Dressing up... Bhutanese style

With the help of two friends from Paro College of Education, I bought myself a kira (the National Outfit for women). The skirt is basically a long piece of material that you wrap around yourself in a very specific way (it only took me half an hour to master it!) and then tie tightly with a belt. I thought I was home free when I “mastered” putting on the skirt.. but oh no, the top is even more complicated! I believe that Bhutan may be personally responsible for keeping the manufacturing of broaches live and well, since there are no buttons on either the blouse or jacket – you just fasten it together with a safety pin and a broach..

Anyways, after a good practice session with my friend Phuntsho, I decided to try wearing it to school on Weds. Talk about the self-esteem boost of a lifetime! All the students I met emphatically told me, “You look Beautiful madam!” and several claimed that I am now fully Bhutanese!

So here are some picture of my large 1^st year class.
Working hard as you can see... oh what a good teacher Madam is! There were actually 2 students away, and it made the class seem surprisingly small (only 48 instead of 50!)
The boys - got to love the ones standing beside me showing some good attitude..

The girls - as you can see, i´m a little taller than the national average..

All of us

I also had the pleasure to go and get my hair cut (and styled!) on Weds evening. This fabulous do only cost 60 rupees (less than $2 Canadian).
Tashi - Phuntsho´s son, and I with our new hair do´s! My 'straight hair' only lasted a couple of hours.. curls win out in the end.

Visit to Taktsang monastery

So on Saturday, the young administrative officer of our college organized a trip to the famous Taktsang monastery for Amy and Rachel, two British girls who were here for a week conducting a workshop for the English students on how to teach English as a foreign language, and myself.

Taktsang monastary - literally 'Tiger´s Nest'. The story goes that Guru Rimpoche, the man who brought buddhism to Bhutan from India, flew to Taktsang on the back of a Tiger. (So as you might imagine, inside the monastery you can see lots of pictures of him on a tiger). I can´t imagine why else anyone would look at this cliff and think, 'i know.. I´ll build a monastery THERE!'

The hike up was about 2 hours, through a widely spaced forest, with great views on every side. Yes, more prayer flags, I truly love them


Apparently several youth clubs nearby take charge of keeping the trail to Taktsang free from garbage. Several times on the path up, we passed hilarious garbage 'bins'




A picture of me, in case you´ve forgotten what I look like...

Taktsang monastery.. Truly beautiful. We were not allowed to take any cameras inside, but we were lucky enough to see several altars, and light a few trays of butter lamps. It is an airy perch, that´s for sure.
Amy, Rachel and I, at the top of the climb.


Another temple in the cliff. With another fabulous garbage can...

1000 Butter Lamps

Funeral Prayers

I realize that it is the first time since my Mom’s funeral that I’ve been involved in saying prayers for someone else who´s died. On Monday we went to light 1000 butter lamps for the Father of a colleague. It was truly a beautiful affair…

The first temple we went to, we couldn’t find the caretaker! So we just walked around the outside, turning the prayer wheels (always clockwise) to reduce our impurities, and release good karma into the world..

So we went to a second temple, which is right next to the market, so I’ve been curious about it ever since I arrived. The monk let us in, and the two men proceeded with the task of melting boxes of shortening to oil, that we poured into the little lamps.
The women pressed cotton wicks into each of the lamps, and arranged them in rows on the central altar.

The monk pouring oil into the lamps.

Apparently you can´t breathe on the lamps, or your impurity will go into the flame.

By the time we finally finished filling and lighting the lamps, it was completely dark (almost 3 hours later).

We then went into the temple, and they did a few kneeling-bow prayers, and we were done. So far, Buddhism seems to be have very action-oriented forms of prayer. (singing, dancing, lighting candles..)

Navigating the Market..

Vegetable market is every Sunday, and it is a multi-coloured affair. Vendors come from many neighbouring villages, and spread their goods out on plastic mats. I am not always the most patient person, so while a large line-up at one vendor may indicate that they have either the freshest produce or the best price, I move on to the ones who are more free.

First difficulty: understanding the price. It turns out this is not that difficult, because everyone knows the numbers in English, and it seems that everything is sold by the kg. Or 500 g, or 250 g. Those are the three large metal weights that everyone seems to have in addition to their hanging balances. Let me tell you, 250 g of garlic is substantial, 250 g of chilies is absurd! But then, they seem to cook chilies like a vegetable here…

Second difficulty: Packing my backpack. It turns out that few vendors have plastic bags – the general trend is simply to dump the produce into the buyers bag. Maybe next time I shouldn’t buy tomatoes first!

Third difficulty: wanting to take a picture, but not feeling like I know anyone well enough yet to be able to… So I just get one quick shot... maybe over the next months as i get to know people better.

At the end of the morning, I’ve spent all my money (i feel shocked, until i realize it´s only about $10 Canadian) and have more than enough food to last me until next Sunday. Some things are ridiculously cheap (cilantro and green onions each cost about 10 cents a bunch), and others are relatively comparable to Canadian prices (eggs, grapes..). My guess is that few laying chickens could make you some good money in Bhutan.

national clean up day...

At the morning assembly last Saturday , the principal announced that classes were going to be cancelled, and that instead all students were going to participate in national clean up day..

Only in Peru have I before seen somone sweep dirt!



The girls I worked with were great - they even took me to their dorms afterwards (we were cleaning around outside) and I got to see their tiny rooms. Enrollment by women is way up this year, so they´ve had to put 3 students into rooms for 2 people. Let me tell you, those beds are narrow for two!

In the afternoon, it was WELCOME THE FIRST YEARS.. (a celebration put on by the third years)

The entertainment consisted of many dances by different groups of students, and an impromptu speech by yours truly! You’ve got to love being the only foreigner – you never know when you’re going to be called upon to make a fool of yourself. I joked that since several students had told me it was “soooooooo Sad Madam that you are not married” that if they had any older brothers or cousins to bring them on by…

Most of the dances are more modernized (Baliwood style) traditional Bhutanese group dances, but there were a couple who did their own thing…

The coolest thing was that before the big buffet dinner (lots of chilies!), instead of grace being said, a group of us were asked to dance the traditional thanksgiving song..

Arrival at last!

To backtrack a bit..

After altogether too many planes and airports, I arrived in Paro, Bhutan on Saturday, March 3rd. The good news: Arjun was there to meet me. The bad news: my luggage was not. Not a big shock really, since I had barely made one of my connections with five minutes to spare. Luckily I have a well packed carry on, since planes arrive from Delhi only 3 times a week. (Drukair only has 4 planes, so that’s not much of a shock, really…)

My house is on the edge of the campus of Paro College of Education. It has walls a good 2 feet thick, and thus acts as a giant fridge, even in this incredibly sunny weather. Wish my long underwear were with me.

My favourite spot so far, is the bridge to the town, which is hung with prayer flags.

Nearby is the local Dzong – the administrative center for the region. It also houses a couple of temples and monasteries.. Thus I see monks in red clothing all over the town.