Page 20 - BHUTAN 2007

always covered in white stucco. No paintings adorn their exterior walls.
Inside the religious portion of the dzong there is always a temple that can

only be entered barefoot. Local citizens, both male and female, must also

add a shawl (for men) or a wide ribbon (for women) to their official costume

in order to go inside the temple. There is always a complex altar, sometimes

with representations of the Buddha in one or more of his many
incarnations, or of a local divinity, or of the bringers of Buddhism to Bhutan,

as well as of important saints and lamas. There are always candles, flowers,

and water vessels adorning these altars. Most of the dzongs also contain a

monastery with a school for the education of young people who wish to be

monks. Housing for the monks and the students is also within the dzong
compound. In the past, this monastery education was the only formal

course of study open to young Bhutanese boys. Here they learned to

translate the Sanskrit gospels and writings of the many religious figures

important in Bhutanese life. They were taught the rituals, dances, prayers,

and chants through which their devotion to Buddhist principles are
demonstrated. Even today, some youngsters are placed in these schools

rather than the free public schools and they learn much the same things as

their ancestors. Kelzang lamented the fact that the monastery education did

not prepare the students for life outside the monastery community if they

chose to leave on reaching age 18.

We visited so many dzongs and temples that they all began to blend in our
memories because there is certainly a great similarity among them. Some

have been more newly refurbished, some are more ancient and show their

great age, some sit in the valley towns, others follow the twisting

topography of a mountain ridge, one even floats on the point where two
th
mighty rivers join in a tumultuous confluence. The dzongs date from the 14

century but temples can originate from as long ago as the 7th century. But
since dzong and temple visiting is best “reported” in photography, I will not