The Monastery That's Always in the Sun

A few weekends ago Matt and I were invited to go on a hike with Doug, Janet and Julia (who have been mentioned in previous posts). Since we don't have a car ourselves, we try to take advantage of as many invites as possible. This particular hike began not too far from where we live and ended at a monastery that overlooks the Thimphu valley. No one knew the name of this particular monastery but we kept hearing it described as "the monastery that's always in the sun". Although I've never noticed it before, the hilltop where it sits appears to always be lit up by sunshine and this fact allowed us to describe where we had gone.

After a short drive, we parked the car on the side of a quiet road and began our hike. As you can see below, the very beginning of the hike began on the road, which led us uphill past an orchard (now barren) and an archery field where men were in competition, and eventually to an unpaved path. The day was clear, sunny and warm – the perfect autumn weather for a hike. It has not rained here in over a month so much of the vegetation has taken on yellow and golden hues. A few plants have turned shades of maroon and red. From afar the yellows and golds of the fields look rather drab but as we walked through, I was struck by how beautiful and rich it all appeared, no doubt helped by the sunlight. On this day, what I had always thought of as just dead plants was transformed into something that was bright, luminous, and eye-catching.

Beginning the hike

Archers - they were kind of enough to let us know when the coast was
clear (lest we get a puncture wound from a wayward arrow)

Into the woods we go

Small house near where we left the road

Fall beauty

After leaving the road, the route we took was somewhat inexact for some time – Doug knew the direction that we were going, so we didn't get lost, but be did end up having to climb a very steep embankment where we crossed some downed barbed wire. Never a dull moment!

Eventually we  found the path that would lead us through the woods and up to the monastery. For awhile it followed the ridge of the mountain from which Royal Thimphu College (where we live and Matt teaches) was visible. Its possible to hike to the monastery directly from the college but it requires taking a path with an 80% grade (not quite the type of hike we were looking for).

View of RTC from the trail

From the ridge, we cut over and made our way through two different stands of white prayer flags. These types of prayer flags are erected in honor of someone who has died, usually 108 because this is considered the most auspicious number.

Past the prayer flags we found our way to the trail through the woods. We could tell that this trail is not often taken for two reasons. First, sadly, because there was no garbage on the trail and second, because while the path itself was worn, we had to do quite a bit a bushwhacking to get through the branches and such that had grown across the walkway. Our sunglasses doubled as protective eyewear. As we hiked, the dry nature of the environment became very apparent. Many of the plants have very waxy leaves (in order to retain moisture) and, unfortunately for us, many were also holly-like and had plenty of prickly points to catch at our clothing and skin as we walked by.

As the elevation of the increased, we began to see more old man's beard (usnea) on the trees. We had noticed lichen growing at higher elevations on other hikes but in doing a little reading, it seems that this may be due more to the lichen's sensitivity to air pollution (it's very sensitive to sulfur dioxide) than to elevation. Also, if you are a health and/or biology nerd like me, this lichen is extra interesting because it has uses in traditional medicine. Look it up if you're interested (the link above is to Wikipedia so you may want to go beyond that to verify the information). 

Old man's beard adds a mystical effect to the forest

More fall colors

When we finally made it up to the monastery, our first sight was of the monks playing soccer with some students from RTC (they had taken the trek with the 80% grade right from campus and had camped overnight at the monastery). They greeted us and then continued with their match.

Before sitting down for lunch, we took in the sweeping views of the Thimphu Valley.

Chorten and valley

It's hard to tell at first but those aren't all clouds, they're the high Himalayas!

Thimphu Valley. Buddha Dorndema in the foreground,
Himalayas in the background. 

The building that houses the butter lamps. 

Chortens and prayer flags near the monastery

After exploring a bit, it was time for lunch. We chose a spot in the sun and sat down to eat. The dogs were very interested in us! I used Julia's trekking pole to somewhat successfully keep them away. Perhaps that's why I was still sitting while others ended up standing.

The monastery itself was very recently renovated, evident by the state of the brightly painted exterior decorations and detailing. It's all hand-painted and quite breathtaking.

After eating, we were allowed to go inside the monastery and see the altar room, which almost automatically forces you into a mindful state as you take in the intricate details on the statues, murals and various alter decorations. However, photos are not allowed so unfortunately we can not offer visuals of the room. One wall of the main room is devoted to the three large Buddha statues symbolizing the past, present and future. Above the Buddhas, on the wall, was a banner of beautifully carved and colorfully painted flowers. Some of the Buddhas were draped with colorful fabric scarves. Just in from of the Buddhas was the altar that held various offerings, including money, food items, water, butter sculptures, which are magnificent in their detail. Below is a picture of a butter sculpture that I found online. You can get an idea of what they look like as well as what a typical altar room looks like (murals on the walls, etc.). In a secondary room, there was also a large golden statue of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel – the 'founding Father' of Bhutan in the 17th century.

Butter sculpture

We were able to take pictures of the murals that covered that walls of the monastery entrance and the hallway that led up to the altar room. They had a dark background and were very sinister and under-worldly in nature, featuring skeletons, demons, and exposed entrails. Himalayan Buddhism is a world haunted by evil spirits, demons, and demonesses. This is a result of Buddhism transposing itself onto much more animistic and shamanistic ancient religions of the region such as the Bon religion in Bhutan. You can see a few images below.

As we said goodbye to the monks and students and headed back down the mountain, the late afternoon light was beginning to fade and cast longer shadows that brightened the fall colors around us. On the way down we stopped to relax in the sun among the prayer flags before continuing on our way. It was truly a beautiful day and both Matt and I agreed that it was our favorite hike thus far in Bhutan.

Fading light