Burning Lakes and the Bliss of Vacation

Its the holiday blog. These two weeks have been great, but there's too much to mention in detail, so its going to be a diary of photos with a brevity of words.

Trees Trees Trees

The journey... I'd been as far as Rukubji, but continuing down towards Trongsa, the gateway to the East, we pass the Black Mountains to the South. These mountains are so dense with trees it seems almost ridiculous. I just stared at them the whole way, endlessly fascinated by the detail and by the sheer scale of life's effusive growth. As they tailed off and a valley spread out before us, we stopped at a Chorten while Karma rested his eyes and stretched his limbs. I walked down to the river, circled the Chorten and returned. Around the next mountain was Trongsa. It clings to the mountainside like so many other towns and villages do, but Trongsa has a big and imposing Dzongh that juts out towards the valley. Pilgrims and traders would have to pass through this Dzongh and pay their taxes as they journeyed East. Our 4x4 roared past it on the road and headed up the pass, over which the Bumthang Valley was waiting.

Trongsa from Afar

Chorten at the End of the Black Mountains.

The edge of the road... and the other road across the valley... 

The Bumthang Valley – they call it the Switzerland of Bhutan, which is a nonsense comparison (it's the Bumthang of Bhutan), but it does have similarities. It a glacial alpine valley with evergreen forests up on the hills and a rushing river with the murky-sparkley colour you expect from glacial melt. The airport runway cuts straight through it and is still a cause of much excitement for the residents and tourists alike. I am a tourist! For 2 weeks, an unashamed tourist, and loving it.

The first 3 days were spent in the River Lodge with most of the other BCF teachers, grabbing some well-enjoyed catch-up, drinking actual, real, made from grapes red wine and relaxing. We visited the Tang valley where we met perhaps the most successful modern Bhutanese author, Madam Kuenzang Choden (Dawa the Dog, Circle of Karma etc). We ate a splendid lunch and then were treated to a tour of Ogyen Choling, the 16^th Century ancestral home that she is transforming into a museum. Many of the practices and aspects of living remain unchanged in the more remote villages, and many of the teachers were taken aback by this. 

Relaxing in Tang Valley Before Lunch

There is a rich history to this country and its fascinating to be at such close quarters to it – as if we somehow have one foot in the present moment and another in the centuries gone by. British museums document times long forgotten and no longer lived; here they document the baseline of a living transition. It would be interesting to observe over time what proportion of the exhibits truly become museum pieces and how many continue to remain in current use.

Burning Lake

We also visited The Burning Lake, famous for the discovery of sacred objects by the Terton (Treasure Hunter) Pema Lingpa. When Guru Rinpoche flew to Bhutan on his flying tigress to bring Buddhism to the land, he left behind sacred texts and treasures, which were subsequently found by Tertons in later times. Pema Lingpa is perhaps the most famous of the Tertons, and in the Burning Lake (which is actually a pool in a fast-moving river), he was challenged to prove himself under accusations of trickery and deceit. He dived in with a lamp and re-emerged with the lamp still lit, his arms wrapped around treasures.

Burning Lake

Back in the hotel, the red wine was pouring in hearty measures, stories were being exchanged and the fresh-faced foreigners who arrived here 6 months ago were notable by their absence, replaced by a new breed of intrepid teacher. In the beginning we were all over-excited, shell-shocked by our much-anticipated and long-imagined arrival, unsure of ourselves, uncertain about what our experiences would entail and how our placements would pan out. The restless agitation of excitement had given way to an assured calm, a comfortability in our own Bhutanese skins. To further relax my own Bhutanese skin, I treated myself to a full body massage, which was lush! Oh, and we headed to the Red Panda Brewery for a tour and inspection of the goods...

Me, Martin, Tara, Ashley and Karma

The Washie-feetee Dance

After the 3 day retreat with feedback sessions and talk of contract renewals, I moved on to Martin and Tara's house down the road and was immediately struck by how homely their home was. I suppose you could extend the crass Swiss analogy by saying it was very much like an Alpine lodge. This has been my base for the last week and a half. I disappointed myself a little by not heading East and soaking my eyes in the resplendent fantasticness of this country, but we entertained ourselves here with a few short treks, some snooker, a visit to the $1400 per night Amon Kora hotel for coffee, plenty of scrabble, homemade pizzas, pies and cakes and projector movie nights. No grounds for complaint there.

The other teachers here are great fun to hang around with and each has an inspirational aspect. Iman teaches me Yoga and is good for long conversations about just about anything. Noorin was teaching in Hunza when she was 20! China at 19, then in the middle-of-nowhere north of Canada for a few years before Bhutan. Sarah came straight from a six month shift in Antarctica, where I'm seriously considering aiming for next. Martin and Tara live in a house they built for themselves in Salt Spring, Vancouver (another place I'd seriously consider living). Tara is a Jazz singer, demure and wise, the matriarch and counsellor of the group, Martin is a dynamo of unbridled curiosity with an insatiable hunger for learning about pretty much everything. You can count on him to find out how the houses were built, how the buckwheat is drawn into noodles or why the kids take out a numbered bottle cap from a bucket at the end of a game of Karam (although I don't think he actually figured this out). His enthusiasm to solve a problem or fix things is endless, and in the absence of any difficulties, he might even whittle you a bamboo spoon. The locals call him Captain Longstride. Martha has a sound effect for everything and bubbles with energy. Ashley has a personality that goes BOOM a lot, especially when she's accompanied by the fun-loving and loquacious Reidi of the ever-ready smiles. 

The BCF Crew outside Ogyen Chholing

And that's just a few of them. We've all been excited by how easy we find each other's company, especially on the trek where everybody was helping everyone else and we all took turns walking with each other, bantering and digging into our respective histories. Everyone has a story – lives are just stories written in chapters by our choices - and there's some good ones here.

I guess I'll need another entry to walk you through the Tang Valley, so I'll try to do that. In the meantime, all the best to everybody and love trumpets a-blowin global.