Today the 24 of us woke up to a glorious morning in Thimphu:
For our second day in Bhutan we plan to drive from Thimphu, Bhutan’s current capital, to Punakha, the former capital.
After getting in some breakfast and coffee, we repacked our luggage, loaded our buses, and drove 2 hours up to the Dochula/Dochu La Pass:
The Dochu La Pass is a mountain pass marked by 108 memorial chortens/stupas known as “Druk Wangyal Chortens” that have been built by Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, the eldest Queen Mother.
The pass is located at an elevation of 3100m or 10,200 ft above sea level. The snowy peaks of the Himalayas can be seen to the east, including Mt. Masanggang at 7194m or 23,602 ft high and Mt. Gangkar Puensum which is the highest peak in Bhutan at an elevation of 7570m or 24,836 ft high.
The weather at the pass generally is always foggy and chilly, where the best views of the Himalayas would be visiting here between October and February.
Nevertheless, we still enjoyed these stunning views of Bhutan Himalayas, especially from their café here:
While on the way to Punakha, our bus stopped at a hill so we could hang up our prayer flags.
It became a fun team-bonding exercise to see how we could connect all 11 of our prayer flags while ensuring no color is repeated in succession, and hang the result somewhere on a hill to get our prayers the highest wind exposure. We got very creative; felt like we were building an electrical grid:
About an hour later in our approach to Punakha, we finally reached the majestic Punakha Dzong “the palace of great happiness or bliss.”
This palace is the administrative centre of the Punakha District and was constructed in 1637-1638 by Ngawang Namgyal, 1st Zhabdrung Rinpoche. It also is the second oldest and second-largest palace (dzong) in Bhutan and one of its most majestic, housing sacred relics of the southern Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, including the Rangjung Kharsapani as well as the remains of both Ngawang Namgyal and the tertön Pema Lingpa.
Punakha Dzong was the administrative center and the seat of the Bhutanese executive government until 1955 when the capital was moved to Thimphu.
It is listed as a tentative site in Bhutan’s Tentative List for UNESCO inclusion. To do its entrance justice, you first must cross a photogenic suspension bridge:
After the bridge, we reached a courtyard and stepway up to the temple that reminded me of those in Tibet.
Legend has it that the architect, Zowe Palep envision in a dream where he was ordered by the Zhabdrung to sleep under a small structure that contained a statue of the Buddha, known as Dzong Chug “small dzong.” While still in his dream and encouraged by the psychic powers of the Zhabdrung, he attained a clear vision of a palace for Guru Rinpoche.
This dream and vision now etched into the architect’s mind, he then went ahead to build this palace without any traditional paper planning; it was completed within 2 years in 1638. During this period, Ngawang Namgyal had also become the first leader of a unified Bhutan.
In the first courtyard you’ll find the administrative offices, a large white stupa, a bodhi tree, a mound of stones and a chapel dedicated to the queen of the nāgas.
Don’t know where to stand? Choose wisely.
Reaching to the back of the palace grounds, we entered where the residential quarters of monks are located in the second courtyard. This is also where two historic halls in this courtyard are located — one of Ugyen Wangchuck, who subsequently became the King of Bhutan, and another hall where John Claude White decorated the King in 1905 with the Order of the Knight Commander of the Indian Empire.
At the southernmost end of the dzong and in the third courtyard, the remains of Pema Lingpa, Zhabdrung, and Ngawang Namgyal are preserved. The King of Bhutan and the Je Khenpo mainly to seek blessings here before taking office.
When inside, take note of the life history of Buddha depicted in the back walls, as well as more opportunities to obtain sacred bracelets blessed by the monks here for 100 BTN each.
After an hour on the fortress grounds, we then headed out and walked behind the fortress to walk Bhutan’s longest suspension bridge.
It takes 2 and a half minutes without stopping to walk it in its entirety:
Then walking back across the bridge, we boarded our buses to head to lunch. In case you had a hard time finding it:
After enjoying lunch we noticed that our café sat atop a famous painting shop to buy more souvenirs and a cordyceps fungus (the same one that inspired The Last of Us franchise) edibles shop that I feel only Bhutan is known for.
Our final official stop of the day would be a little 5 inute hike to reach the Chimi Lhakhang (The Temple of Divine Madman), a monastery built in honour of an eccentric lama, Drukpa Kunley.
The monastery was founded and built in 1499 by the Drukpa Kagyu lama Ngawang Chogyal, the 14th abbot of Ralung Monastery, and blessed by Ngawang Chogyal’s cousin, Drukpa Kunley who also built a stupa here.
During his blessings of this site, the Lama Kunley is said to have subdued a demon of Dochu La with his “magic thunderbolt of wisdom” (aka an erect penis) and trapped it in a rock at the location close to where the stupa now exists. Reminescent of The Joker from the Batman series, this “Mad Saint” or “Divine Madman” demon eventually became worshipped here for teaching Buddism through chaos (or what represented chaos at the time). From rejecting social norms, ridiculing establishment principles, questioning authority, crude humor, and engaging in lots and lots of sex, he also advocated the use of phallic symbols as paintings on walls and as flying carved wooden phalluses on houses. Since then symbols of an erect penis in Bhutan have been used to drive away the evil eye and malicious gossip.
The monastery is therefore also home to the original wooden phallus that Kunley brought from Tibet, which is decorated with a silver handle and is used to bless people who visit, particularly women seeking to have children. After we made an offering, we graciously participated in the ancient tradition at the monastery …where visitors are struck on the head with a 10-inch long wooden phallus/erect penis. I dare say, more nontraditional things have happened in my life.
The views outside from this monastery are also equally fertile:
Then we turned back around to drive west to Paro, stopping once midway our 4 hour long and sleepy ride back at the Dochula Pass, which is also hauntingly beautiful at night:
- At time of posting in Punakha, it was 22 °C - Humidity: 100% | Wind Speed: 2km/hr | Cloud Cover: when it's dark, it rains