chinman.com
Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 04 April 2013, 18:48:41
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I am still travelling in Bhutan now. I will post pictures here after I return home. I have taken so far >2500 pictures, and most likely finish the trip with 3000 plus time shutter pressed. It will take some time to process the pictures.
But I am starting the topic now, because I am asking my friends' opinion on something I am getting here.
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I travel to different places few times a year but don't usually buy souvenir. I wasn't planning to buy any in Bhutan but ended up spending quite some money on two kinds of items.
The first is cordyceps 虫草 and the second nice Bhutanese weavings.
When I came to the country, I did not know that Bhutanese harvest cordyceps. One day when we drove pass a rural area near Bumthang, my guide was telling us that the people there used to be very poor. But recently (perhaps just over 10 years ago) they found that they can harvest cordyceps and sell the worms at very high prices. The system of how it work is that at around June, they will harvest and dry the worms. Not everyone can harvest the worms. Each family or village has a quota and they rotate the quota to limit how many people can harvest the worms, and the harvesting period is only one month. Then they will collectively sell the whole stock in an auction. At the beginning of July, the prices will be fixed by the auction or tender, then in about 2 weeks the buyers woud need to complete the transaction with cash.
I did not know what cordyceps means, but after the description, I figured that it's 冬虫夏草 in Chinese. When I was small, my mum used to made soup with this stuff. That was long time ago. About 15 years ago, I read an article that the price of cordyceps has gone up so much that lots of people in Tibet are harvesting the worm and destroyed the environment in the process.
Out of curiousity, I called some people and found out the retail price of cordyceps in HK. I was a bit shocked since I have not had this stuff for well over 20 years. Anyway I asked my guide if he can find some for me.
It happened that our driver's brother is one of those who harvested before. So they start to call people to see if they still have some kept at home. After a few days, they collected from a few sources a bunch of cordyceps.
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Wongyan was kind enough to texted me some hint on cordycepts. Anyway here are the pictures of what I have collected in the last few days.
This is sample 1, only have 20 pieces or so. I am using the iPhone 4 as background so you can estimate the size.
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This is sample 2.
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This is sample 3.
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Sample 4 are the broken ones. One bag was sold to me supposedly cheaply but I later found out it's not too cheap. The ones in the small bag was given to me (perhaps since I paid so much for sample 3). :o
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So my friends, please feel free to comment.
First, if they are real. They look very much like real worms to me. And they all have fishy smell.
Second, the hard question is if these are the ones with medicinal value. I know the "original" 冬虫夏草 are from Tibet. Even if the fungus are the same, since they fed on the worms, the different type of worms and the different soil in different region may have altered the medicinal value.
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It's has been a few months since we got back. I was simply too lazy to process the pictures and write the narratives.
Now there is a request to see certain pictures, I will post the pictures first, maybe writing the narrative later. The pictures are roughly organized by theme.
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The first set is Bhutanese people in the Paro Festival.
One of the most interesting attractions for us is the women's skirt. ;D
OK, it's the weaving that could be very complex and intrigue. Our guide, who is from the east, told us that people in the west (like Paro) would spend a very large sum on a nice weaving cloth that they wear once a year in the festival. We later bought a few pieces of nice ones, at US$1000 to $1800 per piece.
The tops are often silk imported from China, with very Chinese patterns.
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Kids & old people in the Paro Festival.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Some pictures of the mask dances.
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More mask dancers.
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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.
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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.
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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. :)
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Some random pictures of the ceremony and the preparation before the final event.
And more mask dance.
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The man in the blue cap is apparently the head of the temple here and the ceremony. The man in green robe in the lower left was the king's officer. We were told that the color (and pattern) of the scarf men wear show his rank or status.
The festival was (at least partly) organized or sponsored by different villages or organizations, and their representatives were hanging out money to the monks participated in the ceremony, first to the monks at the head, then the first row, then the second row, etc... (But these men were not wearing fancy shoes?!)
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More random pictures form the festival.
In the last picture, the man in joker mask is asking for donation. Supposedly he was making fun of the people or telling jokes.
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It's getting late. I will continue to post pictures later.