the divine madman

feb 11, 2011
punaka, bhutan

stretched our legs a bunch today as we hiked to a couple of dzongs and rambled down the river valley  bouncing around terraced paddies and flying penii.  One of the main deities in these parts is the Divine Madman who followed an arrow he shot from Nepal and ended up in bhutan,  He favored a small loincloth (generally not appropriate for a holy man) and pretty much demanded lots of wine and beautiful women to get into holy mode.  He is revered for (among other things) subduing a dog demon who was causing problems in this neck of the woods.   We are going to a big festival in his honor tomorrow.  Below are a couple of shots specially edited by the artiste.

bamboo picture frame

buddha behind prayer wheels

dzong bell

wheel

mustard field

chhimi and nun

mellow nun

little monks

friends of jerry

dancing policeman in thimpu

real darts

happy dart dance

subdued demon

nonchalance

phub demonstrates buddhist broad jump

flying penii

snow lion

wheel is turning

The other memorable activity was watching a full on match of Bhutanese darts.  Do not think Irish pub.  Think about twenty dudes in a clearing in the woods wearing traditional dress firing heavy metal missiles at a small wooden target 150 feet away.  There is some drinking and a lot of heckling.  If you got hit by one of these things it would knock you over.  It seems like it was two teams of ten.  When somebody buried one of these rockets in the target the happy team would do a very happy end zone dance and chant.

tricky little situation (artillary shells) between thailand and cambodia.  need to figure out if we can still get from Bangok to Siem Reap overland.