12 May 2013

Bhutan: Thimphu

by | posted in: Asia, Bhutan | 9
31st March – 2nd April 2013
Previous posts:
Bhutan: Flying to Paro

 

From Paro airport, we headed towards Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan. The distance from Paro is about 50km, which normally takes an hour and a half to cover. The first part of the journey was along the river Paro chhu until Chhuzom, where the river is joined by the Wang Chu River from Thimphu. The rest of the travel was along the Thimphu River. It was an exciting journey because of the calmness and serenity of the area.
Thimphu is the only capital city that does not have a traffic light. A traffic light was installed once but was removed as people were not happy with it. The population in Thimphu is less than a lakh, but the total population of Bhutan itself is about seven lakhs.
Parliament building
Our stay at Thimphu was at Hotel Phuntso Phelri. According to our plan, it was supposed to be a rest day. But it cannot happen considering we still had half a day to spare!! We decided to visit Tashichhoedzong. It is open for tourists only from 5-6 PM on weekdays while on Sunday it is open from morning till evening. That gave us a lot of time to spend there.
Dzong is a fortress with administrative and religious sections. The Thimphu Dzong is one of the biggest ones in Bhutan. The only religious section is allowed for the public.
We also saw the Parliament building from the Dzong. Kings Palace was also very near to the fortress, but people were not allowed to photograph it.
From Thimphu Dzong, we headed to the weekend market. We had no plans of buying any stuff but just wanted to experience it. Good to see a clean and well-maintained market.
The handicrafts market was next to the weekend market. The prices were exorbitant, but later we found that Bhutan was an expensive country. The local currency Ngultrum is pegged to Indian Rupee for equal value. Indian currency is widely accepted. In fact, we find that people are more eager to accept INR than local currency!! But denominations of 500 and 1000 are not accepted in Bhutan.
We strolled on the streets of Thimphu. While it was a pleasant walk, my daughter became cranky. Lack of sleep for the past two days was showing its effect. After spending some time at the clock tower (supposed to be the most happening place in Thimphu), we headed back to the hotel.
The next day started with a visit to the National memorial Chorten. It was erected in memory of the third king of Bhutan in 1974.
Prayer bells at Stupa complex.
Since the weather was good, we decided to visit the big Buddha statue on top of a hill. It provides a nice view of Thimpu and its valley.
The Buddha complex itself is under construction.
It would have snowed during previous night!!
Takin is the national animal of Bhutan. Since the chance of meeting them in the wild was remote, we decided to have a look at them in the zoo.
The view of Tashichhoedzong while coming back from takin zoo.
We went to National Institute for ZorigChusum, popularly known as the “painting school”. It provides courses in 13 traditional arts of Bhutan. From close quarters, we can see people learning various skills in painting, stone carving, sewing etc.
I was a bit hesitant to take students’ photos, but my guide told that they would not mind it!!
The next stop was the nearby folk heritage museum. Here one can have a look at a typical farming house in remote Bhutan. It was interesting to see the water flow used to run prayer bells (a typical scene in Bhutan), various utensils and the house itself.
My daughter did not find it interesting to spend time inside the house. She headed outside to play in the gardens outside. Things seemed normal until we heard her crying. She had fallen and had a slight injury to her knee. Nothing serious, but it scared her a lot.
The Institute of traditional medicine was nearby. For Indians, it does not look attractive as we know (or at least heard) most of that stuff.
Post lunch, we headed to the textile museum which had a good collection of traditional dresses and the tools used for their manufacture. There was a documentary about the dress culture of Bhutan. Very informative one, I must say.
Archery is the national game of Bhutan. It is common to see people play archery in many villages of Bhutan. In Thimphu, people practice at Archery grounds. While in Olympics, the distance to the target is 70 meters, but here they practice keeping the target at 130 meters. It was quite fun to see this game. Each time when the target is hit, players sing a traditional song.
The last place we visited in Thimphu was the National Library. “What is so great in that?” you might ask. It houses the largest published book in the world. The name of the book is “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey across the Last Himalayan Kingdom“. It weighs about 60 kgs!!

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  8. Asia Explore Adventure & Travel
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