This view over breakfast is a little different to yesterday’s!
This was a funny mix of a day. In the morning, we froze back out the way we came, through the pass with all the stupas etc.
In a country full of mountains, often there’s only one road.
We stopped at a viewing point to take pictures of fort we were about to go to.
This is the oldest one of all.
I suppose even monks need a coffee from time to time.
This Temple is the first one built by the Unifier, the guy who joined all the tiny kingdoms and feifdoms into one country of Bhutan.
It was completed in 1530.
By day the locals worked on building the fort, and by night they listened to the teachings of the Unifier.
Shoes off again.
This temple has no big parade grounds like the other two we’ve seen. The ground it covers is far less.
It’s still a working government admin and monastery.
Beautifully decorated, as always.
The entry hall had paintings of the 4 kings… of the North, South, East and West.
The king of the north is pictured pressing the stomach of the mongoose to extract jewels. He looks after the rich he and also protects from earthquakes.
The King of the East protects from fire.
King of south protects from flood.
King of west protects from the strong.
The temple was hidden behind this curtain.
When we first stepped through the door, we thought Sither said it was ok to take photos. I took this quick one before he hastily set us straight.
See the riot of colour? These temples are glorious with their use of textiles.
This is the Buddhist Circle of Life. Sither explained it all and it was very interesting.
I can’t remember much now, though.
Coming back outside.
Look who we saw in the car park. Ivy’s going to look a fair bit like this.
A paper factory was next. It was nothing different to what I saw in Alice Springs two years ago.
Later in the day, I ended up buying one of these paintings in Paro. The prices there were a little more reasonable.
This is the hotel we went to for lunch.
It reminded me very much of North Korea… the Great Leaders portraits everywhere.
Sither said that this square is called the Clocktower. It’s like the clocks at Flinders st Station… everyone meets up there.
Our van was caught in traffic, so we spent around 10 minutes chatting and observing the locals.
Schoolgirls on a break.
This girl was learning how to drive her rollerblades.
These two tykes were having fun.
All of a sudden, I hear, “ Hello! It’s me!”
It was John from yesterday! He saw us from across the square and raced over.k
These little girls were throwing handfuls of leaves in the air and screaming with laughter.
Meisie took this shot. Mountains for miles.
I’ll always think of Bhutan when I see prayer flags like these.
Today was a Hindu festival, and people were dressing up their cars. I tried to catch cars while we were driving, but it was my turn to sit in the middle of the van, so that didn’t work so well.
Today is a special day for the god of iron. All people who work with iron have to worship him today. I think this was a Buddhist thing.
This car was parked near the National Museum.
Speaking of which, here it is!
This was an old watchtower turned into a museum in 1947.
Sadly, it wasn’t really my thing.
Fully 4/5ths of it was taken up with Buddhist paraphanalia, and there wasn’t much secular history.
This is a taste of what was on offer, plus lots of paintings of Buddha, the second Buddha, the god of compassion and yadda yadda.
I was getting very templed out, and this pushed me over the edge. I walked ahead of the group and ended up waiting for them outside.
But that’s not to say that there weren’t some interesting exhibits among all the religious iconography.
Chusangkhorlo (Water Timer)
This Chusangkhorlo (Water timer is used in olden days to measure the time. The pot contains 60 drops of water and when the cup is empty after dropping down, it is considered 1 hour in astrological calculation of time which is 2.5 hours of normal time.
| Water timer | Modern timer |
| 6 movement of normal breath = 1 Chusang | 0.41min |
| 60 Chusang = 1 hour (Astrologer) | 25min |
| 2.5hours = 150 chusang= | 1.hour 60min |
| 60 hours= day and night ( Astrologer)= 3600 chusang= | 24 hours 1440min |
A bit Lord of the Flies…
When I mentioned this exhibit to Sither, he nodded matter-of-factly and said that the monks drink from human skulls as part of some rituals.
Not exactly what comes to mind when I think about Buddhists, but ok…
THIS is what we were looking at in Borneo, in the treetops with my blurry photos!
Rhinoceros Hornbill.
This earthenware pot has lasted since the 14th century. Imagine how many pots of tea has been made in it?
Then it was back to the hotel for an early night. We have to get up early tomorrow for our hike to Tigers Nest monastery.
God help me…
Dad joke of the day:
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