This was what Bhutan was supposed to be about. As nice as pottering about Thimphu was it wasn't what I was looking for in my Bhutan. There's a time and a place for paper factories and textile museums but that time was not now.
Now was for temples and flags and three storey brown roofed buildings scattered across hills. Dochula Pass delivered on that. One hundred and eight stupas on the top of a mountain, what's not to like?
The main Dzong in Punakha, the old capital, was pretty incredible. To be fair most things about Punakha were pretty incredible. It was all temples and rice terraces and swing bridges. Again what's not to like?
I think it's fair to say that The Temple of the Divine Madman didn't let me down when it came to delivering weird. Drukpa Kunley, the aforementioned Divine Madman, had a reputation for banishing demons using his, erm, Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom. The temple has a reputation for fertility which all the local traders have exploited by painting fertility symbols across their shops. I could have called this blog post "Dongs and Dzongs".
And what of the temple itself? With that kind of introduction you don't go in expecting entry-level weird. Which is lucky, as otherwise the sight of two seven-year-old monklets playing trumpets whittled from human femurs would probably be seen as excessive.
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