Friday
Yoga in the morning BAM!
We joined the group for a visit to parliament. Along with the Gho, when there is a particularly important event people wear a white sash, ministers and…something else, wear orange and blue, and the king wears a yellow one…It’s pretty cool. While waiting for the session we got to say hi to a few of the members of parliament and talk to them. All the members arrived and they finally let us in the room, I was really happy to see they decided to keep the Bhutanese style but make it really elaborate and elegant. Lots of paintings and details and flags and statues, it was really beautiful; in the back was a throne for the king to sit cross-legged. The session began and we got cool little earphones so we could hear a real time translation to English. Everyone was really polite and organized in the room, they each talked for a really long time though. One remarkable thing was that the spirit in the room was really cooperative, the intention of ministers when they talked was more informative than demanding “here’s the research I have done, and here are the results, therefore this is the suggestion I have but of course we can all improve it” instead of “my way is the right way and this is how we need to do things”, that was surprising.
After that most of the group went back to termalinca for some more talks, while my mom sister and I went to do some more touristy things (wow, touristy is actually a word). We went to the national traditional medicine hospital, they did tell us that traditional herbal medicine is very important and widely used, but I didn’t find out how much western medicine is used. Then they took us to the local paper factory, there were some ladies working on rope handles for paper bags, and a guy working on really big sheets of paper, we got to see a lot of the process which was cool and mostly done by hand or with very basic machinery. That day my mom also decided to get a massage at the hotel, and get me one too, it was reeeeeally good.
We decided that I would go meet with the guy while my mom and Maria hung out at the Hotel, but then my dad called and said that he and my mom had been invited to have dinner with one of the queen mothers, so I had to take Maria with me. She was unbelievably good, she understood that I really wanted to talk to the guy so she brought stuff to color, and her DS so she could play and have fun while letting us talk all we wanted.
As expected, it was one of the most interesting talks I have ever had first off the guy was really nice and cool. He was as eager to share anything I wanted to know as he was to ask about stuff from my/our culture that he was curious about.
When JY was a baby he had a problem with his liver, they went to see doctors in Bhutan who told his parents they should be really nice to him since he didn’t have much to live. When they went to see doctors in India the liver appeared completely fine and doctors didn’t know what to do with a perfectly healthy liver. After a lot of that his mom decided to take him to a monastery, not knowing what else to do, where they were received with tea and a celebration. The leader at the monastery told them that the night before he had had a premonition and knew that the reincarnation of a very powerful and important monk would be visiting them that day and so they had spent a lot of time preparing for his arrival that day. JY stayed there and began his training, his liver problems disappeared completely. He was in the monastery for a few years, then I think he returned home for a while until he was 17-ish when he went back for 3 years.
He said it was tough, mentally but also physically, obviously lots of meditation, but also really intense and painful yoga and even suffocation but he stopped himself and said that’s all he really wanted to say about that.
When I asked him about Buddhism itself he replied in the form of a question. “What is happiness? how do you “achieve” it?” I told him what I thought in particular that a lot of people find it in material things or achievements, but that perhaps the most pure form is achieved by serving others and making their lives better, making other people happy and sharing it with them. Although that was very respectable, he said, it still depends on particular things or events; one of the big goals in his training is to realize that perfect pure happiness is independent of everything and always available within you. When you truly understand that you stop reacting emotionally to a lot of the world’s negatives, you never lose control or get angry or scared, you can live and act while in perfect peace and happiness with the universe. Of course this is an ideal state that’s very hard to achieve and people spend their lives meditating about it trying to get there.
I thought that the idea was really interesting and amazing, and actually very much along the lines of how I think people should be, and how I try to be. After letting it sit in my mind I realized the idea is similar to the idea of heaven, a state?place? where you can live in perfect happiness even if your relatives or friends or even yourself are in non-ideal conditions or suffering.
Another really interesting difference between Buddhism and Christianity was the source of authority, for us the bible is THE word of god and that’s why it’s important, Jesus was the son of god and that’s why he spoke the truth and that’s why he is followed.
Buddha was different, he didn’t say this is true because I say it, his message was “I spent my whole life thinking and meditating about this, and this is what I found, you should think and meditate about it, and you’ll find if/that it’s true for yourself”
We talked for at least 2 hours, then we realized what time it was but before I had to go he took me to a basketball gym since I told him I liked basketball, there were some girls playing in some local championship, then he took me to his place and showed me his house, it was an interesting combination of wealth and humility, very cool and unique. His mom greeted us happily and showed us around the house. Their prayer room was really warm and inviting. Finally Mrs. D invited me to come back for lunch or dinner on Sunday.
Then JY took me back to meet everyone, the travel agency threw a party for all the guests, which turned out to be a lot of fun. The music started with a local artist who sang danced and played at least 5 different instruments. After he was done other people started dances and chants from their countries. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday
Hmm I decided to skip yoga that morning and sleep in, which was good. We went to the market, I was impressed by how clean and organized it was; there was a lot of variety which was similar to a Colombian market (except it’s a lot more messy and loud in Colombia). Then we did a little bit of shopping before we went to the local Dzong. On the way there we were told to try not to look to out right, the palace was there and it’s disrespectful to look that way since you might see the king walking around. The Dzong again was impressive and majestic. Then we finally got the chance to head to the Buddha statue. They are still working on the temple that it will be sitting on but the statue itself was complete in all its majesty, it was huge…of course and really humbling. We learned that he is holding a bowl because even though he was a prince he gave all his fortune away to live like the poorest. The reason his right hand is touching the ground is that, one day while meditating an evil spirit came to tempt him, he asked Buddha what the point of it all was, why meditate so much and try to achieve enlightenment no one will know if he does, and it won’t help anyone else. By putting his hand on the ground he replied “the earth will be my witness”.
We went to lunch and then to an art exhibit which was…meh, then we sat outside and talked with some people from the meeting until we saw some kids playing soccer, so we went to play with them. Then it started to rain so we went back to the hotel.
It was Saturday and I had asked our guide, Wangchuk, what partying is like in Bhutan so he invited me to go party with him and his friends. He came and picked me up and we went to this bar where we sat down and talked while we waited for his friends. I had a glass of local beer and a shot of local whisky, they were…as expected…hehe I’m a sissy. We got to talk a little bit about him; he has acted in a few local movies and only works as a tour guide only during the tourist season. He is a Buddhist and told me about a special date that was coming up, it is a special date that people use in order to quit some vice, he told me that he was going to try to quit smoking, last year he asked the gods to help him quit and promised he would try really hard, but he was clean only for a few months, so this time he was going to ask for more help. He said he needed to be really careful about how he asked, because one of his friends promised that he would quit drinking, and after a few weeks he drank again. Within a week, the guy went lost his mind, everyone was worried about it, and then he disappeared no one has heard from him since then. He told me he firmly believed that the gods made that happen to him because he broke his promise. It was really strange and different to hear someone believe something so strongly that’s so different from anything you are used to seeing people believe.
When his friends got there we talked with them some more, at one point one of them asked me about a band he really liked called “matelik” that’s what I thought he said at least, we later found out it was metallica, and he was going to see them in India. We then drove to a few places to dance, there was a lot of smoking and some drug consumption pretty much a standard bar/dancing place. In one of the ones we visited we saw a bunch of people from the meeting so we stayed there for a while. Before leaving Wangchuk told me that the prince (the king’s younger brother) was there that day and he wanted me to meet him. We went to the smoking lounge and caught him as he was leaving. He was wearing a very typical European party-boy outfit, and he was very relaxed and approachable when I went to talk to him, we shook hands and hugged. I then noticed that even though he was being very friendly with me and the other foreigners all the Bhutanese people stayed a little way away and bowed respectfully. I then told him about my guide who had brought me there and had done a great job of showing me around the country and the prince went and shook his hand.
Wangchuk later told me that it was a great honor for him that that happened and that he was grateful towards me because it was thanks to me that he got to shake the hand of his prince.
Great fun night, bedtime.
Sunday
We woke up in the morning and went for a “hike in the mountains”. After a 15 min ride, we got off the car and started walking up a trail. It was about a 45 min walk in the Bhutanese forest/mountain. It was really quiet, beautiful and peaceful; the trail offered a great view of the city and the region. We eventually got to the temple at the end of the trail. The first thing we noticed when walked in were some footprints on the floor. But these were actually footprints that went INTO the floor, a solid wooden floor with footprints pushed into it, it was very hard to believe. A monk used to stand there for hours and meditate, always the same spot year after year, there’s a picture on facebook, I had to personally ask the monk there for permission to take the picture, and he also showed us where someone is currently doing a lot of praying while kneeling down and some prints are starting to form.
On the way back to the city we went to the local zoo where we learned about the takin, bhutan’s national animal. The legend says that the “divine madman” one of bhutan’s deities, known for his outrageous antics, was hanging out with his devotees when they asked him to perform a miracle, he demanded a whole cow and goat to eat and when only the bones were left he stuck the goat’s head on the cow’s body, uttered some words and the first takin was born. Now you see them grazing in the mountains around Bhutan.
Later that day I met again with JY and we went to play basketball. We drove to the local college and although the gym was closed we found an outdoor court to play in. JY, 4 friends and I played for about 1-2 hours, it was very informal and fun, it rained for a little bit but we kept playing, we all enjoyed it a lot. Then I went back to the hotel and changed before we went to his house for dinner with his mom. JY and his mom were so incredibly nice, I was told that they considered me part of their family and so there was no need for me to thank them for anything, they gave me a decorative bowl made of Bhutanese wood that was filled with crushed roasted corn kernels because “they don’t believe in giving empty gifts” along with a traditional…carrying recipient it’s hard to describe but it’s really cool and I’ll be using it a lot. For dinner they made some sort of beef jerky in a delicious sauce, a cheese/pepper sauce that was really spicy and delicious, and asparagus along with white rice which they ate by making a little ball with the palms of their hands. It was SO delicious, the conversation was great and I really felt at home, they invited me to go back anytime and stay with them next time I visit Bhutan, and they’d help me with my visa. I could not believe how fortunate I was to meet this family and to be welcomes in such a warm and loving way.
Then JY and I went for a ride, he took me to the base of the path that leads to the temple where he had just spent 3 years, and showed me a lot of “treasures” along the way: some rocks shaped like fish and one shaped like an elephant, a spot where someone important had sex with his woman, and so now a lot of people sneak there to do the same, little caves where people hide gifts for the gods. It was cool to see all those things that only he could have shown me, unfortunately since it was dark and it was raining I couldn’t get any good pictures.
I was dead tired so when he took me back to the hotel I immediately fell asleep. The next day we’d be leaving in the morning.
Hmm… wait, at some point we had to go to out travel agency’s office because they had screwed up our flight, we were supposed to fly to Bangkok but they had us booked for Calcutta. There was some trouble because the flight to Bangkok was full but we went and showed them an email that showed we wanted Bangkok and it was their mistake, so they put us in first class…which was nice :D
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