Bhutan the land of happiness

 Bhutan the land of happiness 

Nestled in the snow-coned mountain ranges is this  small picturesque  country of Bhutan. As our plane descended, we felt as if we were going to land on a green turf rather than on a hard airstrip. The airport is small but was so built that it looked a part of surrounding greenery without any trappings of hightech modern airports.

Bhutan is the only country which measures its growth in terms of happiness and stands amidst the happiest countries, a big achievement for a small country.

Normally in most of the places we visited one has to travel a lot to reach places of tourist attraction but in Bhutan  every place is a feast for the eyes parched by pollution filled concrete jungles. These are our impressions as we traveled from the airport to  Thimpu, capital of Bhutan. The journey itself was adventurous as the bus travelled along narrow precipices of humongous mountains on one side and the steep and deep valleys on the other side. Being from planes, our feelings were oscillated between the fear of landslides on the mountainside and sliding to bottomless abyss on the other side, and joy of breathtaking beautiful tree and mist veiled hill ranges and cascades rushing down to  feed the meandering river bodies below.

The tourist spots on the way where we stopped along the Paro river were quite refreshing with civilizational trappings without modern cacophony. Along the river banks are buildings aesthetically built in Bhutan-Nepal architectural style with unique flavour.

By evening we reached Thimpu situated at a height of 3000 metres above the sea level and rested in a hotel.

We awoke to the bird twitterings and went out only to be got entranced by the scene embellished by snow covered mountains yonder and the birds singing to the tender jalatarangini being played by the river on pebbles. For a second, it felt that we were listening to Yani conducting Chopin's spring waltz.

We pinched ourselves into  reality and went to see cottage industry units making paper with rose petals. We also visited School of Art in which apart from unique paintings, we were struck by four young artists together painting on a huge convas piecing together individual images in their minds producing a single picture demonstrating such an amazing unity of thought and  artistry.

Tango monastery another famous place situated at a distance of about 14 kilometres from the capital was our next visit.It was built in 1688 by Tenzing Rag By, the fourth temporal Ruler. It was built in Jang  architectural style  as are the most structures in  Bhutan. In 1616 a Tibetan Lama, Sab During Navang Nyam Gyal supposedly meditated in this cave. This monastery exudes a strange mix of ostentation and serenity betraying terrestrial and celetial musings of man.

Our next visit was to Budda Dodra, a 54 metre bronze statue of Buddha with 125000 small golden Buddha statues arranged in neat rows by the side of this statue and together they are believed to confer peace and tranquility  to the world. 

A Buddhist scholar's treasure Kavaang Jaang Da Ga,the national library of Bhutan filled with invaluable manuscripts, ancient scriptures and legacy volumes of Bhutan culture.After the Library, we proceeded on a 75 kilometre 3 hour journey to Punakha, the erstwhile capital of Bhutan situated 3100 Meyers height. Here we saw 'Druk Wyangel Bordens', 198 structures built in memory of the soldiers who fought and died against ULFA terrorists.

Our guide next took us to Punaka Dang which was capital city of Bhutan up to 1955.All the Bhutanese warring tribes were unified by Jab Drung Gawaang Nangyal and were liberated from the Tibetan influence in 1637. He built 180 hundred metre long and 72 metres wide huge building in which the the Roysl familied lived along with 600 Buddhist monks. This building was six storied with a long tall ornamentally engraved tower in the midst of it. To  reach this palace,we had to pass over basin bridge passing through Pochu and Mochu rivers. Over the water, this hanging bridge was lovely and stands testimony to engineering skills of those days. Afterwards we went to Chimilacong  monastry walking through agricultural fields where  banners welcomed the tourists. This mystery is believed to bestow fertility on the childless.

Kam Dum Tulle Nangyal  Choten,another four storied monastery, was the next place in our itinerary. This was constructed by Bhutan Queen to establish world peace and to decimate evil forces. It was built in the form of a Pagoda over 9 years.  Tt has four stories; each story has the statues showing the various incarnations of Buddha and also the Lamas who venerated him. In fourth story, Sankhya Muni statue was very captivating and grandiose. To reach this place is itself an adventure.We had to cross a narrow bridge over Pochu river. This bridge as we walked was wobbling.After crossing the bridge we had to to wade through paddy fields for 20 minutes and walk up a steep slippery mud road. But after seeing this Monastery and breathtaking scenery from that height showing us voluptuously meandering Pochu making its way through those mighty mountains.  

Next in our itinerary was was an arduous trek up and down several small hills  took us to the most important place of visit for any tourist to Bhutan viz. Tak Sung Fal Fung monastery. Buddha in his second incarnation as guru padmasambhava was born here and was of great help to the people here curing them of their physical mind mental problems. With his  profound preachings,he conferred peace and tranquility on the people here which probably continues till today as is evident in the Bhutanese penchant for Happiness. In 8th century many exalted Buddhist monks lived in these caves and prayed and meditated attaining very high levels of conscience.

Gym Rock Bye was credited to have constructed this monastery around 1692. Guru padmasambhava was the one who was believed to have introduced Buddhism in this area. This Guru is known as guru Rinpoche. 

Even the builder of this monastery was supposed to have been born with the spirit of padmasambhava. This monastery is 12 kilometres away from Paro airport deep within thick forests at a height of 10240 feet. It has been recognised as world heritage centre with around 17 spacious caves. At this place, called Tiger Nest, is a  breathtaking waterfall cascading down from  200 feet height. It had transfixed us and we stayed there looking at the magnificent sight totally mesmerised as much by mellifluous sound of the waterfall as by the serene ambience of the place. We completely forgot all our fatigue that we felt travelling 8km on foot over extremely undulating territory. We are quite sure that those who live here will never get any diseases because of pure scented air and the srendepity of the place.We felt jealous of Bhutanese people. I for myself felt how wonderful it could be to spend the rest of my life meditating in this peaceful environment.Actually even heaven may not match magic of this place. 

With a sense of accomplishment and heightened sensibility and also with heaviness  in our hearts we have left Bhutan praying tobe  reborn in this land of happiness in our next lives, if there be any.

Rangaraya Shyamsunder