Asia Trip 2011 - part 3 - Bhutan still

Wednesday
On the schedule for the meeting they had yoga at 6:30 every morning, I figured I’d give it a try so I got up early and went there, plus I was jetlagged so I was wide awake at 5. It was really cool, and apparently I did really well, even for a non first timer. That day there was a trip to Punakha on the schedule it’s a town about 2 hours from Thimphu, where we were. The other road was really good, right? well this one was the opposite, it was really curvy (not a lot you can do there) but also really bumpy, so it was pretty annoying it was hard to sleep and relax but oh well.

Out first stop was the 108 stupa monument that we heard about the day before. It was huge and really cool; imagine all those people working hard to build something that big, all that hope and all those good intentions together in the same place.

Across the street was a Temple, we went up some stairs and then were told to take our shoes off and make sure not to take any pictures inside. I was about to enter my first Buddhist temple. There were 3 giant statues, the one in the center was of Buddha, as it was in every temple we visited in Bhutan, two other giant statues to its left and right, the silent was impeccable, everyone was really nice and respectful, and there were 2 or 3 priests there sitting welcoming us all. Every wall was covered with beautiful and colorful paintings done by hand with incredible detail. Some of the people sat down and meditated, and I decided it would be fun to try, it was very cool.
Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside any of the temples in Bhutan, I did take pictures of Buddhist temples in other countries but they were not in the same style.

During the ride one of our guides was telling us about one of his “side” projects that he works at with the government, they have started a series of self sustainable farms. That’s right, tour guide by day, leader of sustainable development by night, that seemed to be a general trends though, it seemed that all of our tour guides were really well educated people who were working on really interesting things for the development of the country with the government but somehow it was still profitable and interesting for them to work as tour guides.

We finally arrived at Punakha where we ate lunch, it was really good (though, again, really spicy) but the area was really hot, and all we had were fans, no A/C, but oh well. After eating and hanging out for a while we went to the Dzong. Many years ago, Zhabdrung, who was the person who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, laid down to spend the night right next to where 2 rivers meet. He had a dream that night about a place where a lot of people would live very happily. The next day he described the dream to the people he led and decided to build a Dzong, it’s a mixture of a fort, town, and a temple. Supposedly this was built exactly as he had dreamt it with no blueprints or planning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punakha_Dzong#History

It was really cool, the amount of work the put into details is incredible, ever single wall is hand painted and the paintings themselves are amazing. This Dzong is one of the most important ones in Bhutan; they keep their most sacred relics there, including the world’s tiniest statue of Buddha, which is carved from a vertebrae of Zhabdrung. All the relics are housed in a building where few people are allowed, this is also where the king has a second, private crowning ceremony.

It was really impressive and different. I felt really lucky and honored to be able to visit a place like that.

We drove back, got home exhausted and went to bed.

Thursday
This was the day that my dad was going to give his presentation, but there were presentations all day

I went to yoga again in the morning, but this time my mom and sister decided to join us too, which was awesome, although Maria almost fell asleep during the relaxation we did at the end. We went to the Chorten Memorial; as you walk in you see a little area to the left where they have these spinning bells the idea is that inside they have prayers to the god of love and compassion written and by spinning it a lot of times while you pray you cleanse yourself of your sins and accumulate blessings for you and your loved ones. The memorial itself works the same way excepts you’re the one who spins; the main building is in the center of the memorial and it houses statues of Buddha and other deities, all day you’ll see people walking around the main building praying with the same objectives, we walked around 3 times (make sure it’s clockwise while looked at from above, or it will have the opposite effect), while our guide told us about the place. Most of the people you see there are old people who don’t work anymore so they spend all day praying, but he said that around 6 am you’ll see a lot of young people who work in he city go there and walk around for a while before they start their day.

Maria Jose noticed there were 4 statues of white lions so we asked our guide about them. Apparently someone really important felt there was an evil spirit threatening him at some point, so he decided to call guru Rimpoche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmasambhava) and ask for his help. The spirit knew of guru Rimpoche’s power so he hid in the forest, but guru Rimpoche was not going to let that happen. They planned a big festival in the town, knowing the spirit would not be able to resist and show up. Sure enough, the spirit showed up in the form of a white lion so as not to be recognized, Guru Rimpoche found out it was him and with the help of the people subdued him and turned him into a protective deity of the region. Now the white lion is a very popular deity in the region around Thimphu, you see statues and paintings of him in houses and temples.

They wanted to take us to the art school, but it was closed because classes were already over, so we went to the little shop they have setup to sell their products which was really cool.

Our next destination was the Termalinca hotel, where we were going to see my dad’s presentation and also he wanted Maria Jose and I to say a few words. On the way there I asked our guide about Buddha, what his story was and why he was so important. My memory fails me but I’ll write what I remember and hopefully won’t offend anyone or look too much like a fool. He was born out of an armpit, which indicated from the beginning that he was special, he was a prince, and once, while hunting he pierced several trees with one arrow, another event in his life that indicated his uniqueness. As a king he was very caring of his people and visited them a lot. He saw a lot of suffering and started thinking about how to fix that. He mediated a lot…and after many years, achieved enlightenment. In itself enlightenment is a mysterious thing, but as a Buddhist achieving it is your ultimate goal and there are several paths that you must explore in a quest for personal and spiritual improvement.

We arrived at the hotel, and listened to a talk about cruelty-free silk, a few highlights were scaring elephants of their workplaces by using bees initially (in south Africa, I think) and then just by using the sound they make when attacking; getting spiders in a state of sleepy happiness using milk and something else, to make them produce very regular and high quality silk, and genetically modified silkworms. The person showing the project had asked the day before at another presentation what Buddhist philosophy said about genetically modified organisms, the person in charge gave a really interesting answer along these lines;
“I don’t know officially, and I have no authority to tell you what the official position is, but I’ll happily tell you how I, as a Buddhist feel about it. In this case where the means is not clearly objectionable, it depends on your goals and your state of mind, are you doing it to become rich and satisfy yourself? are you doing it to provide more and better products at a better price for more people and make their lives better?”
I thought that was perfect.

My dad was next and he gave his talk which went great, then he called Maria and me on stage so we could do our thing; everyone was really happy to see a family involved in something like this (he mentioned my mom and she stood up too) most of them told us at some point that they had wished they could take their families with them to the event but they thought it was too crazy, so they were happy to see that it could be done. After doing our little number a lady approached me, Damchae, she told me that she was really happy to have seen me up there, that she had a son who was a Buddhist monk and who had just returned from 3 years of meditation in the mountains, he is about my age, and she would love to arrange a time for us to sit down, have some coffee and just talk about stuff. AWESOME!
We scheduled it for that evening, ate lunch and then continued our tour around Thimphu. We went downtown, walked and saw the little shops, we saw a lot of people wearing the Gho’s which was cool, and we experienced a little bit of what everyday life in Bhutan is.

We started going towards the big Buddha statue (169 ft. tall), but found out it was raining up there, and since construction is still going on it’s very muddy and dirty so we took some pictures from far away and went back. We later found out that there was a dinner planned for that day, so I called Damchae, and moved my meeting with her son, Jamyang, to Friday.

Dinner was good, and then bedtime.