Tues., 10/23/12 - Punakha to Thimphu
Today we drove back over the Dochula Pass to Thimphu. We stopped at the top for tea and biscuits and to use the potty. The biscuits today were sandwich cookies with chocolate in the middle made by Bourbon. They were so good I will look for them in the stores.
We stopped on the way up the pass to try to glimpse the Himalayas through the fog and clouds. The highest peak in Bhutan is Gangkhar Peunsum at 24,836 feet. Everest is 29,000 feet. It was not a good view but we did see some of the top of the mountain.
It took four hours to drive the 48 miles from Punakha to Thimphu. Our driver could only use first and second gears on this bad road, so it was a slow, bumpy ride. After checking in to the Hotel Jumolhari we got back on the bus for a two-block ride to lunch - another buffet of rice, bony chicken, boiled cabbage and no dessert – ugh – not a good meal!
Roadside vendor |
Will there be room?
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Typical housing with satellite dish |
Another fun truck
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Himalayas in Bhutan |
Gangkhar Peunsum - 24,836 feet
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Hotel Jumolhari in Thimphu - not the greatest
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After lunch we began our tour of Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. At the Textile Museum of Bhutan we watched a short, well done video of weaving, embroidering, and the wearing of the gho (men's traditional robe) and the kira worn by all the women here. King #1 decreed that all citizens would wear the traditional dress to all social, religious, etc. activities. Kids as young as 5 are wrapped in this garb. The Queen of King #4 created the museum. A workshop at the museum showed the traditional weaving and embroidery techniques.
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Weaving
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Embroidery |
Beautiful Bhutanese textile products
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National Handicraft Emporium |
Vocational school sign
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We visited a vocational school, Zorig Chusum, that teaches 13 traditional arts and crafts to high school age boys and girls. We looked in on sculptors, painters, embroiderers, etc. They do very fine, high-quality work.
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Wood carving |
Sculpture
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Sewing
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Painting |
Sculpture of the Four Harmonious Friends
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Since tomorrow is a holiday (Indian Festival) and some things will be closed, we continued on to the National Library. There is a new ordinary library but the old one houses the largest book in the world, a Guinness record to put Bhutan in the news. It is about 7 feet by 4 feet and contains photographs of Bhutan. Upstairs are shelves containing Buddhist “books.” These are handwritten on paper made from Daphne tree bark. Each page is about 4" by 18" and when the top strip is read, the page is flipped over and laid above to read the backside and then the page beneath. Two wooden blocks, covered with lacquered silk are used to press the top and bottom together and then the "book" is wrapped in yellow cloth.
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National Library
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Guinness sign |
"Largest" book in the world
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Handwritten Buddhist books
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Pages of a handwritten Buddhist book - we saw these being used in the temples |
The last stop of the day was at the Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory. They send boys down south to strip bark from the Daphne tree. The bark grows back in 2 or 3 years. The bark is boiled for five hours in an outdoor vat until the strips get soft and slimy. It is sorted by hand and then made into pulp. A page-sized screen is used and is coated with the right amount of pulp and then laid on a pile. It is an interesting process. The paper is made into gift items. The gift shop was very interesting.
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Handmade paper factory
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Drying bark |
Hand-sorting the boiled bark |
Converting pulp into pages
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