Known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon, Bhutan has so much uniqueness to share to world travelers. Unlike other countries, Bhutan pays more attention to its people’s Gross National Happiness as opposed to Gross National Product. Most people wear the colorful national dress- a “gho” for men (a woven wrap around jacket and knee length skirt with knee socks) and a “kira” for women (also woven, but usually more colorful and fitted and with a floor length skirt.) Landlocked in the Himalayan mountains, it is one of the few countries never conquered or colonized and so has retained its unique culture. In this episode, Kit Parks shows you the beauty of this country and gives you enough reason to go there and climb its magnificent altitudes.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Correction to the podcast:  I received a gracious note from a Bhutanese:  Punakha dzong ( fortress) is a winter resident (6 months) for the chief abbot of Bhutan (head of religion) and central monastic body. Thimphu dzong “Trashichhoedzong” is a summer resident. King lives all year in Thimphu only.

Explore Bhutan

Come explore Bhutan – the Land of the Thunder Dragon!  Easily one of the coolest and most unusual countries I’ve ever visited!

Unlike other countries, Bhutan pays more attention to its people’s Gross National Happiness as opposed to Gross National Product.  Most people wear the colorful national dress:  a ‘gho’ for men [ a woven wrap around jacket and knee length skirt with knee socks] and a ‘kira’ for women [ also woven, but usually more colorful and fitted and with a floor length skirt].

Landlocked in the Himalayan mountains, it is one of the few countries never conquered or colonized as so has retained its unique culture.  TV wasn’t introduced until 1999 and the internet in 2005.  It still only has about 30,000 visitors/year.

On my trip, I acclimated to the altitude at Paro and our group timed it so that we could see the Paro Tshechu Festival – one of the most popular in the region (see the videos below).

On Day two, we hiked to Tiger’s Nest [Taktsang] a SPECTACULAR monastery perched incredibly on the side of a mountain, and one of Bhutan’s most holy and iconic sites.  At the overlook before the final ascent, I told my companion that as far as I was concerned, I had just gotten my money’s worth, and we’d only just begun our adventure!

Adventure travel in Bhutan : Here’s Part 2 of our Bhutan series – hike, bike and paddle Bhutan!

This four and a half day trek takes you past monastaries, beautiful lakes, rhododendron covered mountain peaks and when the weather cooperates, provides stunning views of the tallest Himalayan peaks. These are supported hikes : we had fourteen horses and seven staff (cooks and horsemen plus our guide). Comfy tents and equipment was provided, including – most gratefully – hot water bottles to keep us warm at night.

ITINERARY

Each trip is custom but here’s what I did
Day 1 Arrive Paro from Bangkok (I went there several days earlier to adjust time zones) – write me for recommendations
Visited Paro National Museum, Paro Dungtsa Lhakhang and the fortress Paro Dzong
Day 2 Hike to Taksang – the Tiger’s Nest temple (altitude 3120m and a 2-3 hour trek UP) A MUST SEE! Kichu Lhakhang temple.
Day 3 Paro Tshechu festival, wander Paro
Day 4 Paro Tshechu festival, wander Paro
Day 5 Begin Druk Path 10km/ 4-5 hours/ 1115m ascent 40m descent Camp at altitude 3480m
Day 6 Druk Path 11km/ 3-4 hours/ 425m ascent 50m descent Camp at altitude 3770m
Day 7 Druk Path 12km/ 4-5 hours/ 375m ascent 370m descent Camp at altitude 3870m
Day 8 Druk Path 11 km/ 4-5 hours/ 820m ascent 400m descent Camp at altitude 4110m
Day 9 Druk Path 10 km/ 6-7 hours/ 130m ascent 680m descent Hotel in Thimpu (the capital)
We modified this plan due to declining weather and did not climb as high as planned on Day 8 leading to a shorter hike on Day 9
Your trek is fully supported with guide, cooks and horsemen. We were a group of 8 and had 14 horses and 8 support men!
Day 10 Explore Thimphu. Visit Channangkha Monastery, Buddha Dordenma (HUGE!), Thimphu Chhodzong, craft bazaar, & farmers market
Day 11 Punakha through Dochula Pass, hike to Khamsum Yuelley Namgel Chorten, visit Punakha Dzong [ A gracious Bhutanese wrote me:  Punakha dzong ( fortress) is a winter resident (6 months) for the chief abbot of Bhutan (head of religion) and central monastic body. Thimphu dzong “Trashichhoedzong” is a summer resident. King lives all year in Thimphu only.- I apologize for the error on the show, Kit]
Day 12 Punakha => Paro and hike to Chimmi Lhakhang temple of the Divine Madman (considered a boost to fertiity)
Day 13 Fly to Bangkok from Paro

This is a marvelous memoir that really gives you an inside feel of the mysterious culture of Bhutan. It features a young woman who travels to Bhutan to teach English and her culture shock and eventual adaptation and love of Bhutan. Highly recommend.

Mysterious Bhutan Part 1: Culture in the Himalayas

The year is 686, an evil ogress by the name of Sinmo has spread her wicked body across all the land. In a miracle still celebrated, King Gampo miraculously built 108 temples in a single night to subdue this wicked ogress and all of her evil spirit and to help spread Buddhism throughout the land. Her left foot is pinned by the Paro temple, Kyichu Lhakhang and in Tibet her heart by the Jokhang Temple. It takes all 108 temples to keep this wicked ogress pinned down.

Introducing Bhutan

We are visiting the land of the thunder dragon, a land across at crossroads. Does this country continue to maintain old traditions and lifestyles or does it adapt to some of the modern ways? It hasn’t been that long since TV and the internet were introduced, or for that matter even outsiders. Protected deep in the unforgiving Himalayans this country is a land steep in tradition. Trying to decide whether to join a global society or to remain isolated and thus, maintaining its unique identity as is justifiably so proud. We are headed to Bhutan the most “foreign†culture I have ever witnessed in all of my travels. This country is so unusual and so few people have ever visited it, that I’m going to be covering Bhutan in an Active Travel Adventure’s first. This is going to be a two-part series.

This is part one and I am going to cover the country and the culture itself. When you go to Bhutan, if it is much or more so to explore this most unusual culture that it is to do the adventure traveling which I will be covering in part two. I did a very interesting trek in an old silk road section. I’ll be covering that in part two, plus you can also do white water rafting and mountain biking. We are going to focus in this interesting country in itself. I hope you’re going to enjoy this most exotic destination, the kingdom of Bhutan. A country many people never even hear of and with certainty have difficulty finding in a map.

I struggle to put into words the culture I witnessed. Bhutan is as complex and complicated as it is simple. Bhutan is lightyears ahead of the rest of the world and in some respects, yet anchored deep in the past than others. I’ll be honest with you, while I heard of Bhutan prior to my trip, all I could tell you is that it’s landlocked in the Himalayan mountains. Promoted gross national happiness or GNH over gross national product, GNP, and was the first country to ban plastic shopping bags. This I knew only because I had a reusable bag business on the side.

When a hiking buddy said he had been putting together a group to head to Bhutan, I said I was in. Between my other businesses, travels and putting together this podcast, I didn’t have time to do any homework on Bhutan. I truly arrived clueless, which made my discoveries all the more exciting. All I knew is that we were going to do a four-and-a-half-day trek along the former silk road in the Himalayans, watch one of Bhutan’s largest festivals and see some of the country side temples.

Since the time difference is so extreme, about a half a day from me, I arrived in Bangkok five days early and got a chance to explore that city for the first time. Other members of my group started staggering in over the next few days. We headed to the airport together to fly to Paro, which is the only international airport in Bhutan. Because of the rugged mountains, there is no airport to Bhutan’s capital City of Thimphu and only a couple of regional ones. Except for the Maldives, Bhutan is the least populated country in the South East Asia and has a little under 800,000 people. It’s about the size of Switzerland, only about 30,000 people visit each year and has been growing. To put that in perspective, think about this, that means more people are going to attend the Green Bay Packers game then visit Bhutan in a whole year.

Bhutan is not only rugged mountain peaks. It has many trout filled lakes, but lakes are considered sacred so you’re not allowed to swim in them, fish them or make noise around them. Bhutan has four ecosystems. Including the frost freeze sub-tropical area in the south where you can grow guavas, oranges and find an abundance or exotic wild life to a temperate subalpine and the most commonly known as the Himalayan Alpine zone. Snow leopards and tigers live in Bhutan, as does the Hornbill, a bird familiar to anyone with a child addicted to the Lion King. In South Asia, Bhutan ranks first in Economic freedom and ease of doing business and is the least corrupt. However, and I’m guessing here, perhaps because it was closed off to much of the world until recently it is also the least developed country in Asia. The terrain is rugged at least in the mountain sections, which I am guessing is the reason that Bhutan has never been conquered or colonized, and thus has been able to retain its distinct culture.

After China annexed Tibet and India did the same with Sikkim. Bhutan’s King realized that Bhutan sandwiched between the giants China and India might be next. He decided to make sure that Bhutan emphasize its truly distinct culture making it more difficult for another country to absorb it. He also began to cultivate diplomatic relationships with other countries late in the last half of the 1900s. It wasn’t until the 1970s that outsiders even got a peek into this unusual nation. TVs weren’t introduced until 1999 and it wasn’t until 2005 that the internet was unleashed. TV and the internet along with the introductions of students studying abroad who returned home with new ideas and unfortunately sometimes drugs began to change Bhutan.

The kingdom struggles with how to herd cats now that the kids see that there is more to the world than agricultural subsistence. Like many developing countries, once kids see less strenuous opportunities in the cities, they flock there and agriculture diminishes. There is a concerted effort to retain youth in the villages. I found that Japan has a program in Bhutan where it promotes and encourages tourists to learn farming skills from the locals. You can take a class with a local and everything from mushroom harvesting to making yogurt.

I’m sorry I didn’t learn about these opportunities until the last of my trip, and I would encourage you to take advantage when you go. You can also arrange for a home stay for either a meal or to stay overnight which is also a cool way to connect with the locals and see how they actually live. I would have preferred more cultural interaction than I had. Because the Bhutanese people are very friendly and I must say as an aside a handsome people. Should you fall in love with a Bhutanese person you can marry, should you divorce or your mate dies you’ve got to leave the country again. Polygamy is allowed for either sex, but it’s falling out of favor. My guide said, “At least the men were realizing it was too hard to keep all the wives happy and equal.†The current king said he is going to take only one wife, although his father had four sisters as his wives.

Bhutan is lightyears ahead of the rest of the world in some respects, yet anchored deep in the past than others. Share on X

In Bhutan, there is a national dress and most people still wear it. For men it is called a gho. This is a billowy woven jacket with an impossibly white wide cuffs over a matching skirt that hits just below the knee. Plus, they would put on some black knee socks and loafers. It’s got a kangaroo like pouch in the front which means you’ll rarely see a guy in a backpack. Because they can store all sorts of things in this pouch. The women wear a Kira, which is similar to the men’s, although it is often more colorful, is more fitted and has more of an Asian cut, so it is a jacket over a full-length skirt. Often of different weaves and color schemes.

The national dress is required attire for the Bhutanese whenever they visit the Buddhist temples and for many occupations. I would guess an excess of 95% of men and women that I saw were wearing the national dress. I found the outfits quite attractive and the weaving patterns and skills are exquisite. At the festivals and other special occasions or temple visits the men would also add a cream-colored shawl like scarf that they would drape over their ghos. The women will wear a colorful silk scarf over their left shoulder.

Bhutan Festivals And Mahayana Buddhism

We timed our trip so we could see the Paro Tshechu Festival. This is where all the local people from the region attend in their finest and most colorful outfits. It’s quite the sight, and the whole plaza area is filled with the folks in their national dress all the way up the hill side. It’s super colorful and very interesting. At the Tshechu Festival, it lasts about four days and held each spring and it is one of the largest significant events in the district. This hugely popular event is also a way for the young people to find potential mates from the surrounding areas.

Most Bhutanese have been to so many festivals that they know the monk’s colorful mask dance routines by heart. These dances tell the Bhutanese stories and their moral tales while they’re cementing the history of the people and their way for even the illiterate people to know the stories. For the ceremonial dances, the monks put on this whirling dervish like outfits and wear an intricately carved mask as they perform ancient routines that the Bhutanese families have enjoyed since their childhood.

At one point, I heard this rapid beating of the drum behind me and out of a covered VIP area popped a mask monk with a skin covered drum he was beating on with his large hook. He and other similarly dressed monks entered into the crowds. Spectators would then bow their heads down and receive a little hook bop on their heads, which ward off evil spirits and offers a blessing as I was videotaping this unusual sight one of the monks came up towards me and bopped me on the head.

There also appeared some red-faced clown masked monks collecting money from the crowd, I assume for blessing. While I didn’t see it at this festival sometimes these clown mask monks have a phallic shaped nose. You are going to see a lot of phallic symbols around Bhutan and particularly in the country side. Sometimes the houses are even adorned with them, particularly in the Punakha region to ward off the evil spirits.

There is a famous temple there dedicated to the divine madman, Lama Drukpa Kunley. This man lived in Bhutan in the 1500 and he was an outrageous monk who often taught with strong sexual overtones that shocked his fellow monks, but delighted the crowd. On the walk to this temple in his honor, the little village is flooded with phallic symbols, they are painted on the house walls, on the homes, they are available for sale in little stands in front of it. Many infertile couples will often visit the temple in hopes of gaining fertility. I was told that the outstanding number or penises throughout the town was in no way sexual, but simply to ward off evil spirits. Also, to celebrate the people’s most famous and outrageous Lamas, the divine madman.

Back to the festival. Near the end of the festival, an enormous embroidered silk scroll called a Thangka, and by enormous I guess somewhere around a 100×150 feet up intricately detailed embroidered scroll is unveiled this one day of the year in the middle of the night and it gets rolled back up before the sun hits it. It is said that the scroll is so sacred that merely gazing at it erases your sins. The line to see the scroll up close was naturally very long. Like most festivals, this festival is held in honor of Guru Rinpoche, the saint who introduced Buddhism to the Bhutanese back in the eighth century. Now, Bhutan is bastion of Buddhist who practice a form called Mahayana, which believes that one acts in ways that bring enlightenment to all sentient beings.

Everyone in Bhutan is a Buddhist and I saw no sign of any other religion. I tried without much success to wrap my head around their Buddhist beliefs. I finally understand that the various Buddhists are actually the original Buddha who manifests in other monks over time. They regularly worship at home and in the village temples and it’s a natural part of their day. Each temple also has a local deity that one prays to for blessings and to ward off evil spirits. The temples are filled all the many different Buddhas. Each with the different gift of purpose such as the god of compassion. This particular has a thousand arms and with an eye on the hand which helps it see the needs of all sentient beings and to offer help and compassion. Some of the temples we went to had hundreds if not thousands of Buddhas in them.

In Bhutan, you see red robe monks everywhere. In the past, when you choose to be a monk and changed your mind you’d be beaten badly enough to go to the hospital. Nowadays, the King changed that, and you can buy your way out of it if it turns out you’re not cut out to be a monk. These monks can meditate in the noisiest of temples for hours. At the end of my trip, I was most familiar with Guru Rinpoche, the celebrant of the festival. The sacred silk-embroidered scroll was left out a little bit longer than usual. Unlike most countries, this Bhutanese leader is so beloved that his secret service folks seemed interesting in preventing us from unauthorized photographs of the King than worrying about any potential assaults on the King. In fact, I stood next to the red carpet that the King used and was within five feet of the man as he left the festival.

The day before one of the King’s wives attended with her grandson who looked to be around three. This child, the nephew is the reincarnation of a famous Buddhist leader and said to have proven it by knowing certain things that only a reincarnate could know, such as where treasures were buried and which room was his in a previous life. All I can say that watching him leave with his grandmother, that I’ve never seen such a poised child, particularly in someone so young and he did look adorable in his monk’s robe.

Appreciate what works instead of counting what doesn’t. Share on X

While I didn’t see it, I learned about another interesting festival called the Naked Dance Festival. This festival is at the stroke of midnight in the cold, usually in October. Twelve selected men put on a mask and they have a decorative cape and they dance naked in the village for two days. It’s an honor to be one the selected twelve. This festival celebrates Bhutan’s welcoming of refugees that arrived naked in a neighboring ruler. The way I understand it, the then emperor of the adjoining region in an effort to ward off evil spirits, national disasters, decease and intruders will select several male and female teenagers. After a month-long celebration, the teenagers would be stripped naked and paraded on the street along with a special altar that would be sacrificed at the end of the parade. The citizens would spit and curse at these young folks and throw flowers and ash at them. The citizens believed that by doing so all of the community’s misfortunes would be carried away by these sacrificial kids, who are then banished from the village after being fed one last time and then told never to return. They were given nothing to survive and departed naked trying to fend their way in the world.

Over the decades and perhaps centuries, these surviving teens made their way into what is now Bhutan and Bhutan welcomed these refugees. These kids created new communities and this is where the festivals now held in honor of those surviving kids, in order to bring blessings into their new community. Getting back to the current king. To celebrate the birth of the King’s son, all 82,000 families in Bhutan planted a tree. Volunteers planted a whole lot more bringing the total to 108,000 trees planted in honor of the new prince. Bhutan has it in their constitution that at least 60% of the country remains forest and currently, it is over 70%. I kept hearing that 108 number quite a bit while I was in Bhutan. It seems to be an auspicious number. Chimmi, our guide said 108 tall vertical poles with white prayer flags are put out to bring good wishes to a departed one. Remember, they believe in reincarnation. Their perceptions of death are going to be much different than the practices that I as a Christian believe.

The prayer flags are one of my fondest memories of Bhutan. The white ones are symbolic for putting good wishes out for somebody that passed away. You’ll see alongside bridges, on peaks of mountain and any high areas the wind can capture them will be a string of colorful fur flags that are imprinted with mantras. These are set up to impart good wishes to all sentient beings. It’s one of my favorite and fondest memories of Bhutan and I believe that’s what Janet said also about her visit to Nepal as well. In addition to the prayer flags, you’ll also see many prayer wheels. These are vertical cylinders that you turn clockwise while you’re mentally saying a mantra to get the blessings and to get the good karma. Even if you’re illiterate and cannot read the scrolls on the prayer wheels, you still get the same benefit. It was a fascinating and very important part of my perceptions on Bhutan.

Another thing they do with their dead is they do cremation and then they make these little stupas or things which looks like a miniature circus tent that’s made out of ashes and some mud. On the middle carved, they bore a little hole and a scroll with mantras would be in there. For the dead, these are a little bit larger than the ones I would actually see gets tossed into the river. You’ll see along the country side are the little caves and nooks and crannies it has to be a little sheltered. You’ll see these miniature stupas which are also sacred little blessings with little baby scrolls in them. They are also to give blessings in good wishes to the living.

Bhutan’s Government

In 2006, to set a good example for his son, King Four abdicated the throne. King Five, who was the King that I saw in the festival was crowned in 2008. His father before abdicating to his son, also switched the country over to a constitutional monarchy, much like the UK. However, they put a clause in there that the King can be impeached with a two-third majority of the legislator. Therefore, this fledged democracy is only a decade old and Bhutan is still figuring out this whole democracy thing. A new election is forthcoming and the candidates are not allowed to visit large groups to prevent bribery. They have to convey their positions only via the press. During the campaign season, all weddings and large gatherings are either forbidden or they have to be reported in advance. Presumably, so they can be monitored for potential election corruption.

From my perspective, it looks to me that the government acts basically a benevolent dictator. With its Gross National Happiness program all policies are either decided based whether or not it would be good for the people and nation over all. The four pillars of Gross National Happiness are one, sustainable and equitable socio-economic development. Two, environmental conservatism. Three, preservation and promotion of culture such as the national dress and Buddhism. Four, good governance evaluated by psychological wellbeing, health, time use, education, community vitality and living standards.

For a poor country Bhutan places a huge emphasis on preserving its environment. Over 70% of Bhutan is preserved forest. This allows for rich wildlife that includes the informant snow leopards and tigers and a healthy primate population. Bhutan has almost 800 kinds of birds and over 5,400 species of plants. Bhutan gets most of its energy from hydroelectric power and already 10% of its cars are electric, it hardly emits carbon making it one of the few carbon neutral countries in the world. It’s actually carbon negative, meaning the trees are now absorbing more carbon than the country emits and by a wide margin.

All the produces are organic and pesticides and chemicals are rarely used. Bhutan is aiming to be completely organic by 2020. In contrast they often litter which is one of the conundrums I kept witnessing. As green as it is on a macro level, there is still much work to do in a micro level. The government seems to be addressing the litter issue with a signage campaign along the highways. There are a lot of propaganda signs along the highways and communities advising people on appropriate behavior.

Our trekking litter was even evaluated upon our return back to civilization to make sure we were bringing back the appropriate amount of garbage for the people in the time in the woods. Someone is actually checking the inventory on what was purchased and used against the cans that were brought back for proper disposal. I was told that my guide company had to provide the inspector with a grocery list of what was brought in.

This benevolent government doesn’t just discourage littering in highway signs, there are also signs to discourage speeding such as, “It is not a rally, enjoy the valley.†To improve health awareness, “Know AIDS equal no AIDS.†I also saw a sign saying, “It’s a citizen’s duty to report anyone using or dealing drugs.†On the paper, I saw a man got a five-year sentence for having drugs and his friend got three months for failing to turn him in. While I would call all the signs, I saw beneficial propaganda and I can’t say I actually disagree with any of the slogans on the signage. It did somewhat remind me of Chairman Mao, who was by no means a benevolent dictator.

Visiting Bhutan As A Foreigner

Being raised in an outspoken country that encourages diversity opinions and ideas I was always a bit uncomfortable about the control of the government has over the people. I never saw any signs of negative behavior from the government, but I can see that in the wrong hands, the government control can turn ugly quickly like the Chinese communist government it feared last century. Bhutan requires all foreigners except for Indians to hire a local guide for the duration of your trip whether or not you’re hiking. Your visa is only for the areas included in your trip itinerary. All trips are custom, whether there is a party of one or two, which is the most common or party of eight like ours. To control foreign visitation, the government sets a per diem cost. Whether you’re camping or staying at a three-star guest hotel, the daily tariff is the same, which is all inclusive except for drinks including water sometimes and your tips. If too many people want to come to Bhutan, the government raises the daily tariff. It’s been as high as $300 a day and off seasons sometimes goes as low as $200 a day. I paid $250 a day.

Group cohesion and cooperation are critical for survival in a village. Share on X

All guides are trained and approved by the government as restaurants that we went to for buffet meals. They had to be inspected and certified for tourists. When we were on our own to wonder Paro or Thimphu we could go to other restaurants. They had some amazing bakeries and once a couple of weeks of curry. We told our guide, Chimmi, that we would go out for pizza rather than eat in that prepaid buffet once more. Indians with whom Bhutan has a special and a very tight relationship are the only folks who don’t need a visa. The Indian influence is striking too in the food, it is very spicy and much tastier than I thought we’d find. There most popular dish is a chili cheese. Hot chilies in Bhutan are not considered a spice but a vegetable. That’s how much they’re eating them like crunching green beans. The tourist restaurants dumb down the spice level for us, but they offer a bowl of chilies on the side to jazz up the food to your own taste. You’re going to find it easy to communicate because English is taught in schools, you don’t have to learn Dzongkha but is polite to at least learn Thank You and Please. In fact, all signs are both in Dzongkha and in English which is quite easy to navigate.

On our last night, our group splurged to pay extra to stay at a five-star hotel called Zhiwa Ling. Built only a number of years ago in the Bhutanese tradition, it was the most extraordinary lodge I’ve ever stayed in and is included as part of the National Geographic’s Most Extraordinary Lodges. It took craftsmen over five years to carve the lodge in the traditional Bhutanese way. The lodge included a serene tea room, a meditation room and a temple. We went to a lot of temples in Bhutan and it was always a little bit noisy, because people were visiting and the guides were explaining things. However, in this quiet hotel temple is the first time I quietly sat alone, smell the incense, listen to the chanting monks. I felt the peace and sacredness of the site.

In Bhutan, sometimes infrastructure doesn’t work. It was nice to end our trip in such a reliable hot water and a shower with a good water pressure. In developing countries, you need to go with an attitude in appreciating what does work instead of counting what doesn’t. In other words, go over with a glass half-full attitude and you’ll be fine and you will appreciate it when things go right. Expect that the power is going to occasionally go out. You may not have good water pressure and sometimes you won’t even have hot water. You are going to need to drink bottled water although some restaurants offer filtered water and like most developing countries or ancient countries the sewer systems can’t handle toilet paper. You have to put them in a small trashcan next to the toilet instead of down the toilet. It’s funny, I’ve spent much time traveling in developing countries that when I’m home sometimes I’m looking for the little trashcan on the side and I feel like I’m being naughty when I flush it.

Similar to backpacking to me, a visit to a developing country makes me appreciate more the little things that I take for granted at home. Especially reliable power and water and clean drinking water. Another thing about Bhutan, I also felt rightly or wrongly, that individual critical thinking is discouraged in favor or an agreement with a group and community. Indeed, group cohesion and cooperation are critical for survival in a village, but I often felt sense of unease with a group think mentality.

Bhutan’s Unique Culture

Crafts such as painting, weaving, embroidery and carving are huge and not used only in the national dress, but also in the required architecture of homes and temples. Buildings must conform to Bhutanese tradition which is quite charming. It has this massive dental molding with an ordinary rectangular building and in these moldings on the sides of the buildings are carved in colorful painted lotus and other flower decorations and symbols. They’re quite charming. It reminded me a bit of a Swiss chalet with a decidedly colorful slant.

Not just the homes, but the many Buddhist temples of the centuries are adorned with these paintings. The artists learning the traditional patterns in technical school. On temples and homes at least, only the traditional and symbolic patterns can be used. Some of the murals in the temples are telling stories, but they are all in the traditional style as well. I did seek out art galleries to check out if independent art was permitted and or encouraged and was happy to see some skilled modern art. However, most of the stores are filled with the tradition styled paintings. Virtually everyone in Bhutan is a devote practicing Buddhist and is common for monks to walk the streets or shopping in the markets in their flowing red robes often talking to cellphones like the rest of us.

Astrology plays a big part in the Bhutanese life and life revolves around the lunar calendar. Auspicious days are indicated in the daily paper to determine whether or not it is a good day to marry or buy land, for example. Buddhist have an interesting way to name babies. We were fortunate to see three babies get blessed at one of the temples. There are two jars at the temple one for the boys and one for the girls, the parent will then reach out into the appropriate jar and select a name for the child. There are about 30 names from which to choose. Whatever name the parent picks out of the jar becomes the baby’s name. However, if the parents don’t like the name, it is unheard of them to try another temple.

Important decisions may also be determined by the role of the die. There are three die in a plate on the temple altar, each temple has its own two good numbers and the rest are bad numbers. If you have a big decision to make, you roll the temple dice. If you roll a good number you go forward with the decision. If you roll a bad number, you do not, unlike the baby names, you don’t get to go to another temple to see if you can get some good numbers.

Buddhist do not believe in killing anything, not even a bug. If you kill a spider or a mosquito you may spend the next few lives as that kind of a bug. A dog’s next reincarnation is to be human, dogs are allowed to proliferate. I would bet that there are more dogs per capita in Bhutan than anywhere in the planet. Our first month in Paro we had a dog howling wakeup call that greatly was never repeated. Dogs are everywhere. I had never seen anything like it. I did see a sign saying that they were rounding up the dogs for mass rabies and sterilization efforts. Here is a funny story, on the way to the market one day, the dogs were harassing a large white truck in front of us. They were barking and growling and otherwise intimidating the truck’s driver. Tashi, our driver said that the white truck resembled the sterilization vet’s truck so the dogs were warning the driver to back off. Too funny.

Despite all the dogs, I only have seen one sickly dog. They seem to be well-fed by the townspeople. Dogs have free reign in the streets and villages as do the cows, but they eventually move. Bhutan doesn’t have many exports with the notable exception of hydroelectric power which it exports to India. It does have one of the world’s rarest commodities in the world. Currently, this commodity is more valuable than gold. Cordyceps is considered aphrodisiac. Plus is advertised as a miracle mushroom benefiting energy, cholesterol levels, immune systems, blood pressure, respiratory illness and as a regulator of the kidney and the liver is the mold that grows on top of a caterpillar. It is harvested once every five years in the highest altitudes of Bhutan by the locals.

For some nomads, this fungus is a literal gold mine. There are nomadic tribes throughout the country distinguishable by their different colors for each region and their attire, especially some fantastical hats. The fungus only appears at elevations between 14,500 feet and 17,000 feet. Because of the extreme altitudes many people get sick and suffer, and some even die trying to harvest this amazing fungus. It is grueling work and many as 5% of the harvesters can make over $1 million. In a country which most people live off less than a dollar per day is obviously a substantial financial opportunity. Because of the money to be made pouching of other tribe’s land is common and obviously meets with local resistance. King Four designated that only the local people within the crops’ region are the ones officially allowed to harvest the fungus.

Another thing in Bhutan, they have male and female rivers. The male rivers are fed by glaciers and are cold, while the female rivers are fed by underwater hot springs. There is a place where a male and female river meet at the Punakha Dzong Palace and administrative office. This magnificent structure, which in English would translate to The Palace of Great Happiness, is also where the King gets coroneted and where he keeps his office during the winter months.

You will also see a ton of monks living there. In the capital city of Thimphu or in fact the whole country, there is not a single street light. Instead of traffic lights officers use fancible hand signals that is not necessarily clear to a westerner. They did try street lights in Thimphu once, but the people didn’t know how to use them. They were eventually removed. Most of the country made up of subsidence farmers and their families. There is an abundance of organic fresh vegetables and much of the mountain side is terrace for rice paddies. It is quite scenic, but I am sure back breaking work. The popular town market shows the many available crops, dried and fresh meats, dried cheeses plus a multitude of spices for incense that people can hand roll on their own.

The smell of incense is pervasive in Bhutan. All homes have their private altar and temples have a large outside incense burner in addition to the inside ones. It is normal to smell various kinds of incense burning throughout the day. I like that. Where I was in Bhutan is high up. In the town of Paro, that we flew into was about 9,000 feet above sea level. Fortunately, we had the Paro Tsechu festival to check out while we acclimated to the higher altitudes before our climb. Near the end of our trip we had lunch in the mountain side overlooking the airport, which was quite small and the runway was short. It was fun watching the planes leave between the mountains and take off and I didn’t remember finding it scary on takeoff or landing. I think that airport in Nepal, which Janet talked to us about in episode number 17, looked much scarier or shall I say exciting.

I found Bhutan to be fascinating and complicated. I saw so many good things they were doing to improve the lives of the people, yet was often troubled by the government control which is benevolent. What if a leader King wasn’t so benevolent? Perhaps that’s the wisdom of King four who installed legislators and gave them the opportunity to get rid of any future bad king. I would encourage anyone who is fascinated by unusual cultures to head to Bhutan. I want to go back explore the temperate regions of Bhutan.

I fear that now that the cat is now out of the bag with the introduction of the TV and the internet, Bhutan is going to struggle to maintain its unique culture. It is going to morph like so to many of us into a global community of sameness. In our next episode, I want to review my trek in Bhutan, plus also talk about rafting, mountain biking in this mysterious country. Also on the second part, I will be telling you about Tiger’s nest, which is one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen. There was a hike up to that. We did that on day two as far as I’m concerned, the trip was worthwhile just to see that. I can’t wait to tell you about it.

If you’ve enjoyed or not this expansive cultural take on Bhutan please write and let me know at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com or call me at (252) 515-0166. I’d love to hear from you on what you think about this or any of my previous episodes or any ideas for future episodes. I’d like to also ask you, if you would please to share this episode with another adventurous friend or a travel friend. Sharing is the best way to get word out about the Active Travel Adventures podcast. Also writing your rating review on iTunes or wherever you are reading to this podcast from.

Before we sign off, I’ve got a safety thing to discuss with you on my first edition of Nicaragua at the time everything was very safe there. They are having political unrest in Nicaragua in the capital city of Managua, which as you recall, I recommend that you get a driver to get you out of that city anyway. It is not the best way to be, but once you get out of Managua everything seems to be fine. It was fine at least to the people I spoke to. I did get a travel advisory from the state department to avoid and you should always be avoiding any type of political congregation or demonstrations. They can sometimes turn unruly with no notice. They are having some conflict with the people against Ortega in the capital city. Please use the links on the travel planners to get you to the state department to let you know exactly what is going on and whether it is safe or not to travel to a particular place and these links are on all of the travel planner that you get for free if you sign up for the newsletter or ask for any travel planners on the website. Please always check that before making any plans. Thanks. I travel not just to see pretty places, but also to enjoy and explore the new cultures. Bhutan was unusual, I had to share that with you in this special edition. I appreciate you reading and I will be back for the actual adventure in Bhutan. Until then, adventure on.

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