Travels of THB: Day 7: Paro

Day 7: Paro

Guru Rinpoche

Weather: Rained hard at night, then low 40s at 6:30 am, warming up to low 60s mid-day with clear skies. THB ranks this as our number one weather day since we left E-ville (a week ago)...and to prove it THB walked the grounds in a t-shirt and shorts (oops, no pic to really prove it)

Quote of the Day: I really liked the monastery!

Another early morning, this time to see the unveiling of the giant tapestry scroll of Guru Rinpoche, the guy in the 8^th C that brought Buddhism to Bhutan. We have a different driver today, Chencho is on his way to Bumthang. He’s taking our giant suitcase and two paper bags of miscellany, thus making it easier for us to checkout and take a 25 seater flight tomorrow. (Tashi reports later that driver and bags arrived safely and Chencho will pick us up at the Bumthang airport tomorrow.)

Up and out without breakfast, not even coffee or pastries, we’re going commando style. Tashi decides to drop us off above the fortress which means driving all the way through Paro on the busiest day of the festival. Same on the return. There may be logic to decision, we would have been very happy with two 10 minutes walks over the 45 minutes on Bhutan roads in the equivalent of really bad rush hour traffic.

The "upper" gate

King #5 is coming and the red carpet is being readied

Embroidered tapestry; there is a never ending line of people waiting to pass close and thus receive a blessing (not someone waving incense over their heads, a more cosmic blessing)

Window washers are out early this morning

Camera crews getting set up; the festival is shown live on local television (THB found that out while he was channel surfing while riding the elliptical)

Part of the King's security; there are few guns among the populace, these guys were carrying

The band is playing early today

A flock of monks heading away from the stage

The Scouts are providing extra security, here protecting the red carpet. THB hopes they earn another merit badge for today's efforts. Both boys and girls in uniform

Young monks...they are committed by their parents at a very early age; per Tashi they can leave the monkhood (there's an example later in this post)

Spend over an hour watching the crowd. There’s a long line of people (thousands) awaiting their turn to be blessed by coming close to the giant scroll. The red carpet has been laid (and continually swept) for the King; he’s hours away.

Breakfast buffet

THB goes for fruit and plain yogurt as first course (of course, along with a pastry)

Really dry because THB doesn't drown the porridge and papaya in coconut juice

Before THB drowns the pancakes in yogurt

Return to the Uma Paro for breakfast. It’s a bit eclectic: pumpkin pancakes (pretty good) and a very dry porridge that comes with a coconut liquid. THB refuses to pour the liquid because he is not a big fan of coconut other than raw and fresh. So THB substitutes yogurt and sweetened fruit which works well.

Our mid morning stroll of the property: this is the main entrance

Very typical vegetation on the mountain sides

Uma Paro has a number of villas spread around the propert

Prayer flags for the dead

Along with rain in the valley last night there is fresh snow on the mountain tops

Inside the hotel spaces are set apart with large plank immobile "screens" set at an angle

THB and DB walk the property, it is lovely out: clear, sunny, crisp. Then DB does some knitting and THB does some blogging, followed by stretching for DB and a visit to the fitness center for THB. Sounds like we're doing a lot…all very leisurely.

Some choices for lunch: THB probably should have had the healing hot pot of tofu with those pinched noodles (stolen?) to go with his salted lime soda

It's around 12:15 and we're the only guests for lunch (a few others come in later)

DB goes for pomegranate and THB the salted lime soda

The view from our table

What's missing: the burger

THB did not go for the fossilized rose petal

During lunch we see the arrival of a flight and somehow THB whips out the camera and gets an action shot

Lunch without Tashi: we gave him “the morning off” since as our guide he is sort of obligated to be with us pretty much all the time. We shared a salad and DB had tandoori chicken wrap and THB had another eclectic item: a very dry patty of lentil and chickpea burger with beets and a chutney. The patty was so dry THB removed it from the bun and then mixed in the condiments and toppings and pretty soon his lunch looked a lot like his breakfast.

After lunch, and after the festival had broken up, we visited a 7^th C monastery and did a drive by of another dzong further east of Paro. Traffic wasn’t near as much of a problem. The monastery was terrific, and of course no pics were allowed in the two primary rooms where all the great art was.

Monastery was established well over a 1000 years ago

Restored periodically

This man is turning all the prayer wheels surrounding the monastery and reciting prayers, earning him some points on the plus side when he is at the decision point of entering the afterlife

Those small things below the wheels are stupas. More from wikipedia: A stupa (Sanskrit: "heap") is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as śarīra – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.^[2] A related architectural term is a chaitya, which is a prayer hall or temple containing a stupa

Repeated for emphasis: those stupas under the prayer wheels are made of clay mixed with the remains of ground monks and nuns

The banner (not one of the four prayer banners, though THB could be wrong on this and all things Buddhist in the blog)

Tiger

Pic is distorted, we're outside a room full of candles lit to honor someone. You must have a pure heart while lighting the candles (you can light more than one) and we all know THB is missing the main requirement. A payment is made to the volunteers inside who are constantly building more bowls with oil and candles and reciting a blessing.

The volunteer that helps us is an ex-monk, so he knows the prayer blessing well.

Lion on the banner

Fierce bird with snake caught in the talons

A druk or dragon; Druk is also the native name for Bhutan

The main rooms of the monastery are inside. We remove our shoes and put away our cameras. Many fascinating sculptures of gods and figures of Buddhism inside. The visit was too short for THB.

The courtyard where you remove shoes, pics still allowed

Adjacent to the main building is a structere with five very large prayer wheels

More stupas

the red "handle" is used to turn the small wheels....though THB goofed at one point and put his hand on the wheel to turn it. Two demerits at the accounting moment of entering the afterlife

A group of women and one man were having a picnic on the grounds when we were lighting candles. Now they are using the monastery as backdrop for pics of their unusual skirts

A bit hard to see: there's an iron bar on the top of the wheel and each spin the bar hits a bell hanging above the wheels. When all the wheels are in motion and the bells are ringing it is quite magical.

One of the wheel's covers are out for repair; the iron surrounding the large wheels near the bottom is used to turn the wheel

THB isn’t much for the religious aspect (of any religion), he is a big fan of the thousands of years of idolatry art that inspires worshippers.

A drive by of this dzong. We stopped at a scenic viewpoint and THB took a pic; the pic disappeared when the camera software on the netbook burped.

Just pretend the dzong has returned through reincarnation as a cow that greets visitors

Not the pic of the dzong or of the Tiger's Nest...THB should have just deleted this one...or taken better notes (actually, any notes)

The dzong was a drive by because they haven’t finished the renovations started in 2011. The structure dates from the 17^th C and looks a lot like the dzong in Paro. One benefit of the drive: we get a viewing of the Tiger’s Nest where THB will attempt to reach. It’s way up there (over 10,000 feet) and some of the path is narrow and overlooks steep drop offs. Not DB’s type of hike.

Reasonably early return to the hotel and more blogging and catching up on e-mail for THB, catching up on rest for DB.

Dinner with Tashi at the hotel: Indian for DB and Tashi, tuna sashimi and roasted chicken breast with lentils and rosemary, chocolate ice cream for THB, a Druk 11000 (high alcohol) brewski and sauvignon blanc.

We leave tomorrow for the airport at 8:40, a totally humane time to leave.

Pics from here and there: