Jakar Tsechu in Boomthang

After Sonam's, Nancy arranged for us to head back to Jakar, Boomthang as there Tsechu was about to begin. I was fortunate as this was my second Tsechu...my first being in the capital, Thimphu. While Thimphu's Tsechu was grand, this was much more intimate. Tsechus are held in each district throughout the year. It is a form of a dancing- meditation, where the dancers are warding off evil spirts, and teaching us about the spirits in the other world. A Tsechu is much more than this however. Prior to the dances which the public gets to see, the monks fast and chant for many days in preparation of the ceremony. It would seem that Tsechu's can honour the first Rin Poche ...or also honour the harvest...but please don't quote me here. I have left my
book on Bhutan with Anne and Ron and I always refer to this before I say anything definite. Understanding how the Tsechu's work and who they were for is a complicated story I will need to tell later...I can say, unequivocally they were beautiful and spell binding and we felt very , very, fortunate to be able to join the citizens who came to join in this event. UNESCO has also examined the dances very carefully and of one of the dances has been 'protected and recognized' by UNESCO. For friends reading this, and perhaps Nancy you might be reading this, please feel comfortable filling in the details around UNESCO's understanding of the Tsechu, as well as other details.

Our view from Sonam's

Every morning in Bhutan, whether in the east or west, I awoke to the mountains. This was our view in the Eastern part not far from Sonam's. One afternoon Sonam took us down to the field and the neighboring family was harvesting their rice. Normally this was a safe time to harvest, as the rice was ready and "Blessed Rainy Day" had passed( another celebration...perhaps my favourite after the day honouring the God of Mechanics) but a few days after this photo was taken it began to rain and all I could do was think about the poor farmers who had cut their rice the day before. It lay rotting in the fields! As Sonam, like most Bhutanese, is fluent in a number of languages( usually a minimum of four!) she was able to chat with the farmers and answer all of our questions. The women kindly stopped their harvesting to visit, but then quickly returned to work.

Dave and Allison's first Ara

Ara is the home brew of Bhutanese citizens. They grow their own corn and brew up a drink similar to Sake or slightly reminiscent of Slivovica. Sonam organized a visit with her neighbor friend who brought out their best Ara for us to try. The tricky part, or one of the tricky parts of drinking Ara, is they keep filling up your cup and it is difficult to say anything until the third time of filling. Dave's acquisition of the Sharshop language went up 300% at this Ara party so the brew obviously has many applications! While Ara can be brewed using grains other than corn, the ara we became most familiar with was brewed with corn. Some families brew a higher quality ara than others. This particular Ara was served with an egg cooked in it, similar to my egg drop soup which my grandmother used to make. The smiles tell you how much fun we had, and how much we loved eastern Bhutan. It was difficult to leave!

Prayer flags and Sonam

November 20, 2008
Writing this from the patio of our resort in Phuket, overlooking the ocean on one side and resort pool on the other. We will be swimming in the ocean later today but as luck would have it, our patio has wireless so we are spending some time emailing family and friends, and updating my blog.
Getting back to Eastern Bhutan for a moment,….
Dave, Allison and I were able to stay with Sonam( my Bhutanese daughter!)…Sonam is a professor at Sherepse(sp?) college and spent Christmas with us, and our Manitou friends two Christmases ago. Sonam studied for her Masters in Computer Science at University of New Brunswick and has returned to Eastern Bhutan to teach. Sonam was introduced to us, care of Nancy( of course) who brought her to Camp Manitou one summer and she quickly became friends, and a daughter, with everyone there. So for those of you who know and love Sonam I have included a few photos of her and her college.

Lunch at the Tango Monastery

November 5, 2008 Thimphu, Bhutan

Yesterday was one of those extraordinary days which we are still thinking about and marveling at. Words and photos just scratch the surface of what we learned and are still absorbing. It began rather simply with me making tea in the kitchen when I heard a rustling outside and wondered who could be there as there was no vehicle. A head soon appeared at Nancy’s kitchen door and it was the Lam Netten who is the head of the monk body for Tashigang in Eastern Bhutan. The Lam Netten is an important dignitary of the monk body and I quickly had him enjoying tea and toast with peanut butter only to remember that he probably ate rice and dhal for breakfast(which we had in the fridge) and I’m fairly certain that ‘enjoying tea and toast’ was my take on the situation. I was still in pjs and the household was still asleep when he mentioned he had found prayer beads for our Buddist friend and would we be interested in heading up to the Tango Monastery with him for a lunch he would prepare for all of us. This would allow him to have the prayer beads blessed by the Rinpoche. The invitation was an unexpected honour as this monastery schools the monks at the upper education level and they would be praying for us as well as preparing for some of their own important studies.

from my diary of...November 5, 2008 Thimphu, Bhutan

Yesterday was one of those extraordinary days which we are still thinking about and marveling at. Words and photos just scratch the surface of what we learned and are still absorbing. It began rather simply with me making tea in the kitchen when I heard a rustling outside and wondered who could be there as there was no vehicle. A head soon appeared at Nancy’s kitchen door and it was the Lam Netten who is the head of the monk body for Tashigang in Eastern Bhutan. The Lam Netten is an important dignitary of the monk body and I quickly had him enjoying tea and toast with peanut butter only to remember that he probably ate rice and dhal for breakfast(which we had in the fridge) and I’m fairly certain that ‘enjoying tea and toast’ was my take on the situation. I was still in pjs and the household was still asleep when he mentioned he had found prayer beads for our Buddist friend and would we be interested in heading up to the Tango Monastery with him for a lunch he would prepare for all of us. This would allow him to have the prayer beads blessed by the Rinpoche. The invitation was an unexpected honour as this monastery schools the monks at the upper education level and they would be praying for us as well as preparing for some of their own important studies.

My friend the Lam Neten

Of all of Bhutan's visitors, we were told, that 5 percent make it to Eastern Bhutan. Under Nancy's wonderful wing, we had an amazing drive east through the beautiful Himalayan mountains and eventually arrived in the town of Khanglung where Nancy's eastern landlord, the head monk of Trashigang, the Lam Neten, first paid us a visit. He is wearing his regular robes( I'm sure that's not what they call them), and was quite interested in Nancy's family of friends,when his cell phone rang to the tune of a Bruce Springstein song. (sorry have forgotten which one). We had a wonderful visit and our friendship was sealed when Allison sang for him. After that initial visit we seemed to run into him everywhere!

Waiting for the New King

The days have flown by and it is time for me to update our adventures. Dave, Spruce and I had the good fortune to wait on the streets of Thimphu for about 3 hours until Bhutan's newly crowned king walked by. Men, women and children were dressed in their finest national dress to honour the occasion. The streets were packed, but quiet and respectful. So while none of us are particularly comfortable in crowds, all three of us managed quite comfortably until the King did walk by right in front. The crowd remained quiet and respectful throughout and even the three hour wait was entertaining as people watching is never dull on these occasions. The coronation happened after our trip to Eastern Bhutan, so this photo is somewhat out of order with my diary. I hope to remedy that for the next entry but no promises here. Dave and I are on a little island in Thailand and we seem to have relaxed to "extremely slow" and aren't in a hurry to correc this pace.!!