Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [103]
About 5km before Chhuzom, the road passes Tamchhog Lhakhang, a private temple owned by the descendants of the famous Tibetan bridge-builder Thangtong Gyalpo (Click here). The traditional iron bridge here was reconstructed in 2005 using some of Thangtong’s original chain links from Duksum (Click here) in eastern Bhutan. The red soil around the temple contains low-grade ore that once supplied the raw material for iron works.
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THE IRON-BRIDGE BUILDER
Thangtong Gyalpo (1385–1464) was a wonder-working Tibetan saint who is believed to have originated the use of heavy iron chains in the construction of suspension bridges. He built 108 bridges throughout Tibet and Bhutan and became known as Lama Chazampa (the Iron Bridge Lama).
In 1433 he came to Bhutan in search of iron ore and built eight bridges in places as far removed as Paro and Trashigang. You can see some of the original iron links at the Paro Museum and at Kyichu Lhakhang in the Paro valley. Sadly, the only surviving Thangtong Gyalpo bridge, at Duksum on the road to Trashi Yangtse in eastern Bhutan, was washed away in 2004.
This medieval Renaissance man didn’t stop at engineering. Among his other achievements was the composition of many folk songs, still sung today by people as they thresh wheat or pound the mud for house construction, and also the invention of Tibetan lhamo opera. He was an important terton (discoverer of terma) of the Nyingma lineage and attained the title Drubthob (Great Magician). In Paro he built the marvellous chorten-shaped Dumtse Lhakhang. His descendants still maintain the nearby Tamchhog Goemba Lhakhang.
Statues of Thangtong Gyalpo depict him as a stocky shirtless figure with a beard, curly hair and topknot, holding a link of chains.
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You can almost feel the clocks slowing down as you step into the 600-year-old temple. A 100-year old mandarin tree dominates the courtyard. The lovely murals have been darkened by centuries of yak-butter lamps. A kora (circumambulation) path in the main chapel leads around central murals of Thangtong Gyalpo and his son Dewa Tsangpo. The doorway of the upper floor goenkhang (protector chapel) is framed by rows of skulls and a hornbill beak and is dedicated to the local protector Maza Damsum.
Chhuzom, better known as ‘the Confluence’ is at the juncture of the Paro Chhu and the Wang Chhu (chhu means ‘river’, zom means ‘to join’). Sometimes this confluence is considered a union of a mother and father river, similar to that of the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu at Punakha. The Paro Chhu represents the father, and is sometimes called the ‘Pho Chhu’, and the Wang Chhu is the ‘Mo Chhu’, or mother river.
Because Bhutanese tradition regards such a joining of rivers as inauspicious, there are three chortens here to ward away the evil spells of the area. Each chorten is in a different style – Bhutanese, Tibetan and Nepali.
Chhuzom is also a major road junction, with roads leading southwest to Haa (79km), south to the border town of Phuentsholing (141km) and northeast to Thimphu (31km).
A checkpoint here keeps track of vehicle movements. Dantak, the Indian road-construction organisation, operates a simple coffee shop next to the checkpoint. People from nearby villages often sit by the side of the road south of the checkpoint selling vegetables, apples and dried cheese.
Chhuzom to Thimphu
31km / 1 hour
As the road ascends the Wang Chhu valley, this hillsides become unusually barren. At 1km past Chhuzom there is a rough, unpaved side road that leads to Geynikha and the start of the Dagala Thousand Lakes trek (Click here).
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NOT AS OLD AS YOU THINK
At several places along the road to Thimphu you will see what look like ancient ruins. These are the remains of houses that either burned down or were abandoned. It is considered unlucky to move into the house of a family whose members have died out or a house that has been abandoned, therefore there are numerous derelict houses scattered around the country. The rammed mud walls are so tough that they survive for years after the rest of the