The Bhutan Series - Day 4 - Thimpu
We headed to what use to be the National Zoo. The king had established a zoo but soon after decided to take it apart since it was contrary to Bhutanese beliefs. The national animal however, the takin, started to wander into the city looking for food so they left the fences up for the takin. The mythology behind the takin is that a Bhutanese saint nicknamed "the Divine Madman" ate a whole cow and goat. The madman burped and took the goat's head and put in on the bones of a cow and created the takin. It's a pretty funny looking animal with few natural predators I think the snow leopard is one of the only ones and it lives at pretty high elevations.
I was completely rested and ready to go and this was going to be a busy day so thank goodness I finally got a full's night's sleep. Below is the list of the day's activities:
- Thimpu Festival
- Tankin
- Paper Factory
- Weekend Vegetable Market
- Dinner and drinks with Sonam
Our first stop was the Thimpu Drupchen at the Thimpu dzong. During the Drupchen, the deities are prayed to and dances are performed only by monks in costume. The drupchen occurs before the tscechu I believe for about a week out of which there are 4 days which the public can see some of the dances. During the other days dances are performed inside the monestary. The 
tsechu occurs a few days after the drupchen and dances are performed by monks as well as by lay people. Since the drupchen is very religious cameras were not allowed into the dzong. Before the dancing started I got the opportunity to meet with a monk, Gimptu (I may be spelling it wrong). I asked him lots of questions about the monestic order and how it works, how it's structured, etc. We saw two dances this day and each dance lasted about an hour. The costumes are really spectacular and very colorful. One dance we saw was a black hat dance and the other one was with masks as mentioned above both of them were done to appease certain deities. After watching the dances I had worked up an appetite and Penjo and I went and had some very yummy Indian food.
tsechu occurs a few days after the drupchen and dances are performed by monks as well as by lay people. Since the drupchen is very religious cameras were not allowed into the dzong. Before the dancing started I got the opportunity to meet with a monk, Gimptu (I may be spelling it wrong). I asked him lots of questions about the monestic order and how it works, how it's structured, etc. We saw two dances this day and each dance lasted about an hour. The costumes are really spectacular and very colorful. One dance we saw was a black hat dance and the other one was with masks as mentioned above both of them were done to appease certain deities. After watching the dances I had worked up an appetite and Penjo and I went and had some very yummy Indian food. 
We headed to what use to be the National Zoo. The king had established a zoo but soon after decided to take it apart since it was contrary to Bhutanese beliefs. The national animal however, the takin, started to wander into the city looking for food so they left the fences up for the takin. The mythology behind the takin is that a Bhutanese saint nicknamed "the Divine Madman" ate a whole cow and goat. The madman burped and took the goat's head and put in on the bones of a cow and created the takin. It's a pretty funny looking animal with few natural predators I think the snow leopard is one of the only ones and it lives at pretty high elevations. We visted a paper factory. Bhutan uses the bark of two tree species in the manufacture of traditional paper ("deh-sho"): dhenap (Daphne) and dhekap (Edgeworthia). The bark needs to be stripped, then soaked in water, beaten and then finally put on screens to dry. It was fascinating to see this done since the process was so time consuming and smelly (the bark/paper was a bit stinky). I couldn't leave without buying some paper so I bought some paper that had chilis in it.
Most people in Thimpu buy their fruits, vegetables and meat at the market and the market for fruits and vegetables was held on the weekend Fri - Sun. The government was building a new market so they were holding the market in a temporary location. There were lots of interesting local vegetables being sold and lots of incense. The incense was in big sacks and you apparently just buy a bunch of it then put it in a bowl and burn it. At this point I was bit pooped and it was a good time to take a break before any evening activities.
I was able to make plans to meet up with Cerell's friend from her East West Center Vietnam program. Sonam was from Bhutan and lived in Bhutan and worked for the government. We headed to an all vegeterian restaurant Jampa. The food was great and included more pumpkin curry. Sonam talked about lots of things her work, my work, the differences between myself and my sister :). After dinner we went to find a drink and ended up at the Om Bar which seemed to be the weekend hot spot..lots of American rock music, smoking, young folks dressed up and ready to socialize and dance. It was pretty empty when we got there but slowly but surely people started to trickle in....and they all knew each other. Soon enough we had a full table with folks that Sonam knew. Everyone was very friendly and asked me lots of questions. I finally headed home around midnight tomorrow I'll be meeting up with the rest of the group.
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