On route we visit the most beautiful and significant Dzong at Punakha, it was built in 1637 by Zhabdrung who united Bhutan and sits at the junction of the Mo (mother) Chu and the Po (father) Chu.



This Dzong is not only the resting place of Zhabdrung but with him is the precious relic, a small bone which has a perfect image of the God of compassion. The Tibetans spent many years trying to capture it until one day Zhabdrung hid the relic in the white sleeve of his gho then placed a copy in his hand. He then declared to the invading Tibetans, while pointing at his wrist (so pointing at both real and fake), that he will throw it into the Mo Chu river to end the war.
Understanding that no Buddhist could lie, the Tibetans retreated and there ended the conflict between nations. One interesting twist to this story is that while the Bhutanese have the smart turned up sleeves in their national dress, the Tibetans usually have long sleeves which extend beyond their hand with no hiding place for precious relics!
Arriving in the big city of Thimphu for our last night, it is clear their is rapid change.
10 years ago, much of the city was rice fields but now it is home to 150,000 which is about 20% of the population. Modernisation has, however, not extended to traffic management, a set of traffic lights were installed at the central junction a few years ago but it confused people so much that they soon returned to a white gloved policeman!

A later flight the next day meant we were able to go and see the giant Buddha which watches over Thimphu, funded largely by a Singaporean, it is still work in progress but is a magnificent way to finish our trip.



We were immensely lucky with the weather on our trek in this fascinating land of the thunder dragon. The country is developing rapidly but, it would seem intelligently, I hope the future remains happy for all of Bhutan and it’s people.

Tashi Delek Drukyul.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 17

Image
Sunday 14 Oct 2018 At midnight, the sky was a blanket of stars with a beautiful Milky Way. Again we woke to a very cold but clear blue sky, Tshering was visibly shocked at how clear it was as, in six Snowman Treks, he had never actually seen both Kangphu Gang and Jeje Kangphu (7300m), both of which glowed in the early morning sun. We made easy progress up to the Keche La (4661m) and great views unfolded behind us, Teri Kang emerged from a notch on the horizon and resembled a breaching humpback whale. The frost seemed to vaporise from the rhododendron leaves as the shadow descended into the valley. After a short stop on the pass, a young family of brothers and sisters arrived from Laya, they had loaded their horses and walked to Lunana to sell their goods and were now going back home with a total return trip time of 6 days. The descent track was well built and was just a year old. It had been constructed by representatives from each local village and was fully funded by the governm...
Read more

Day 24

Image
Sunday 21 Oct 2018 With just three days left of our journey, the conversation at breakfast was whether or not we would recommend the Snowman Trek to others. Ordinarily there would be no issue and a resounding ‘yes’ but since we have been so supremely lucky with the weather, the probability of someone else experiencing the same is very unlikely. The chances of getting few or no views is high and so hard to justify the cost. However, exploring one corner of this country and trying to understand it’s culture and environment has been a pleasure. The sun soon started to warm this cold valley, as we descended there was a gradual return of vegetation which now was showing it’s full autumn colours. The Tampe Chu flowed at a constant rate matching the gentle gradient of our path, Black Redstarts danced above the river catching insects in the morning sun and small wrens sang to us as we perched and wobbled on the stoney path. We eventually reached a meadow at 4010m just before our horses ar...
Read more