Bhutan: Two Truths and a Lie

1) Bhutan is a small country but rich in Buddhist traditions where the religion, culture and way of life have a place in government and politics.

2) The 4th King married 4 sisters.

3) I was mistaken a couple times as a Bhutanese princess.

Two truths and a lie. What's your guess?

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1) Bhutan is a small country but rich in Buddhist traditions where the religion, culture and way of life have a place in government and politics.

Bhutan is tiny on the map. It's buried between China and India in the Himalayas. To travel here, visitors must pay a hefty daily visa fee, in exchange visitors are always accompanied by a tour guide and a driver. This is the way that government is balancing the growth of tourism while protecting the country's culture and preserving the land.

From the minute we arrived here, we noticed many Bhutanese wearing the traditional dress. For men, it is called a Go:

Celebratory dance at an archery game.

For women, it is called a Kira:

The first day, we saw a Buddha larger than life sitting atop the mountain which can be seen from anywhere in the capital city of Thimpu. 

Its third eye is worth $5 million made up of thousand pieces of diamond mixed with 18 karat gold.

Here's the national flag:

The yellow represents the royal family and the orange represents Buddhism. The dragon is the name and white stands for purity.

Buddhism is practiced as part of the citizenship. When Tibetans fled its country to Bhutan, the government asked that they wear the Bhutanese traditional dress, practice Buddhism, and learn the national language. 

As we drive through the country, there are prayer flags everywhere considered auspicious:

There is only one road that connects the country from east to west, from west to east. It is a one-lane partially paved road to be shared with traffic going both direction. It is a super winding mountain road with a sheer cliff without guard rails on one side and rock or land slides threatening the other side.

 

There are many blind spots as the narrow road twists and turns, so the drivers would honk to alert oncoming traffic. To pass or yield to a vehicle, drivers would gently honk once to say "let me pass" and another gentle honk to say "thank you for letting me pass", in return the other driver then gently honk once to say "you're welcome". 

Plus the drivers have to dodge free-roaming cows and yaks. If I had to drive on this road, I too would want as many prayer flags as possible.

We even ran into a few monkeys. 

It is said to be good luck to see this guy on the road.

I was most impressed with the kids at the arts and crafts school. In each grade, there's a curriculum from painting, sculpture, weaving, to woodworking. December is now final exam time, and the final product that they need to produce for the exam takes 12 days to make. The end products are really intricate in details and very impressive. 

There are so many culture and traditions to describe, so it may be best summed up in my three rapid fire, yes-or-no questions to our tour guide, Leki.

#1: Do you have a prayer room in your house? Yes

(It is customary for one room to be set aside for use of praying only, even in a small apartment.)

#2: Do you dry chillis on your roof? Yes

(Chillis are an essential ingredient to the spicy Bhutanese food. It is common to find chillis drying on the roofs.)

#3: Do you have paintings of penis on your wall? No

(Okay, it is not an inappropriate question. We see it on many houses, especially near the temple for the Divine Madman, which is another story for another time.)

In summary, it is true that 1) Bhutan is a small country but rich in Buddhist traditions where the religion, culture and way of life have a place in government and politics.

Did you get the first one right?

Two truths and a lie: To be continued...