We're really lucking out on this trip. We knew we would see at least one major festival in the Bumthang valley, in the middle of Bhutan. That festival turned out to be a bit disappointing as there were more tourists than locals at the festival. But yesterday, we really got to see a real Bhutanese festival surrounded by hundreds of locals.
In the Phobjika Valley is a place called Gantey. This is a very old monastary, built in the 15th century. During the last 5 years or so it has gone through a complete renovation and these past few days it has been consecrated, meaning all the high mucky mucks from Bhutan have gone there, including the King! We missed the King by a day, but that's the way it goes. We drove into this beautiful valley of Phobjika, which is the only glaciel valley all of Bhutan. So it is quite a wide valley and the bottom is forest and grassland. But on a hill overlooking the valley is the Gantey Monastary. We arrived there after a 3 hour drive from Trongsa and as soon as we entered the large courtyard I knew that this was going to be a great event. There were hundreds of locals, all dressed in their finest kiras (women) and ghos (men). Most were sitting on the floor of the large square, which is situated in front of the main temple. The high priest was to the left and right near him was the band, which includes some cymbals and some of those huge horns that have a very low and quite magical sound. There were a few tourists scattered about, but very few. Many monks could be seen in the windows of the buildings that surrounded the square and on several balconeys. The first dance was one where about 10 dancers are wearing animal masks, including a stag, a monkey, a dog, a pig and a few others. They pretty much twirl around to this amazing music that is played by the monks, mainly the cymbals and horns. It is quite magical when you are surrounded by these fantastic buildings and wonderful people. The next dance was some local teenagers just kind of slowly moving back and forth and singing. Not all that exciting. BUT the next dance was unreal! Scary looking dancers with a mask called a Tsoling, which is a fierce creature with his surrounded by several sculls, dance around and whirl about, again with the music of the cymbals and huge, very long horns. Then, all of a sudden, you hear all of these drums and men yelling and out of the large temple about 20 men pile out. They are wearing skirts, no shirts and those same scary masks. They have these large flat drums that they hold in one hand and have a curved stick in the other hand that they hit it with. And THEN they come into the audience and people are bowing in front of them. These guys with the drums and sticks are then hitting gently the people on the head with the stick, which it turns out is a blessing for long life. I got hit five times, which, according to our guide Dorje means I'll live a long life.
After lunch we went back for another hour and saw some more dances, again, some dancers with the animal masks dancing to the monks music. I went down in front to take some pictures and then was invited to sit with some aunties to watch with them. They are so sweet the people here, always smiling and friendly.
Finally we had to leave and walked down to the car, through a local market which was set up just for the occasion. We both love walking through markets, that's where the action is always happening. There we several little stalls where some men were gambling, but we really couldn't figure it all out.
We've taken about 2,000 pictures already, believe it or not. One way to get a smile out of a Bhutanese is to take there picture and show it to them on the monitor. That always makes them happy.
One thing I forgot to mention is that when we took a hike a few days ago there were wild marijuana plants growing all over the place. Apparently, Mary Jane is quite common here as a wild bush. Until recently, it was always fed to the pigs but someone has told the Bhutanese what it is really for...but I think getting stoned is pretty rare here nonetheless.
Today we spent the morning in Phunaka, which has one of the grandest Dzongs in Bhutan. Again, we were quite lucky because there was some rehearsals going on for the Coronation (which is happening on Nov. 6th) and hundreds of local teenagers were in the Dzong practicing their dances. There were even some of the people from the far north, who are nomadic yak herders, and were really cool pointed straw hats.
We also went to a local farmers market. Wow, are there a lot of chillies in this country! Of course, the chillie pepper is the vegetable of choice in Bhutan. And let me tell you, they like it HOT!!!!
This afternoon we went to the monastary of The Divine Madman, Drukpa Kunle. Now this monk was quite a guy. He lived in the 15th century and was not the run of the mill monk. He truly believed in wine, women and song and was quite lucky with the second. In fact, he apparently spread his seed, so to speak, all over the country. He is so admired and loved here that you see paintings of phallises on many homes here. They are quite graphic and not for the faint of heart, let me tell you.
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