Bhutan, The Divine Madman

October 5th after breakfasts we set off on foot for a delightful hike to visit the small but famous Buddhist monastery Chimi Lhakhang.  Built in 1499 after the location was blessed by saint Drukpa Kunley known as the Divine Madman.  Kunley had an unorthodox philosophy towards Buddhism that included the wide use of phallic imagery and the monastery is also known as the fertility monastery and women wanting to get pregnant make pilgrimages to the temple where they are blessed by being struck on the head with a wooden phallus.  As we made our way towards the temple through the small town a variety of phallic symbols were painted on the houses and around the temple all sorts of pallic images were for sale.  We even were blessed by being tapped on the head with the wooden phallus but for good luck not pregnancy.

We then travelled over a 10,000 pass encountering massive rhododendron trees and scenic meandering rivers far below as we headed to the beautiful alpine valley of Phobjikha.  This is the winter home of the black neck cranes but unfortunately we are a couple of weeks too early to see them.  We visited the crane Center and then took a walk along the local dirt roads for some photo opportunities.

Looking down over the valley from our hotel

Quite an unusual name for a bar yet this was the one in our hotel

These paintings adorned many of the houses as we walked through the village

Cows are everywhere in Bhutan and very often one has to go around them on the road as they simply slept in the middle of the road and do not move for traffic

They even have eyes!

A morning walk through the rice fields. The dike between the fields is quite narrow in places so you do need to watch your step

New plantings of rice. Really interesting as we had never seen rice up this close before 

Locals beating the rice

Rice out drying in the sun

Interesting toy airplanes. Take a close look at the plane body

No shortages of phallic symbols in this town

Housing on the hill

Love the children

They were waving and wanted their picture taken

75% of the people of Bhutan make their living from farming at this point but it is starting to become more difficult as the young are becoming more educated and wanting different jobs

These are prayer flags that are put up when someone dies to help deliver their soul from the state of bardo

The trucks in Bhutan were all very decorated 

The Green Hotel. Our home for a couple of nights