Joy's Thimphu Travels: Two days in Punakha

Friday was an Auspicious Day, one of the most sacred Buddhist holy days commemorating the Buddha’s birth, death, and enlightenment. I took advantage of the long weekend to go to Punakha, one of the 20 dzongkhags or districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the country’s capital until 1955, when it was moved to Thimphu. It is still a major administrative center, especially in the winter months because it warmer than Thimphu. This time of year it is quite hot.

Punakha is only about 50 miles from Thimphu but it takes about three hours to drive there because of the road conditions.

Line of cars waiting for road to open

The road is extremely narrow and winding with sheer drop-offs that had me holding my breath for much of the drive. The road is undergoing major repair and widening and so it is closed off and on for hours each day.

Our first stop was at Sopsokha, the village where Drukpa Kunley’s temple, Chimi Lhakhang, is located. You may remember this revered lama affectionately known as the Divine Madman from my previous blog post. Most houses in this area are proudly decorated with painted phalluses (phalli?) and childless couples come to this so-called fertility temple to receive blessings to become pregnant. The temple is reached by a 20-minute walk through rice paddies where we saw many people bent over planting rice and singing as they worked. It truly looks like backbreaking work.

Rice paddy workers in field on path to Chimi Lhakhang

Just a typical house in Sopsokha village

Carved wooden phallus in handicraft store window

Woman lighting butter lamps

Sign at entry to Chime Lhakhang explaining history of this temple

From there, we visited the Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Lhakhang Nunnery. It is perched high up on a hill overlooking the Punakha Valley. Because of the holiday today, all religious sites are crowded with individuals coming to pray and picnic. At the nunnery, the temple hall was filled with nuns (both women and girls as young as seven) chanting, and playing dungchens (traditional Tibetan horns) and drums. The sound was mesmerizing and beautiful.

Approach to the temple at Punakha nunnery

Prayer wheel and flags on hillside

Classroom for the young nuns

Fountain in front of the classroom

We left there and checked into our hotel for the

Kuenga Hotel in Punakha

night, then walked through Punakha town for a couple of hours before returning for dinner.

Front entry to the temple

A wise old monk we tried to talk with at the temple

Joy on the bridge that crosses the river running through town

The next morning we left early to visit Punakha Dzong. Because of the construction, we had to be on our way early enough to pass during the brief times the road was open for travel. This dzong was the most beautiful of the three I’ve seen and served as the location for the royal wedding in 2011.