A museum, 2 dzongs, an archery competition, a hand-made paper factory, a large fruit and vegetable market and a new city made up today's itinerary. We are now in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan, with a population of about 90,000. Here, two weeks ago, the handsome king of Bhutan was married to his beautiful bride amongst much pomp and ceremony. Their pictures are everywhere here and many people are wearing buttons with their photos on them.
The dzongs we visited are huge buildings, first erected in the 17th century as fortresses in the war with Tibet. Today they are used as schools for monks, temples, and administrative offices. There are many young boys in the dzongs training to be monks. They enter the monasteries at 5 or 6 years old (the Bhutanese do not keep precise track of their ages as we do) and will be monks for life. Our guide, Phurba, who must be in national dress (a gho) when we are touring, adds a long, raw silk scarf to his outfit when we go to the dzongs.
Archery is the national sport here and was amazing to watch. The target is placed 140m from the archer - that is almost 1and1/2 football fields long!!! We couldn't believe that they actually sometimes hit the target from that distance. When an archer hits the target, his team-mates do a little celebratory dance and song. It was fun to watch!