Going to visit the rural schools

So my dear friend Phunstso asked me if I wanted to come along on some of my Fridays (when I luckily have no classes to teach) as she went about her rounds of supervising the 2nd year students who are spending their six months in the field practicing their new teaching skills. I of course was ecstatic to go and see the reality that my students are going to go out and face, once they complete their time at this college.

The very cute gas pump at the edge of Paro. Currently the road between Paro and Thimpu is under major construction due to the fact that next year is full of celebrations - the beginning of democracy, the crowning of the 5th king, and the 100th year celebration of the monarchy in Bhutan. Ironically, it´s actually the 101st year, but this year is an inauspicious year for Bhutan, so say the astrologers anyway, so no one is supposed to do anything major..
This is our traffic jam on the way to Thimpu. We actually rounded the corner and the whole road was covered by fallen rock, so we got to sit there for an hour while it was cleared away..

The first school we visited.
It was great seeing the rural reality, put it into blazing perspective for me. Yes I do have 50 students in my largest class, but so do many classes that my students are going to go out and teach. And the rooms are a whole lot smaller than the one I teach in...First class, left sideAnd the right side.

The next class I went into was even smaller..

It was a bit discouraging I must say, to see the standard of teaching. I can understand why so many of my students have difficulty speaking English after 12 years of schooling done in English! All that most teachers required of their students was to parrot as one large chorus, 'yes sir' or 'no sir' or 'no doubt'...
It was interesting getting to give feedback to the student teachers - put me back a few years, wondering and worrying as things went wrong how your supervisor would react. What really scared me though, was that most of the classes I witnessed, the student teacher had no idea that students should be asked to participate in more engaged ways! o la la...
Phuntso talking on her cell phone, on the way to a village. It amazes me how one never seems to get out of cell phone range! And this is a mountainous country!


Village temple


The wall of the temple... Every building in Bhutan has to be painted in traditional style, by law apparently!
And more wall decoration!

School girls..



Fields in a traditional village

Of Paro Tshechu.. and a long bike ride

Every year in Paro, there is a Tshechu, a big 5 day celebration to remember Guru Rimpoche´s (the Saint who brought Buddhism to Bhutan) successful conquering of the local demons.. I was fortunate to be in Paro for it - and let me say I was shocked by the sudden appearance of so many tourists! And so many vehicles! Truly I think that half the transportation of Bhutan made its appearance in Paro over the weekend.. The whole festival has a very religious nature, with the monks performing most of the dances, with a few being done by one village´s laymen and women (the village changes every year). So I went for 3 of the days, to sit in the sun and watch the colourful dances.

I was very lucky to have some great guides to take me to the Tshechu. The first day I went on my own, and ran into a couple of my students up at the Dzong, who gave me a great tour. The second day, I had the 12 year old boys of the neighbourhood volunteer to be my guides!

Tashi and his cousin, and me in my new kira
My four handsome young guides!


Day 1 - the festival occurs within the Dzong (the local building of administration, and house of the local body of monks). Lots of people actually choose to NOT go on this day, cause you end up being fairly crammed into the space around the central courtyard to watch the dances. This is the traditional black hat dance, (yes, those are monks dancing).The courtyard of the Dzong


My student guides took me up to the 2nd floor of the Dzong, and you could see the whole Paro valley. Originally the Dzongs were built as a fortress, as well as an administration center. This Dzong apparently also has a secret passageway for escape, down to the river. But although it was attacked 6 times by Tibetan forces, it never fell..

There was also a huge campaign on sexual health and Aids, hanging right outside the Dzong. An interesting contrast between century old Buddhist dances, and these modern issues.



Another strange paradox was the abundance of toy guns among the boys! Seemed a bit bizarre at such a peaceful , meditative festival..

Day 3 - reenactment of the judgement after Death.

This day there is a 2-3 hour play telling the tale of 2 men who die, and who are judged (one going to hell, the other to heaven). The best part is when the 'lord of death' exits - it´s a HUGE puppet, carried out by the monks (who try to not have it tip over!), and it circles the central square with lots of dancing and commotion all around.



Masked dancers - each one represents some animal (monkey, pig etc), and will apparently appear to you after you die. So old people watch this with great fascination, because if you do not recognize these ´guides´you will not be led into heaven, and wander around in suffering and torment The puppet..

I honestly thought these guys looked a bit like the 3 wise men!
Monks carrying the puppet

The last day, everyone wakes up very early in the morning to go and see an enormous wall hanging of Guru Rimpoche in his 8 manifestations. Simply seeing or touching the tondrel is supposed to bring blessings and take away your sin.

5 am. The tondrel is not supposed to see the sun (given that it´s several hundred years old, that probably makes sense)
The endless line of people who want to touch the tondrel.


The 8 manifestations of Guru Rimpoche.

Since I was up so early anyway, I figured it would be a good day to try to bike to Chelela, a local pass nearby. I set out around 7 am, and was excited to make it to the top by 11.. The last few kms were WAY harder than i expected (given that the grade hardly changed at all... suddenly i was just much more tired..). But then i got to the top and saw the sign... I was nearly at 4000 m. Hello Melly! Altitude might be the reason you´re going so slow!




There was a group of men from Haa (the Dzong on the other side of the pass) who´d driven up to do some repairs and construction. They lit a fire of juniper branches, apparently as a prayer. Of course, since there were prayer flags, I had to take a picture..

The ride down was fantastic! I can´t believe that not only is there cell phone reception at the top of this pass (and everywhere else in Bhutan as far as I can tell) but it´s a paved road! There was very little traffic, making for an excellent ride down, and i only scared one poor soul (who didn´t stop either as he was coming up, so at least partially his fault!) by pulling off the road to the right (they drive on the left in Bhutan).. mama mia!

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..)