Bhutan: Still not in Kansas

    Our trip was timed so that we could visit the dance festival at Dechhenphug Lhakhang, a fortified monastery dating to the twelfth century.  The dances featured the masks that had been explained to us yesterday, and are dedicated to the guardian Buddhist deity Gay Ngyen Jakpa Melen.  There was also a long explanations of how the various colors, costumes, masks, and dance steps symbolized the deity's defeat of various demons and cleansing of sins, but I could not begin to follow it.  So I just enjoyed the pageantry.

A mask wearing clown walked through the crowds joking and taking selfies

        After lunch, we were invited to the home of the director of the crafts institute where we enjoyed a meal prepared by his eight daughters.  (It did not sound like his four sons helped.)  Then the daughters demonstrated the production, dyeing, and weaving of nettle fabric.  Nettle is one of Bhutan's oldest natural fibers; it is a little rough, but they make jackets, scarves, and other items from it.

        Finally we were treated to a lecture and demonstration by a renowned musicologist, Sir Jigney Drukpa, on Bhutanese instruments and music.  He played half a dozen instruments for us, ranging from recorders to stringed instruments, and he claimed that he could play any musical instrument.  After listening to his virtuoso performance, I believe it.

    

    Today we took our first long drive out of the capital city of Thimphu.  Our route took us over the Do Chula pass, a 10,000 mountain pass from which we could see snow covered 20,000 foot Himalayan peaks in the background.  On top of the pass are dozens of stupas.

Simtokha Dzong

The  scenery along the drive was beautiful.  We passed by small villages dotted through the countryside, and fortresses (dzongs) atop the mountains.  I could not believe the variety of plants that grow here.  Agave cactus in the Himalayas?  Rice paddies?  Over 250 varieties of orchids?  We never saw any animals but the forests contain more than yaks.  There are Siberian tigers, black bears, takin (a large goat-antelope hybrid) and even a species of rhinosceros.   We did see several animals - cows.  They wander free here and drivers have to avoid hitting them as they stroll along the road.  Cows are not sacred to Buddhists, but neither are they not killed for meat.  Rather, they are dairy cows and they are allowed to die of old age.   In fact, neither beef nor chickens are produced in Bhutan.  Rather, meat is imported from India.

       

        Another interesting site along the road were the many farmer's markets.  A few sold corn, but most sold apples, which grow in abundance in these hills and are exported to India.  We stopped at one market which sold apples and walnuts.  The long strands of white squares hanging down look like blocks of tofu but are actually yak cheese.  The cheese is very dry and nearly impossible to chew.  Our (American) guide said to soak them in boiling water before trying to eat them, but the local seller said you can just pop one in your mouth and keep it there for hours until it becomes tender enough to chew.  

We ended the day at the Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Lhakhang Nunnery where young, shaven headed girls as young as ten years old learn how to become nuns.  We watched one group loudly debate about their lessons while another group was learning to play the musical instruments that all nums must play.  While we watched, they took turns playing an instrument that looks like and sounds somewhat like a shofar, but it is not made of a ram's horn;  rather, it is made from a human femur bone.  Earlier we had seen people on the riverbank scattering ashes and were told that there is no burial in Bhutan, only cremation.  So where do they get femurs? I asked.  Dismember the body before cremation?  No, they get them from India.  Why and how no one was able to explain to us.