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Happy Easter! One more thing about monks. In Bhutan parents don't have full rein in choosing a name for their baby. They go to the monk who has a bowl filled with names on pieces of paper. The parents select a piece of paper from the bowl and that's their baby's name. There are specific traditional names used over and over; they might be one name only, two or three names. Lebo, our local guide, only has one name. No middle, no last name. That's why there seems to be so many Tsherings or Wangchuks. How they keep them all straight? I asked about genealogy; seems a foreign concept to Lebo. Why would you need to research, we all know our ancestors!
Today was a slow birding day. Although a beautiful morning with breakfast in the shop/restaurant by our campsite, the forest grew silent as we made our way up through the Thrimsengla pass at 12,278 feet (no altitude meds needed). A massive new stupa has recently been built amidst the forest of rhododendrons and spruce and some remaining snow. Our only good birds are the ever-stunning Blood Pheasants who generally work in pairs along the ground.
Still on the narrow, winding East-West Highway, we gradually descend into the Bumthang Valley (one place I recognize from reading Beyond the Sky and the Earth by Jamie Zeppa). We stay in a picturesque inn in Jakar (8420 ft) for tonight. The room has a wood stove, intricately decorated woodwork and furniture, Oriental rugs. Too bad this is just for one night.
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