Author Topic: The Kingdom of Bhutan 不丹王国 (Spring 2013) (Read 62302 times)

chin · « **Reply #10 on:** 15 August 2013, 01:37:58 »

I saw some people wearing some fancy shoes, and we were told that only people of status wear those shoes. Regular men on the street wear regular black or brown shoes.

(But I forgot if only people of status are ALLOWED to wear, or simply because those fancy shoes are too expensive for commoners...)

In the first picture, this group of officials were wearing the fancy shoes. And later in Paro Dzone, I happened to met this former minister who allowed me to take picture of his fancy shoes.

chin · « **Reply #11 on:** 15 August 2013, 01:41:47 »

Some random shots of old people hanging out in the local temple passing the days. It looked like they just hang out, chat, occasionally stand up to turn the payer wheels.

We will have more pictures of temple and dzones later. Dzones are usually the largest building in a town, designed fortress like, for the multi-purpose of administration, worship, and defense.

chin · « **Reply #12 on:** 15 August 2013, 01:50:11 »

We planned our trip to coincide with the last 2 days of the annual Paro Festival. It's supposedly the biggest days for the people there, and they would wear their best to attend the festival. The festival took at a temple behind the Paro Dzone.

One of the most common activities in the festival is the mask dances, as can be seen in these pictures.

chin · « **Reply #13 on:** 15 August 2013, 01:56:37 »

There was certainly People Mountain People Sea (人山人海) at the festival ground.

These pictures were taken on two different days. First one shows the people sitting on the hill on the back of the festival ground. The second one was taken the last days when the very large Tangka was showing on the wall of the castle. The snack they are having is like 爆米花 (pop-rice, as like pop-corn) in milk tea.

chin · « **Reply #14 on:** 15 August 2013, 01:59:44 »

Some pictures of the mask dances.

chin · « **Reply #15 on:** 15 August 2013, 02:01:19 »

More mask dancers.

chin · « **Reply #16 on:** 15 August 2013, 02:04:17 »

One both days, people lining up to reach the front wall of the temple, to go under the fierce looking god or the tangka, for blessing. They generally form two lines - one for women and children and one for men.

Old people or with little kids get priority, as they can get through the square to the front of line as show in the 3rd picture.

chin · « **Reply #17 on:** 15 August 2013, 02:11:07 »

As we saw in Tibet and other places (pretty much all religious places) believers would offer money to the temple or the god they pay to.

People seeking blessing here is no exception. I saw this monk holding a very large stack of cash, and watched him for a while. Maybe he's offering changes to people who would donate later down the line? I didn't think he was just taking people's money.

chin · « **Reply #18 on:** 15 August 2013, 02:30:58 »

On the last day of the festival, we woke up something like 3am in the morning to see the showing of this tangka. (Tangka 唐卡 is this very large picture made from clothes. It usually depict some Buddhism story or teaching.) The showing and recovering of the tangka is usually one of the major highlight of the festival. We saw it once in Tibet, in the main temple in Shigatse (see http://chinman.com/index.php/topic,22.msg366.html#msg366)

Supposedly the tangka would be recovered before the first day light, in order to avoid sun damage. But this one was showing long after the sun came up, simply because the line of people seeking blessing is too long. And I was too tired and sleepy to wake for the "final moment".

The last two pictures are blow up of the top and bottom of the giant tangka. As someone request to see if a special cloth for rolling up was showing in the tangka.