LPF Bhutan - Coordinates

The is a great deal of information about Bhutan on the Internet. Here is a list of sites we found interesting and/or useful:

Bhutan

Current date and time in Bhutan:
Current date and time in Los Angeles:
Population of Bhutan in 2006 was 672,000
Culture of Bhutan:

religion, national dress code, men and women in society, religious festivals, the monastery, radio, TV and Internet, ...
Government's Portal, an amazing amount of information about the government and the country.
Department of Tourism
Tourist statistics for 2006
Medicine

Historic Monks
Guru Padmasambava

is said to have introduced Buddhism when he visited Bhutan in the 8th century. See also Tigers Nest below.
Pema Lingpa

dove with a lighted butter lamp into the "Flaming Lake" (actually a deep pool in a river) late in the 15th century. He told onlookers that if he was a false spirit his lamp would be extinguished. Disappearing to the bottom of the dark pool he returned to the surface with his butter lamp still burning brightly and bringing with him a new sacred text.
Drukpa Kunley, also know as The Divine Madman, came to Bhutan from Tibet late in the 15th century. He used humor, songs and outrageous behavior to dramatize his teachings. He is credited with the widespread use of statues and paintings of penises. Chimi Lhakhang was built by him in 1499. It is famous for being a temple where childless women go to receive a blessing and become fertile.
Lam Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel came to Bhutan in the 17th century, unified the country and supervised the building of most of the Dzongs we visited.

Bhutan and Buddhism
Bhuddism in Bhutan

Religious Art
Tibet and Bhutan art

Long horn from Tibet or Dung Chen that may be up to ten feet long
Druk Wangyal Khangzang Chhortens.
Reconstruction of Punakha Dzong with background
Pictures and a great deal of information about Bumthang including most of the monasteries.

Phallus
Phallus as art, mostly text but includes one picture that we saw
Flying Phalluses with photos
Bhutan's phalluses warn off evil, story from BBC

Druk Air Royal Bhutan Airlines flies Air Bus 319's with about 125 seats.
Gross Domestic Happiness

The National Museum in Paro
Bhutan's Textile Tradition, an art form that blends traditional and modern
Wild Animals of Bhutan
Bhutan travel

Administrative, Road, Tourist and Elevation Maps
The First Nonsmoking Nation
Dzong architecture

Bhutanese Architecture, images
The Royal University of Bhutan. The King of Bhutan, serves as Chancellor and Dasho Zangley Dukpa, the Vice Chancellor, handles day-to-day administration of the university system
Bhutan's daily online news (in English)
Introduciton to Bhutan as written by the local newspaper
Internet service in Bhutan started June 2, 1999, the 25th anniversary of the King's coronation
Bhutanese Proverbs

Bicycling tour
Bhutan by motorcycle with Ferris Wheels, an Australian company. We met Mike and Denise Ferris and their tour group in a couple of places in Bhutan. Sounded like a great trip.
When to go and what to pack
Good information about Bhutan a used as background for this travelogue
UN Report on Bhutan, a bit dated but good description of the country and historic background

The Trip

The trip was offered and managed by the Sierra Club; local arrangement in Bhutan were managed by Lingkor Tours.

Route

We flew non-stop from Los Angeles to Hong Kong and made a direct connection to a flight to Bangkok. We laid over and then caught a flight to Paro via Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh. The picture below shows how we got to Bhutan and helps to answer the question: Where is Bhutan?

The map above and the one below were both created using Google Earth. You can view the original map above on Google Earth at where is Bhutan and the original map below on Google Earth at Bhutan Route Map. If you do not have Google Earth, you can down load it free from Google Earth

Our route within Bhutan was from Paro east to Jakar and then back to Paro with overnight stops as indicated by the beds in the picture below. The route map on Google Earth has significantly more detail with markers and information about many of the things you could see from a satellite including the runway where we landed in Paro, several hikes we took, the black necked crane information center, and several of our hotels.

Hotels

Other Bhutan Travelogues

Bhutan Photos

Other Topics

Money

Bhutan money is tied to the Indian rupee. Several of our group had rupees and were able to spend them wherever they chose. Many shops were willing to accept US dollars. The exchange rate at our hotels was the same as at a bank but banks had more cash.

We were not able to get a definitive story about ATMs. One of our group expected to use and ATM and was not able to find one. She used here credit card to buy items for other group members and got local money from them -- yes, she is a banker back home.

Visa was accepted in most shops. We did not notice any shops or restaurants that would accept MasterCard. I had a Visa debit card but never had a good reason to see if it was acceptable.

The Number 108

The number 108 keeps appearing in the stories of Bhutan, e.g., 108 chortins or stupas. It has been a sacred number in the Indian sub-continent for a very long time and can be explained in a number of ways.

There are several stories related to the number 108. The most common story in Bhutan is that a monk was attempting to build a temple and and each night an evil demon would undo the days work each night. The solution was to build so much in on day that the demon would not be able to undo what was done. Thus 108 temples spread throughout Bhutan were built in a day and the demon surrendered.

A Tibetan story -- many of the famous monks of Bhutan came from Tibet -- is that in the 7th century the Tibetan King Songsten Gampo built 108 temples. The story goes that a giant demoness lay across the whole area of Tibet and the Himalayas (which would include Bhutan) and was preventing the spread of Buddhism. To overcome her, King Songtsen Gampo decided to build 108 temples, which would be placed on all the points of her body. Of these 108 temples, 12 were built in accordance with precise plans. Thus, it happened that in about the year AD 638 the temple of Jokhang in Lhasa (the capital of Tibet) was built over the very heart of the demoness.

There are random claims surrounding stories about the number 108 that there are that many joints in the human body. It turns out that it is no simple matter to determine the number of joints in the human body.

Our Tour Guide, Karma, now had his own travel agency: Rabzang Norden

About Bhutan