Dinner with the Queen and other amazing events!

Again, this has been quite a week!  Instead of heading to the hospital Monday morning, I went to the Royal Banquet Hall for the opening ceremony of the Partnership Meeting for uniting two organizations with similar goals, RENEW/Community Based Support System and the Multi-Sectoral Task Force.  Both are projects of the queen-mother Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck and focus on social issues including domestic violence, child welfare, and health concerns. I was seated in the “honored guest” section right in the front row and listened to addresses from several government ministers kicking off what was to be a 3-day brainstorming session.  After a photo session and tea service, I returned to the hospital and then home to prepare for another big day on Tuesday. 

Early the next morning, I was picked up to go to Serbethang, an inpatient addictions rehab center in a beautiful area high above Thimphu town.  While the location is beautiful, the facility itself is quite basic and runs on a shoestring budget.  I brought them five dozen eggs and a mountain of treatment materials and information.  I did four groups, two for the men’s program and two for the women’s, a long day but a very well received, and hopefully helpful, one.

Wednesday, after a busy morning at the hospital, I returned to the Royal Banquet Hall for the Closing Ceremony.  This one was attended by the Queen herself and had much more formality and rituals, ending once again with a photo session and high tea.  At the tea, I was given an invitation to attend dinner that evening, hosted by the Queen. To pass the time between tea and dinner, many of us enjoyed a tour of Tara Zhingkham Lhakhang, a recently completed temple initiated by the Queen.  Nestled amidst a grove of giant cypress trees overlooking the Pangrizampa monastery, the temple is unique in that it is the first temple in Bhutan dedicated exclusively to the Tara, one of the few female Bodhisattvas personifying the transcendental wisdom and active compassion of all the Buddhas. It features twenty-one Tara clay statues sculpted by prominent Bhutanese artisans, and the inner temple walls are adorned by exquisite murals painted by master artists depicting the great deities, saints and protectors and events from Gautama Buddha’s life. The ceiling of the temple is also beautifully embellished with mandalas of the Dhyani Buddhas.  It is one of the most beautiful temples I have visited.

Dinner was an event I will always remember.  There were musicians, dancers, and singers as well as a continuous flow of delicious and unusual foods.  I had a chance to talk with the Queen herself as well as long conversations with prominent government officials.  The evening concluded with a traditional circle dance in which we all joined in.  The next morning, one of the hospital nurses told me she saw me on TV that evening.  What a day it was!