bhutan - thimpu

Forest walks in the Thimpu valley


We are off to the capital today, but first visit the watchtower above Paro that is now the national museum. A circular building, also highly defensive, the tower contains many artefacts that reflect the history of the country and its religion. Lots of good stories from Tshering, who also tests us on what we learned the day before.

The road to Thimpu is under reconstruction almost along its entire length. In fact most of the main roads are in Bhutan, we discover later. This is a country almost entirely in the deep gorges descending from the Himalayas, and we are on the only east-west road. From this there are spurs north into the high valleys, and spurs south to the Indian border. But this is the backbone, and still in some areas barely a single track road with passing places, clinging to the cliff faces of heavily wooded canyons. By 2008 it should be two lane – a major infrastructure investment for a country of 600,000 people. Hem navigates his way through with aplomb, but the driving style here is much more relaxed and co-operative than India and Nepal. We rarely exceed 60km/hour, and there is never a stretch without views that are less than stunning.

The capital, barely bigger than an English market town, is much more bustling than Paro, and there’s lots of construction. Tourist numbers, from a base of 6-7000 have doubled and will triple by 2008 (tourism is the second biggest export industry, after hydroelectricity). There is a lot of construction, much of it hotels, but still all in an ersatz version of the traditional style.

The next couple of days we walk through the valley and its surrounding hills. It’s beautiful country, with many friendly people passing us. Everyone seems to want to say Kusu sampu (hello), especially the children, who seem to love engaging with foreigners. The houses are still built along traditional lines: stone bases and rammed clay block walls, with carved hardwood windows inserted, and a low sloping roof (now corrugated iron, originally timber shingles weighted down with stones) which is open and used for storage. I think of Switzerland and Bavaria, where the houses are much the same apart form the use of clay as structure. The same environment leads to the same intuitive solution. They are elaborately painted with religious motifs, also like the Alps: but here the motifs are the Guru’s tiger, the thunder dragon, ‘the mongoose that vomited jewels’, or sometimes huge protective phalluses in graphic detail. Many older houses have been abandoned and left as clay hulks, melting back into the landscape. The older places had no windows until the third level – a response to constant local wars and the replacements are in much the same style but more open.

It’s fairly strenuous walking once you get past the paddy fields and start to climb. We follow pack horse trails through the forest, pine and oak. We pass isolated farms. A boy from a farm shows us his artwork – traditional religious works copied – and so pleased when I buy one. A dog adopts us and follows us for miles, and then gets nervous as we approach a settlement with other dogs, who bark incessantly. He cowers beside us, looking for our protection but we get him past.

We meet a real pack horse convoy – still an important transport method here – and a guy with a plough over his shoulder and urging on two oxen. Later we saw several oxen teams with manual ploughs, planting the winter wheat; and villagers winnowing the rice. This could be England 200 years ago. Except that the main crop is rice and the landscape is arranged in layers, stepping up the mountain flanks, for irrigation in the wet season. 90% of the population are still more or less subsistence farmers.

At one point we reach a monastery and we are invited to tea by the head monk, a young and friendly chap in a rather trendy version of the habit, incorporating a red zip up bomber jacket. The tea and Tibetan biscuits are brought by a betel nut chewing monk who gives us a big, bright red stained smile. (Betel chewing is common here. Hem gave us a sample. You wrap up the nut in a leaf with a little lime powder and chew them together until they form a wad, but I don’t think I’ll be taking it up. You have to spit out the red juice as it can make you nauseous.)

The dzong in Thimpu, which we visit at the end of the stay, is huge. Like all the dzongs it is part government administration centre, part monastery. The king has his offices here, so we are not allowed in until he leaves at 4:00, and the admin parts are not accessible. The main temple is being restored and is a fine 3 storey space filled with galleries, columns and diffuse light. There are huge images of the three Buddhas.