Please see additional photos in my gallery.
Building just above chortens
After departing Thimphu, we headed east and farther into the beautiful mountains.
Our first stop for tea/coffee (a wonderful treat we soon looked forward to because of the sweet and savory biscuits served with our tea and Nescafe) was Dochu La Pass (just over 10,000 feet). At the top of the pass, we found a group of 108 chortens. A chorten is a Buddhist monument built
of stone. These can be found throughout Bhutan. 108 is a sacred number in Buddhism is used in many instances, including the number of beads in a set of prayer beads.
108 chortens at Dochu La Pass
Close up of chorten
Detail of building
After some time wandering around the pass, we moved onward towards towards Punakha, through a rhododendron forest (though the flowers weren’t blooming as I had imagined) and on to the Panakha Dzong, Bhutan’s former capital and the winter seat of the Head Abbot).
But not before we had a chance to take a wonderful walk through wheat fields and a small village to visit a little dzong in the middle of a valley…
Travel Well!
Join other Wanderlusters and help make this the most popular women’s travel blog by subscribing via email or RSS feed.
You can also add this article to popular social networking sites by clicking on the buttons below.
Jim says
Wo, you must have been impressed to see the chortens at such a lofty place – I can imagine the air, your breathing, one becomes acutely aware of ones self when hiking at those altitudes. I hope you had the time to soak it all in.
familyonbikes says
Oh wow!! I’m so jealous! Bhutan is one of those places I’ve always wanted to go. Maybe one day we’ll actually get there.
Hey – I know!! We’re taking off now to ride our bikes from Alaska to Argentina – and once we get to Tierra del Fuego we’ll simply fly over there and bike through that area!! That’ll work!
(Yeah, yeah, I know – I’ve got two kids (yes, they are going with us) who will be in high school by that point. Maybe that’s not realistic after all… But then again, who knows?)
You can read about our journey at http://www.familyonbikes.org