Well, it’s not exactly the King AND I, and I didn’t take this photo. BUT, I stood 10 feet away from the much-loved 5th King of Bhutan earlier this week when my group attended the annual Paro Festival.
It’s actually highly restricted to take a photo of the King as he is considered sacred. Police scanned the small crowd as he descended down from the Paro dzong (monastery) to ensure that no lookiloos were trying to sneak a photo of him (imagine the bad karma if you did!).
He was surrounded by about 75 underprivileged children from a local school. He chatted with them, smiled, joked and then came down to the crowd where he talked with and shook hands with both Bhutanese and foreigners. He’s called The People’s King and it’s easy to see why. It was obvious that the admiration between the crowd and the King was mutual.
See more lovely photos at DeliciousBaby’s Photo Friday!
Travel Well!
Beth
Related links:
Bhutan Photography Tour – September, 2010
Eastern Bhutan Trekking Tour – October, 2010
Vera Marie Badertscher says
What a treat for you.Visiting with royalty.
Cate says
He is rather handsome and younger looking than I would have expected.
Aaron says
This wasn’t by chance the last day of the Paro Festival this year was it? If so, I was there too as he walked down the steps of Paro Dzong with all those underprivileged kids!
We actually got to meet him later in our trip in the village of Ura in Bumthang where he had arrived to present the town with a large applique. After chatting with the crowd a bit, he started to exit and walked right up to us and struck up a conversation. He thanked us for visiting the country, talked a bit about his background studying in the U.S., and talked about the incredible pressure he faces to modernize the country.
It was by far the highlight of the entire trip!
Beth says
It WAS during the Paro festival with all those kids! What a great opportunity to have met him. He was about 10 feet away from me in Paro but, alas, no handshake from him 🙂