Spiritual

There are countless temples, monasteries, Dzongs (fortresses that combine the Government buildings and the religious monasteries), prayer flags, stoopas and prayer wheels around the country of Bhutan.  We visited a lot of religious sites from the 4 different sects of Buddhism and learned stories about the various Lamas and their reincarnates.   We saw monasteries built in the 8th century by Tibetan Lamas and learned about the local Deities.

Tiger's Nest perched high on the cliff side with a 2000 meter hike up was definitely the most scenic.  The Punaka Dzong located in the valley at the convergence of 2 rivers was very grand and impressive.  

Unlike Tibet we weren't allowed to take photographs inside the temples.  So of course, a week into the trip that became the challenge.  My Dad joked that one day that he could have taken a really good photo was on a special day that if you do you do 1 good thing it counts as 1000 good things (building up karma) however doing 1 bad thing counted as 1000 bad things....  So he opted not to take the photo.  But by the end of the trip - we each managed to sneak a photo.

We were also lucky to see a few religious ceremonies inside temples with monks playing drums and blowing the 6 ft horns (Dad bought Jeff a horn which I brought back!) and chanting.  We visited a few Buddhist schools and nunneries and were able to view their studies and listen to the mantras.  One of my favorite experiences of the trip was waking up really early and walking to the local monastery to go and sit/meditate inside with the monks while listening to them chant.  A few times I was invited back into the holiest inner sanctuary - a place that would be locked off during the day to tourists - to sit.  It was amazing and very peaceful to hear the chanting, ringing of bells, snapping of fingers, and occasional burp, stretch yawn, fart (morning sounds!) while being surrounded by huge - 30 ft statues of local Gods, the past/present and future Buddha, Green Tara and other statues.