Almost 15 years ago, the more I read about this mysterious land, the more mysterious it became and of course the more I wanted to visit and discover why. So I planned to travel alone into the land of Dragons where the king and his government measured the welfare and development of the land in units of HAPPINESS!!!
Most of us are used to measure development of a country in monetary terms, in food production, self sufficiency and industrial output, but once you have visited Bhutan, those units of measure loose all their importance. At the time of my visit most of the country did not look very wealthy, there were if any few industries as such, their main activity was subsistence agriculture and husbandry and they seemed to spend a considerable amount of time taking advantage of leisure time and of course the unavoidable and omnipresent religious expressions of their beliefs. When I was gathering information, all sources available at the time indicated that the best was to visit the different towns and monasteries during their religious festivals, which fortunately for me were so frequent that I could plan a chain of visits, changing towns often and seeing different festivities.
Arriving at Paro the one and only airport then, and after the normal visa, customs and immigration procedures I was welcomed by my driver and my guide. Two young men dressed in their traditional national dress – compulsory at the time for all and that counted for the measurement of happiness. They both spoke very good English, as did most of the Bhutanese population, although all of course had their own language. The trip from Paro to Thimphu took a bit over one hour, but it was a first glance at a terrain that was so rugged that there is only one straight road, not very long, in the whole country, all other roads are an endless succession of curves, bends, turns up and down, where visibility is not always great and where I would certainly not like to have to drive because the roads are narrow and the edges usually have on one side a mountain and on the other a precipice and the edges of the roads are not really well defined, so if you or your car slip, well you might end up at the bottom of this precipice, probably several hundred meters down and I do not even want to imagine in what condition. My driver and guide were both excellent, I never felt scared, even if sometime I had the feeling they did, taking their precious cargo, i.e. me in these treacherous roads.
After a couple of days in Thimphu visiting the different museums, temples and attending festivities we started out trip crossing the land in all its length using the one and only road that connected the west with the east. Bhutan is basically a Buddhist country so you can find their traditional expressions all over in the form of prayer flags, floating at the summits of roads, taking the prayers into the wind and into their destination. Also in many walls, whether in the monasteries or just along the streets, one can find prayer wheels that will send their message as the persons make them turn, incense and candles are also present and the most striking art that mixes religion and craftsmanship is painting on the walls, window sills and door frames, in the beams of different constructions, etc. Another craft that is an art is weaving/embroidery of cloth for their dresses, as tablecloths for the altars in temples, as wall decoration, all full of colour and beautiful designs.
Finally we started the festivals tour, almost one a day, similar but different, with very colourful costumes that I was told, were used in part as religious expressions and in part to educate the people about the different traditions and stories of their beliefs and history. Most of the festivals include a great amount of humour, and they are performed for the locals. Tourists are tolerated, provided we behave, but mostly they are for the children, women and men that do not always participate in the monastical life.
Part of the performance, how much fun to watch!
I was very surprised, not to say shocked, to see that the representation both in painting and in wooden images of the penis and its two accompanying partners were very common and did not have any indecent connotation, although their use and function were explicit and obvious. During many of the festivals there were fully dressed and masked characters that in full erection were running after the ladies of the public, in teasing and jocular form, all was taken in stride and none the wiser.
Dancers
Otherwise the serious dancers expressed their feelings by jumping, running and displaying their wares – knives, spears and the like to the music of drums and flutes, rhythmically giving the tone of the story, which unfortunately for me was in Bhutanese and out of my understanding, also because my guide although quite knowledgeable of their traditions could not always explain why and what was happening.
The visit to the markets was a full explosion of colour and as in most markets you could see all the crafts and arts of the country, as well as all the food available some of which was unknown to me, such as the betel nuts that are commonly chewed as digestive but that turn the teeth of the users into deep red stains that do not wash easily, jewellery, the cloths already mentioned, musical instruments and meat. I have never been a vegetarian, although I like my veggies, but I must confess that the meat I saw in Bhutan did not look very appetizing, so I decided to become officially vegetarian and thus avoid having to either eat something that I did not want or offending the host. In Bhutan one of the staple foods are red chillies, very hot, that are served and considered as vegetables, not spices, so when they arrived I had to take them out otherwise I was risking a terrible stomach problem. They look great, they taste fine, but I moderation otherwise they can kill you.
Last but certainly not least the people. During my time in Bhutan I never encountered a sour face, and unpleasant manner, not even or hardly a serious face. Smile was the rule and the common denominator, and not because they had to, but because they wanted. It seems to me that the king must have been very wealthy, if wealth was measured in happiness, the people I saw certainly made him really rich.
I hope they continue making the king rich in units of happiness for many years to come. I certainly enjoyed my visit and the fantastic happiness that could be felt all over.
Mementos of my life 