Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [108]
Last time, I saw you with the Bumthang trulku;
With my great karmic background, I could approach.
Indeed it was auspicious, to meet you on my pilgrim’s round!
For a biography and collection of songs and bar-room anecdotes concerning Drukpa Kunley, try Keith Dowman’s The Divine Madman.
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Three kilometres from Thinleygang, below Mendigang village, is the small Dechen Hill Resort ( 02-322204; s/d Nu 1050/1400), which was closed during our visit. It’s a short but steep drive up an unpaved road up to the secluded collection of cottages, which are used mostly by birding enthusiasts. Advance reservations for the resort are a must, as is a 4WD vehicle.
The road continues its descent, looping in and out of a side valley, to the road junction at Metshina, where the road to Punakha branches off from the National Hwy. The Zam Restaurant offers snacks and drinks and a petrol station allows your driver to fill up. If you are continuing to Wangdue Phodrang, stay on the main road.
Metshina to Punakha
11km / 30 mins
The road to Punakha makes a switchback down past a collection of shops and houses at Sopsokha, from where you can visit the Chimi Lhakhang. Beyond here, the road crosses the small Tabe Rong Chhu and swings round a ridge into the valley of the Punak Tsang Chhu. Watch for black great cormorants sitting on rocks beside the river looking for fish. The dirt road on the other side of the valley offers several mountain-biking options (Click here).
After another 2km or so, by the village of Wolakha, a road peels off to the left and climbs to the Meri Phuensom and Zangto Pelri hotels (Click here). High upon the hillside this side road continues a relentless uphill for 15km to Talo Goemba. You need a permit specifying Talo in order to visit the monastery. Up on the nearby ridge, the village of Norbugang reportedly has several fine lhakhangs but is closed to visitors since it is home to the family of the king’s four wives. A 1km side road branches off 5km before Talo to Dalay Goemba, a lobdra (monastic school) which is home to 30 students and a young trulku (reincarnated lama). The monastery was founded by the seventh Je Khenpo and is also known as Nalanda, after the famous Indian Buddhist university.
Back on the main road, just under 2km from the junction and 6.5km from Metshina is the new town of Khuruthang. All of Punakha’s shops were relocated to this uninspiring concrete grid in 1999. There are several restaurants and hotels and a Saturday vegetable market.
To the side of the road is the new Khuruthang Goemba, built by the queen’s mother and consecrated in 2005. The main Zangto Pelri Lhakhang here has excellent ceiling mandalas. The murals on the far wall depict the Zhabdrung and the various dzongs he established. The large Nepali-style chorten here was built by the Indian guru Nagi Rinchen (Click here) and is said to enshrine a speaking image of Guru Rinpoche known as Guru Samzhung.
It’s a further 3km to a high school and an excellent viewpoint over the Punakha Dzong. A kilometre further on is a parking area and the footbridge leading across the Mo Chhu to gorgeous Punakha Dzong.
CHIMI LHAKHANG
On a hillock in the centre of the valley below Metshina is the yellow-roofed Chimi Lhakhang, built in 1499 by the cousin of Lama Drukpa Kunley, in his honour after he subdued the demoness of the nearby Dochu La with his ‘magic thunderbolt of wisdom’. A wooden effigy of the lama’s thunderbolt is preserved in the lhakhang, and childless women go to the temple to receive a wang (blessing or empowerment) from the saint.
It’s a 20-minute walk across fields from the road at Sopsokha to the temple. The trail leads across rice fields to the tiny settlement of Pana, which means ‘field’. It then follows a tiny stream downhill to Yoaka (which means ‘in the drain’) and across an archery ground before making a short climb to Chimi Lhakhang. During the wet season, this is an especially muddy and slippery walk. Kunley characteristically likened the shape of the hillock to that of a woman’s breast.
There are a few monks