Tiger's Nest Monastery - Last Hike!

Could we make it all the way up to Tiger's Nest?

Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche flew to this site on the back of a tigress to subdue a demon.  It is Bhutan's most holiest of monasteries and is an arduous journey to ascend to its perch.  Once you arrive it feels much like being a bird hovering for a moment on the edge of the Himalayan mountains.  If you look closely, you can see it as a white dot within the foggy mist.  About eight miles away and up, up, up.

8:15 am and on our way....

First good view from the trail - be sure to view the last video on this blog.

Prayer flags lighten the journey and we were fortunate to have such a beautiful day.

Some people choose to go up half way on horses.

We came to a series of prayer wheels.  Still a long way to go.  Good time to pray that you can make it all the way up.  My dance injured left foot was giving me trouble.  

Steph was fine.  Couple hours to go....  

In the photo below you can see Tiger's Nest in the distance.

Stephanie with the huge prayer wheel en route

It was exciting to experience the majesty of Tiger's Nest the closer and closer we got

Around 11 am we stopped for some tea and coffee at the state-run cafe about mid-way up.  Many people just go this far but we soldiered on....

People from all countries come to experience the Tiger's Nest,
but the majority of people we saw were from India and Asia. 
Below, red peppers dry on the roofs of Bhutan and on this tin roof of the Cafe.
The red prayer wheel is made of a discarded plastic water bottle.
The Bhutanese are an environmentally conscious people.

Stephanie waits in line for the primitive toilet facility

Below is Kinley, our brave driver.  He came along on our hike and said he was prepared to carry me back if my foot gave out all the way.  Luckily for him, I managed the whole journey.

Stephanie and Tashi going over the beliefs and myths we were about to experience once we got to the Monastery.  Those discussions were valuable rest stops in an exquisite setting.

As we ascended the trail we came across these tiny little chortens, or a receptacle for an offering.  Each one contained prayers for individuals, or perhaps a God of the person's choosing.  The trail, the journey itself, had a sacred feeling throughout.

I'm happy because it was clear I was going to make it all the way.

Here we are greeted by a guide friend of Tashi.  We'd made it to Tiger's Nest!  

They put your phones in a locker at this point and you go inside the Monastery.  My phone registered that we'd climbed 67 floors.  It felt like a whole lot more. 

The video below gives you a little of the excitement through the sounds of the horns and of the wind as you approach the Tiger's Nest.  An arduous but exquisite experience.

Third Day of the Teschu - Dance of the Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche & The Dance of the Heroes

It was the third day of Thimpu's Teschu Festival.

I needed help to get into my long traditional Kira.  Two young women from the Terma Linca hotel came to our room to dress me.  It's all one piece of fabric wrapped around the body in clever ways, held onto the shoulders by two decorative silver and gold pins.  The jacket covers the pins in the photo above.  The elaborately embroidered sashes are worn only for the festival and they honor and respect the traditional gods.  The sashes must be worn on the left side.  This Kira fabric took Sonam, the weaver, three years to make. It's silk and cotton. The pattern incorporates the Endless Knot.  Bhutan is known for it's beautiful textiles.

Below are fabrics that are available to purchase and sew into beautiful traditional skirts. 

These are made of cotton and silk.

The hilarious Teschu clown greeted Stephanie and I that morning.  

  If you're interested in costume, weaving, or cloth,  double click on this photo to see the amazing weaving done on the Kira cloth.


Below is a video of the Men's Welcome Dance.  So pleasant to watch.
The men do all the dancing at these festivals.
I recommend clicking the box on the lower right to view these videos full screen.

And then, the Women come out and sing a traditional folk song.

They have the most beautiful Kira's (Traditional Women's Dress).  

Their hand movements coordinate in tandem with irregular patterns with their feet.

Below is a video of the dance of The Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche.  

The eight manifestations are different forms of Guru Rinpoche, who is accompanied by his consorts, Yeshe Tshogyel and Mandarava.  This is both a dance and a drama and starts with Dorji Drolo, wearing a terrifying red mask, entering the dance area followed by a long procession with the eight manifestations.1

Here's a short video of the Manifestation's diagonal exit 

This last and most exciting dance we saw was the 

Dance of the Heros.  

This energetic dance based on a vision by Pema Linga is thought to lead believers directly to the presence of Guru Rinpoche.  The dancers wear yellow skirts and golden crowns but do not wear masks.  They carry a drilbu (small bell) and a damaru (small drum).2 

Watch how the dancers jump up and bring their knees to their foreheads.  This is done on a stone surface and the dance lasts, as almost of them do, forty-five minutes! 

Here's a clip of the Hero's Dance Finale

The incredible colors of the Butanese costumes

*1,2 Descriptions from the Lonely Planet Book.

Bhudda Center and Teschu Dance Festival, Second Day - Lord of the Cremation Ground Dance, and the Dance of the Wrathful Deities

 Massive Buddha Statue in Bhutan at Kuensel Phodrang or Buddha Point in Thimpu

Stephanie and Jeanne at Buddha Point under a golden Apsara - 

one of the many manifestations of Bhutan's deeply esteemed Guru Rinpochi

Bhutanese people and Monks gather to hear the Buddhist Teachings at Buddha Point

Below a view of the Bhutanese crowd at the second day of the Teschu Festival.  We got there early for a front row seat. It was packed because of the beautiful sunny day.

Stephanie, Tashi Tobgay, our guide, and Jeanne

The Clowns are hilarious about the phallus.  Below a gem of a video. 

To see the video full screen just click on the lower right corner.  

I recommend viewing these dances on your computer full screen rather than your iphone.

Every morning there was this opening dance, but the steps seemed slightly different each day.

Below The Lords of Creation Grounds Dance

These four dancers have skull masks and gloves with long fingers.  They thrust their arms as if getting rid of evil spirits.  They bend back almost to the ground to liberate the spirits of the deceased.  The dance was composed by the Ngawang Namgyal and the dancers represent the protectors of the religion who live in the eight cremation grounds on the edges of the symbolic Mount Meru.  (This last sentence from my Lonely Planet Book)

Below the four dancers bring in a black cloth that contains the evil spirits of the deceased.

 

See their bending back moves in video below.

 

 The above video is of the Dance of the Wrathful Deities.

The deities are the entourage of one of the eight manifestations of Guru Rinpoche, Dorji Drolo.  Dori Drolo and his entourage are armed with phurba (special daggers) that execute and thereby redeem an evil spirit (represented by a small mannequin).  This represents Buddhist teachings on the liberation of consciousness from the body.  The dancers' costumes are once again, brocade dresses with frightening masks.  

This descriptive paragraph taken from my Lonely Planet book.

Below is a view of this dance from the top of the Fort's ampitheater.

Below a video of the beautiful Bhutanese people getting to their seats to enjoy the festival.

Thimpu's Teschu Dance Festival First Day

 Finally, we'd arrived to Bhutan's capital city, Thimpu, for the Teschu Festival.  We awoke to a light rain and were a little upset as it was the only day it had rained on our trip.  We managed to get into our silk national-dress Kiras by 7 am to meet Tashi in our hotel lobby, the sleek four-star Terma Linka.  Tashi is pictured in his best silk Goh, the men's national dress.  He thought the guards wouldn't let us bring umbrellas into the ancient Fort where the dances were held and we contemplated what it was going to be like to sit out in the open getting soaked in our beautiful new Kiras.  Of course we were game after coming all this way to see the dances but when we got to the fort the guards let us (and all the Bhutanese) watch comfortably under umbrellas.  We sat there from 8:30 to 12 noon so those umbrellas were a serious blessing.  The dancers went on in the rain, something we Graham dancers didn't do when when we played open air theaters in the summers throughout Europe. We worried we would get injured and slip....not to mention it was forbidden by our AGMA union rules.  Obviously, the Bhutanese people and dancers don't have an America Guild of Musical Artist union and are a hardy bunch.  Their dances are close to the ground and there aren't any lifts, running, or quick movements so it did seem fairly easy, while probably uncomfortable, to dance in the rain.  They danced on a stone surface with a green mat that defined their dance space.

This is an opening ceremony dance.  All men.

The Unesco Heritage Dance called the Dance of the Black Hat.  The dance on one level commemorates the killing of the anti-Buddhist Tibetan king Langdarma in 842 by the Buddhist monk Pelkyi Dorji.  It also represents the transformation of the dancers into powerful tantric yogis, who take possession of the dancing area and drive out all the evil spirits as they stamp the ground. (These last two sentences from my Lonely Planet book.)  Costumes are large brimmed black hats with long dresses made from brocade fabrics with aprons depicting the wrathful deities.  There is a peacock feather that points upward out of their hats that help to pierce the evil spirits.  The dancers keep arching backwards, chest to the sky, then roll their backs in a circle, twirling and lifting their legs in a large forward step.  Three of the dancers do a counterpoint four beat lunge step - similar to the Graham low runs - and them stop abruptly, on the musical cue.   The rest of the dancers pause while the three dancers lunge/run four times then they continue with their overall circular pattern while executing their back rolling bends, multiple turns, and heavy weighted skips.  Their skirts fly around one way, collect, then they reverse the turn so that the skirt unwinds to open in the opposite direction.  It makes a colorful display since their brocade costumes are all of different patterns and hues.  This dance went on for forty-five minutes and I have no idea how they remembered the subtlety of the patterns that changed almost imperceptibly.  While they looked like the same movements, they were slightly different as the dance progressed.  This seemed to me much like a Steve Reich score that repeats musical phases and then evolves to greater intensity -- quietly, like a sunset. 

It was clear that lots of rehearsal was necessary.

 I was enthralled with the dances and the entire scene even as the rain continued. At times, someone's umbrella or a security guard would block our view, but we managed to get a second row seat and that helped.  That's Tashi sitting next to me.

Folksongs are sung by the line of women dancers in between the main dances.  Here the clowns are having a good time with the phallus placed in front of the women.  

(click to enlarge so that you can see)

The phallus symbol is found throughout Bhutan and is sometimes painted on houses to ward off evil spirits and to provide protection. 

 

 

 Pictured here is the Unesco Heritage Dance called the Dance of the Black Hat with Drum.  The Black Hat dancers came out again after the women did a folkdance song in a long line.  This time the male dancers brought the drums and the movement patterns were somewhat the same as before except they beat the drums.  It was another forty-five minute dance.
Mesmerizing!  Exquisite.

 Bhutanese young women happily dressed for the Teschu under umbrellas and 

holding their iphones close.

 The women brought rugs to place on the wet stone steps.

Bhutanese man in his silk Goh, complete with Nikki sneakers and backpack.

Every combination of brocade jackets and woven Kira skirts were individualistic. 

 Such variety was a dazzling display of femininity and refinement.  

 Here's Tashi, our wonderful guide, under the umbrella.  He's the father of a two-year old daughter.  His wife works in the immigration office in Thimpu.  Their mothers alternate living with them for six months to help take care of their daughter while Tashi and his wife work.
Tashi didn't think we'd want to stay very long at the Teschu but he began to understand how much we loved it as we sat for hours in the rain.

Lunch at the Orchid Restaurant after a long wet morning at the Teschu, still in national dress.  Very happy at the morning's dances and what we were able to witness.

The Trek & Camping Bhutanese Style

 The Trek was the Big Thing on our trip.  It's customary to do a trek while in Bhutan and we had reduced it to two nights.  I'd realized on our hike the day before that my dance-injured left foot wouldn't handle the two days of six-hour hiking, so Steph and Tashi set off with the trekking crew to explore the Panakha Valley without me slowing them down. 

 I was driven to the camping site the following day (Steph's brilliant idea) and we had a wonderful time sleeping over in the elegantly appointed tent and enjoying the rural country side.   It was especially nice to have a chef-catered dinner by the person who usually cooks for one of the royal family.

 Breakfast served to us by royal family chef.

Two stray dogs decided they would guard us outside our tent all night.  Here they are happily hanging out with us in the morning.

I met two rural country girls that live on the crest of a Himalayan mountain.  They were so curious about us, they couldn't stop staring.....where they learned the peace symbol, I'll never know.

This is the house these two girls live in.  An amazing landscape!

How can a day get better?

Tashi, our guide, Stephanie, and I hiked to the Khamsum Yuelley Namgyal Chhorten built by her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Tshering Yangdon Wangchuck in 1999 for the protection of the country.  Belonging to the Nyingmapa tradition, it depicts the importance of male and female energy - the male representing knowledge and the female representing wisdom.

Three story Khamsum Yuelly Namgyal Chhorten - one hour hike - no roads up to this Chhorten.  Everyone hikes no matter how infirm or old they are.  Both our faces turned a shade of red - mine the reddest.  It was a hot and straight uphill hike!  But absolutely worth the effort.

No photos are allowed in any of the chhortens or monasteries, but this Bhudda was on the outside so I could photograph it.

The chhorten sits above this beautiful valley about six miles from Panakha.  That's the Mo Chu river below.  They have rafting trips on that river.  A collared shirt is required to enter all monasteries in Bhutan.

 We decided to splurge and go to lunch at the five-star hotel Amankora.  It was set in an old farmhouse that once belonged to the Queen Mother.  It was a modest and comforting setting and we had our best meal of the trip that afternoon.  Not to mention the french Prosecco we ordered.

 Chicken with Polenta - Gluten free - Chef Victor came out and greeted us.

We also viewed one of their rooms (they only have eight).  Serene and quiet - quite elegant.  Eating at that restaurant would've been worth it if you want to travel at that high a price point.

Dogs are everywhere in Bhutan and this one accompanied Stephanie and I on our walk to the Amankora Hotel.  

 We arrived at our Hotel - The Green Resort Hotel - a four star hotel that was very comfortable and friendly.  This is the lobby.  Note that the King and Queen's photo is behind the reception desk.

 The Bhutanese people who work in the hotels couldn't be more sweet and accommodating.  Here are my two favorite servers in the Green Resort Hotel's restaurant.  They took such good care of us.

Ah!  The Panakha Valley at sunset in late September.   The terraced field is red rice.  No sound other than the sound of birds, crickets, and the soft breeze.  I loved it here....