Thimpu

Tenzin and Gudu and I left Paro early this morning to make the one-hour drive to Thimpu. Thimpu is the capitol of Bhutan and, with a population of 90,000 people, is also Bhutan's largest city. I've never been to a country that has a small-town feel to it, but Bhutan definitely feels that way. Where ever I go with Tenzin, he always stops to say hi to people he knows while walking along the streets. Tenzin said that within some circles, such as the tourism industry, everyone knows everyone else in the country. I listened to my iPod as Gudu navigated the van along windy roads through the mountain valleys leading to Thimpu. When I turned the music off I noticed that Tenzin and Gudu were listening to their own '50 Cent' album on the van's CD player. After a quick stop at a local vegetable market in Thimpu, Tenzin and I visited the nearby Takin Nature Reserve. The takin is the national animal of Bhutan. It's a hoofed creature about the size of a donkey that has the body of a cow and the head of a goat. The animal is indigenous to alpine regions of Bhutan and parts of Southern China, but isn't found anywhere else in the world. As the legend goes in Bhutan, the takin was created sometime during the fifteenth century by a man named Lama Drukpa Kuenky, also known as the “Divine Madman”. The Madman was asked by the people to perform a miracle. As a prerequisite, he asked the people to bring him a whole cow and a whole goat to eat. When the Madman was finished eating the goat and the cow, he placed the head of the goat on the remaining bones of the cow. To the astonishment of the people, the Divine Madman uttered a few magical words and the creature came to life. Taxonomists are still confused by the animal and are unable to relate it to any other species. June 13th this year happens to be the tenth day of the lunar calendar, and as such, is an auspicious day for Buddhists in Bhutan. Tenzin and I visited the Zulukha Nun Monastery in Thimpu, where hundreds of local Buddhists had gathered to perform rituals and earn merits. Merits, Tenzin told me, can be earned by reciting mantras, bowing before images of Buddha, or by spinning prayer wheels that send recitations into the air. In the next life each individual will be reincarnated. A person could come back in a favorable situation, in an unfavorable situation, or even as an animal or an insect. The conditions that a person comes back under depend on the number of merits earned in this life. On auspicious days, such as today, worshippers earn twice the merits for the same number of prostrations or recitations.

One of the advantages of taking photographs in developing countries is that many of the people have never seen a digital camera before. Taking just one picture of a person and showing it to them can create a huge commotion and suddenly everyone wants their picture taken. I took about forty pictures in just a few minutes at Zulukha today. After only a couple of photos people were bringing me their friends to take pictures of and gathering together for small group pictures. Situations like that make it a lot easier to get a few good shots. It's nice when people feel like I'm doing them a favor rather than asking for one. Tenzin took me to an art and painting school, a sort of college where young people learn different kinds of Bhutanese handicrafts. I walked through room after room of students and watched as they practiced wood carving, brass shaping, sculpting, drawing, painting, doll making, embroidery, and music. I was impressed at how talented the students are. Even with the limited resources that are available in Bhutan, the art students were producing drawings and sculptures that are just as creative and tasteful as the artwork I've seen in the United States. The one major difference, of course, is the cultural influence. Much of the art in the US is heavily influenced by European art. The roots of American culture are in Europe and it shows in the artwork. The paintings and drawings I saw at the art school in Thimpu today were distinctly Asian. The art looked similar to what I would expect to see in China or India or even Thailand, but it definitely had it's own Bhutanese twist. Tenzin and I finished off the day with a visit to Bhutan's National Library. The library was probably one fiftieth of the size of the library in downtown Salt Lake, but it was a good reflection of what literary and cultural works the people of Bhutan value. Some of the titles of books in the library included, “The Spirit of Buddhism”, “Buddha's Recipe”, “The Odyssey of Enlightenment”, and “The Initiation of Vajrabhairava”. The library also had a collection of large volumes detailing the annual events of India, Korea, Japan, and other Asian nations. It was funny to me to hear Tenzin talk today about stereotypes of different Asian cultures. Indians, for example, are known in Asia as being very noisy people. People hold stereotypes the same way back in the United States. In the US, just about the only Indians who make it over are the most off-the-charts, intelligent people out of a country of one billion, so everyone in America assumes that most Indians are incredibly smart. Mexico, on the other hand, is on the other end of the spectrum. For the most part, Mexicans who are well off stay in Mexico. The only ones running the border are those who are in the most oppressive, desperate circumstances. If those are the only Mexicans who people in the US see, then it's easy for Americans to assume that most Mexicans are poor and desperate.

One of the things I really enjoy about traveling is seeing first-hand, for myself, what a country and a culture is really like. Reading about a place only gets me so far; all I get when I read or watch a show is another person's impression. My impression is that everywhere in the world, stereotypes hold true only to an extent. Anywhere in the world there will be people who are intelligent and people who are not; people who are noisy or congenial or athletic, and people who are not. The one thing that I find remains constant no matter where I go is that nearly everyone is proud of their culture and wants to share it. Also, nearly everyone wants to be friendly and hospitable; everyone wants to be one of the 'good guys'.