Scruffy Day in Bumthang

Will carries Scruffy across the foot bridge.

The lady and the shop where I bought my two new necklaces.

Monks galore.

Kurjey Lhakhang Temple complex.

Another local temple.

A monk elder reading to a group of locals.

Jambay Lhakhang Temple.

Paintings inside Jambay Lhakhang.

Local farmers.

Jakar Dzong.

Will and Scruffy waiting outside the Dzong.

An old style house.

A young girl waved out the window at me.

The Jakar Dzong from a distance.

Thursday, April 19^th.

I woke up about 7:00 and got ready for an 8:00 breakfast and a 9:00 start. We set off on foot for a walking tour of the valley. Bumthang is the collective name for an area of 4 valleys - Chokhor, Tang, Ura and Chhume. The Bumthang region of eastern Bhutan is a lush, tree-covered valley, famous for its brightly-coloured woollen handicrafts called yethra. The culture of eastern Bhutan is quite distinctive and contains its own set of languages and cultures. Bumthang is the spiritual heartland of Bhutan, with its many legendary monasteries, temples and palaces. Many Bhutanese people make pilgrimages here.

We walked along country lanes past a number of local farms. I love the architecture of the houses. We saw a number of monks washing their clothes in the freezing cold water of the river. As we walked a dog from the farm where we were staying followed us. He was a small orange coloured dog we nicknamed Scruffy. When we got to a narrow suspension foot path bridge, Will had to carry the dog across.

We came across a woman who was weaving and she invited us over to watch. She had a shop there were she sold her woven items and other souvenirs. I bought two items to hang around my neck, one was a tear drop shaped piece with the eyes of Buddha on one side and the Ohm symbol on the other and the other was a metal piece with crossed swords. I have not bought any jewellery lately so I was happy about that.

As we walked all the other local dogs would come out barking to challenge Scruffy, and Will, who had taken quite a liking to him, had to pick him up to protect him. Soon Scruffy would come to Will every time another dog(s) approached. It was very cute.

We visited Kurjey Lhakhang Temple which is very old and houses the body print of Guru Rinpochhe (who brought Buddhism in Bhutan in 8^th century AD). He meditated here for a number of years and left his imprint in the wood. Inside the door there were a couple of old wall paintings that we were allowed to photograph. Then we continued walking along and watching the local farmers at work, until we got to our lunch spot. On the way we visited the oldest temple known as Jambay Lhakhang, which was built by a Tibetan king in 659 AD before the arrival of Buddhism in the country.

After lunch Chimi was going to drop us off in Bumthang to browse the shops, but I saw a dzong up on a ridge overlooking the town and asked if we could go up there. Eventually everyone decided to go up. So we loaded Scruffy and et al in the van and drove up. The town of Bumthang is dominated by the Jakar Dzong. The name Jakar means "white bird", which refers to the myth that a roosting white bird signalled the location to found the monastery back in 1549 CE.. It was amazing. I love the architecture. The dzongs are like medieval castles, but in an Asian style. We wandered around watching the monks, some of whom are less than ten years old.

Then we drove back to Bumthang where we had an hour to wander. I went looking for a clear view of the dzong up on the hill from the town. I also saw some local people including a young girl watching me out of a window. Then I went back to the town centre and checked out a few local shops and general stores.

Next, we drove to a Swiss Cheese Factory where Will bought some cheeses and we headed back to our farmstay to have a little wine and cheese party. I brought my computer along and shared my Africa Blurb travel book and a few of my recent videos.

After that we had dinner, which was excellent. I commented to Will that these homestays are excellent because we get to see the how the real Bhutanese live, but it would be nice if we could interact with them instead of us talking amongst ourselves and them sitting on the other side of the room watching us. Obviously, there is a language problem, but I decided to go and sit beside the one son who lives at home and have a chat. It actually went quite well. Although he was quite soft spoken I asked about what they grow on the farm (potatoes, chilies, apples, wheat, rice and raise cows) and we talked about his schooling and how he wants to stay at home with his parents and take over the farm. He told me that today he went with his father and uncle across the valley to help a new farmer build a house while they paid some of his friends to build a retaining wall at their farm. I enjoyed the talk. Then they had their dinner and I went back to my group. We listened to some of Will’s music over a beer before bed.