The long and the short of it

Just a quick one. Long hair is extremely frowned upon at our school; frankly it isn’t tolerated in the least. The Principal regularly talks at assembly on the evils of trendy haircuts and mocks the current trend to try and emulate the Korean singers and actors that are extremely popular with young Bhutanese.

Any student deemed to be getting a little on the long side is quickly sent to the designated teacher or a trusted student to be shorn back into uniformity. I took this photograph on the deck outside my classroom. Although it’s not greatly lit, I just love the expressions on everyone’s faces – it really was a funny five minutes and I think this picture captures those fleeting moments.

The following day the students were getting their own back. Justine walked closer, thinking they must have been picking out head lice. Only to discover, they were plucking the grey hairs out of their teacher's hair! 

Book, Book, Book! (What did the chicken say when he went into the library?)

Mouse tally: 94, the peanut butter (bait) was a bit old and so I was surprised to find a furry friend when we returned from our trip (see below). We’ve stocked up on peanut butter again and I expect to reach the century in the next few weeks.

The Divers have just returned from one of our regular trips to Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu. Regular readers will know, I have to go now and again to get my eye examined (a slight improvement on last time). The other reason for going was to buy some much needed books for the junior school library. There was no budget for books at all this year and many of the books are falling apart from repeated use.

We were very lucky because my friend and former colleague Elizabeth Turrell from Cudgen School in NSW offered to do a fund raiser in Australia to help Chumey School in Bhutan. Liz organised a school pancake day with strawberries and chocolate as toppings and very generously bought all the ingredients herself. This initiative alone raised around $280. Also, Justine was given $500 from one of her many schemes and she kindly donated the money to the library giving us $780 to buy books. That money goes a long way in Bhutan as books are specially priced here. In total we bought 280 books – that will really make a huge difference to the students here and it is nice to again have some new books that they will be really keen to read.

In October, we are going to organise a Chumey Reading Challenge in which students will be encouraged to read books at their level – we’ve kept a few books aside as prizes plus some games of Uno and Chess.

This has got to be a Dutch person's car

Just to go off at a tangent. We love going to Thimphu now and again as it gives us the opportunity to go out for dinner (the restaurants there really do serve food – unlike the ones in our village) and personally, I was desperate to buy another bottle of the extremely pricey (but oh so yummy) Kikkoman soy sauce (equivalent to about two thirds of a day’s pay for one bottle). What I find very strange about Thimphu (the nation’s capital) is that there doesn’t seem to be many street names. Directions are given in the form of e.g. “Walk past the Ambient Cafe, turn right at the policeman who directs traffic and the shop is on the left hand side. That’s fine as long as you’re near to the centre but it gets tricky once you go further afield. A Japanese friend invited us to dinner at her house and the taxi driver didn’t have a clue how to get there. We had to call her from the taxi and she somehow managed to explain to our confused driver. 

Country bumpkins enjoying dinner out and city lights

Incidentally, our hostess (Kimi) recently cycled from Bumthang to Thimphu in 16 hours in the Tour of the Dragon race. It’s about 270km and needless to say it’s a bit hilly. Unfortunately, the worst stretch is very close to the end so I would just like to publicly acknowledge what a star Kimi is for finishing in such a good time.

Only in Bhutan would you find a shop dedicated to monk wear

Only in Bhutan would you find chillies drying on every street corner

Did I ever mention before that Bhutan has no traffic lights? At the one big intersection in Thimphu they put some in but nobody liked them so they removed them and re-instated the traffic policeman and he has become quite a tourist attraction.

Another great thing to do in Thimphu is go to the post office and buy some stamps with your own photograph on them. You can either bring your own photo or they will take one of you. We chose to have them photograph us in a family shot and now we have a highly exclusive set of stamps that we are a little reluctant to use on postcards. Justine doesn’t like to admit it but she is a closet stamp collector and I think she wants to put all the stamps into her album.

Our family stamp

Memorial Chorten in Thimphu

Of course, any trip to Thimphu involves a very long bus journey – it usually takes about 11 hours as you usually get caught by at least one road block and have to wait while they work on road widening or clearing the road after a landslide caused by heavy rainfall. The monsoon season has just about finished (next Tuesday is known as Blessed Rainy Day) and officially marks the end of the rainy season. So it’s a great time for just looking out of the bus window as you drive slowly along the winding roads. Most people consider Autumn to be the best time in Bhutan as it’s not too cold and the views are at their most spectacular with verdant fields, vivid blue skies and lots of fluffy white clouds.

Loading up the bus

Another great thing that we did was buy a nice loaf of brown bread at a Seasons pizza restaurant in Thimphu. It’s funny how you can take bread for granted in the West but the only bread we can buy in Chumey is sugary white stuff that doesn’t taste nice at all. I felt like Charlie Bucket staring at that loaf of bread and it was such a treat to finally get home and eat it toasted with butter, Marmite (specially imported from England) and eggs on top. Happy Days! 

Drying meat out the front of our bus lunch stop, we all ordered the vegetarian option and really appreciated eggs on toast for dinner!

Chamkar, Jakar, Chakhar

Mouse tally: 93, another one bit the dust

Chamkar, Jakar, Chakhar

This is our nearest town and confusingly is known by any of the above names. After our day in Ura we spent the night at a hotel in Chamkar, and in the morning decided to go and explore some of the sights on foot. Bumthang is the cultural heart of Bhutan and there are loads of historic temples and monasteries to visit.

There is a famous story you often hear in Bhutan about the Tibetan king Songsten Gampo who was about to marry a Chinese princess called Wencheng in 641. Her dowry included a priceless Buddha statue. As the statue was being moved it became stuck in the mud and nobody could move it. The princess claimed that the problem was caused by a huge demoness lying on her back (by huge I mean when she lay down she was spread across Tibet and Bhutan).

In 659 the King decided to build 108 temples in one day to subdue the demoness and at the same time convert the Tibetans to Buddhism. This raises a few questions of course:

1) Did he ever doubt his fiancée, even for a minute?

2) Why did he wait 18 years to start building the temples? 

3) How did he manage to build them all in one day?

4) Is that statue still stuck in the mud?

Amelie, Justine, Lois and our Japanese friend Mami

Jampey Lhakhang

There are so many temples in Bhutan that you can start to mix them up in your memory, but this one really stands out. It is one of only a few in Bhutan that was built in that one day in 659. The temple was also visited by Guru Rinpoche (the reincarnation of Buddha) and it is said that he hid treasures in a lake beneath the temple.

In October Jampey Lhakhang plays host to a famous ‘treasure dance’ better known as the naked dance – the dancers are men only I’m afraid. It starts at midnight and (sorry ladies) no cameras are allowed.

Look out for the little old man climbing the steps

The view from Jampey Lakhang across to Kurjey Lakhang

Kurjey Lhakhang

Just a short walk from Jampey is Kurjey Lhakhang – of course it too has its own story – and it’s a good one!  In 746 the King of Bumthang was at war with a rival king called Naochhe (Big Nose). When Big Nose killed the King’s son, the King became so upset that he (curiously) desecrated the abode of the chief deity of Bumthang who took revenge by sapping the King’s life force, nearly killing him. Guru Rinpoche was invited to fix the problem and he turned himself into a Garuda to subdue the deity who had earlier turned himself into a snow lion. Not only did Guru Rinpoche save the king but he also converted all the rival kings to Buddhism and restored the country to peace. Not a bad day’s work.

With monsoon season, we were dodging puddles and cows

The walk to Kurjey Lakhang

 That’s quite a lot of history in a relatively small space and you can easily walk from one Lhakhang to the other. Sadly, you aren’t allowed to take photographs inside the most holy parts of monasteries and temples but I was allowed to take these few shots.

Kurjey is also home to Bhutan’s holiest water and pilgrims come from far and wide to fill up their containers.

There’s a bat in mi kitchin!

Mouse Tally: 92, It’s been that way for ages now. To be fair, I haven’t seen any mice scurrying around. I’m sure they’ll be back once the weather turns cold again.

Yes, it’s curious what you find in your kitchen in Bhutan. A few days ago I went into the kitchen at about 8.30pm to make a cup of tea, there was a bat flying around. It hadn’t come in through an open door or window – none were open. No, it had come in through one of the many holes in the roof/ceiling. I thought it was quite funny but then Justine pointed out that bats carry all sorts of deadly diseases – rabies being the most well known – so we opened the front door and thankfully out it flew.

A couple of days later, I was in the kitchen again and the kids had gone out and the front door was closed but not bolted. Anyway, I heart soft footsteps and looked around and saw two monks had walked into my house. I asked, “Can I help you?” but they didn’t answer. Instead, they had a bit more of a look around, one went to open the living-room door but then seemed to change his mind. Then they simply walked out of my house. They didn’t say a word to me; in fact they didn’t seem to register my presence at all. They certainly didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed.

Incidentally, the reason the front door wasn’t locked is because in Bhutanese houses they don’t use ‘Yale’ type door locks that slam shut. Instead every door has a bracket for a bolt and a padlock on both sides. So if one person leaves the house, someone else inside has to bolt the door behind them. A bit inconvenient if you are getting up early but nobody else wants to. Also, if someone felt like it, they could simply bolt the door from the outside while you are inside your house. I’ve not heard of it happening, so that just shows what a nice bunch of people the Bhutanese are.

Staying with monks – they are everywhere in Bhutan. Our landlady who owns the block of apartments that our flat is in, just had the building blessed. It was quite a big deal, apparently 200 people came on the day of the blessing and they all had to be fed. On the night before the main blessing ceremony I had just tucked the kids up in bed when there was a knock on the door. Our neighbour told us that monks wearing scary masks and carrying burning torches wanted to come in and chase away the demons from our house. Now, luckily the kids were still awake and I was able to explain to them what was about to happen. Imagine if you were woken from your slumber to see some monstrous figure waving a burning torch in your bedroom – well, they could end up in therapy for months!

Monks chasing away any lurking demons in our building

There's a lhama in my living room

Not so scary after all

Celebrations the following day

Justine gets into the traditional groove

Watch and learn

Our building brightly festooned

Flags guide the path

One last dance