Wangdue

Thursday, September 17

We drove from Phobjikha to Wangdue, where we checked into an exceptionally nice hotel, the Wangdue Eco Lodge. It has good, fast internet, which has enabled me to clear the backlog of blogs about our Bhutan trip.

View from our approach to the hotel down to the terraced rice fields and farm buildings:

Today was a festival day for the Indian saint of machinery and carpentry, 

so many of the cars and trucks were gaily decorated.

After getting ourselves situated in Wangdue, we went down into the village, which is associated with a small temple founded by the "divine mad monk" Drukpa Kinley. He challenged the conformity of the Buddhism of his time (about 500 years ago) by "employing a shocking and lascivious sense of humor", expressed in phallic imagery. The town has made this theme one of their main businesses.

We walked to the temple through rice fields.

After returning through the fields from the temple, we spent some time in the Vegetable Market, admiring the abundance of chili peppers and other produce.