BhutanPrayer

Bhutan is a wonderful country.  It is in the beginning stages of democracy, transitioning from a monarchy.  The people of Bhutan love their King and he is very good to them providing healthcare, education, clean drinking water, and a country wide effort to improve the GNH.  Gross National Happiness is the King's efforts to make life better for the people.  The people do seem happy here and they are very welcoming and friendly.  I think part of this is because the country is almost all Buddhist and the people are very invested in their faith.  The countryside is covered in the various types of prayer flags hanging between trees and on long vertical poles.

Prayer Flags 

The style of architecture is quite unique and very colorful.  The homes remind me a little of the stereotypical swiss chalet and the Dzongs are more asian looking.  The wood on the buildings is painted in bright colors.

Dzong

The picture below depicts a prayer wheel and you see them all over.  You spin them clockwise and say the prayer and you earn merits for your karma.  There are a some in town that are over 10 feet tall built in a little shelter and people will just walk around the wheel for some time.  Then are rows of smaller prayer wheels that the people just walk down the row and spin them one by one.  

Prayer Wheel

 This was a monastery that we went to, you can see all the beautifully painted woodwork that decorates the buildings.  Children are sent here by there families to be taught Buddhism and pave the way for them to become ordained monks or nuns.

Monastery

 This young man is one of the "mini-monks".  I almost got in trouble because I saw a group of boys eating a TLC snack bar and I grabbed a couple of bars out of Jeanna's bag and gave one to the group of boys.  They were dividing the bar up into the tiniest of pieces for each other so I grabbed another bar for them to share.  As I went over to give it them their teacher walked by and admonished them. .. so I put the second bar behind my back, as the teacher was walking away I slipped them the second bar. . .they were giggling so loudly I thought we would all be caught!

Monk in Training

 We visited the National Museum where most of the artifacts are stored.  It is illegal to take any artifacts out of the country.  There were many buddha statues, paintings, woven articles, and stamps in the museum.  The Bhatanese have a thing about postage stamps. . . for a tiny country they have hundreds of different stamps!

Bhutan National Museum

 We had a picnic in the forest this afternoon ad we had a chance to partake in the national pastime - Archery!  The bows are primitive and the target is about 6 inches wide and 12 inches long a far distance away!  The competitive archers use hunter's crossbows from the USA. . .there would have been many tourists killed if they would have given us those!

National Pastime

 They also had some wonderful dancers at the picnic and they did a number of cultural dances for us.

Bhutan Dancer

 We had the pleasure of visiting a school for the hearing impaired today.  It was a wonderful experience and the school seems to be doing a good job teaching the children ASL and reading and writing.  The children live at the school because they come from all over the country to go to school here.  They seem well taken care of and seem very happy as well.  We got to ask them questions and they ask questions of us!

Students at the Deaf School

 They also have a vocational part of the school.  They teach the students weaving, tailoring, wood carving, and cooking.  They made beautiful wood carvings and wove wonderful baskets.  I bought a wind sock they had made in the sewing class.

Vocational Trainee - Deaf School

We also had the honor to hear a lecture from a reincarnate monk last night.  He actually looked like the happy Buddha!  He was a warm and peaceful man who described to us the difference between the Southern and Northern types of Buddhism.  He had a wonderful aura about him and when he shook your hand at the end of the lecture you could feel his difference!  Tonight we get a lecture of the basic ideas of Buddhism.

We got a chance to go shopping today.  We purchased our prayer flags so they can blessed tomorrow at the Tiger's Nest Monastery.  It will be a long hike but I think the views will be well worth the hike!