Bumthang Valleys

Four valleys make up the Bumthang Valleys in Central Bhutan. We organized our visit by spending four nights in Jakar, We were partially motivated by the cost of our lodgings ($20 for two - deeply discounted). It was a wise choice for other reasons. A chance to do laundry, take a respite from packing and unpacking, and organize theme-based days. A bit on walking when we arrived, temples the 2nd day, Ura Valley the 3rd, and starting to work our way back to Thimphu and Paro on the 4th.

Jakar produce food products just beyond the market area. (The market had a major fire in 2010 and another in 2011. The center of the town is to be moved. The street are in but no buildings yet.) The foods include cheese, beer (Red Panda), and honey. The cheese and beer are produced in modest boutique factories. (Put aside your visions of a Coors or Guinness production line.) Bee hives are in wooden cubes that dotted the roadside. We hadn't arranged for the factory stops, so no factory tours. (The tours charge USD3 per person that goes to employees - a fair exchange for viewing and photographing.) Later Doug had a Red Panda beer and declared it a very good wheat beer. A sign of Bhutan's commitment to recycling it came in a Kingfisher Beer bottle. (Earlier we had seen a police officer wearing a Royal Thai Police cap!)

The shops had strings of cheese. Rattu told us that they were a specialty of the area. Nevertheless, I wasn't tempted cheese hanging on strings Rattu received a call from a family member asking hm to pick some up a few strings. He asked around in the market and found someone who was leaving for Thimphu - so he bought strings of cheese and sent them on their way. 

Potatoes are a major crop in Bumthang. We tasted chips made by cooperatives - a good idea but not a great taste. We chatted about the economic potential of potatoes. I later learned that groups in the Andes are developing potato chips and other potato products. Bhutan could use technical expertise to create an exportable potato-based product. Any ideas?

As we headed into the Ira Valley we saw scenes that reminded us of National Geographic photos.

It was Saturday and people were equipped with baskets or bags for a day of mushroom picking. We stopped a picker to buy a kilo of mushrooms. She was prepared. Out came the scale and she carefully weighed out the mushrooms. The mushrooms were donated to the guest house for that night's dinner.

A transaction invites an audience

During the summer some villagers head to the high Himalayas to pick cordyceps, popular in Chinese medicine. It is said to sell for US15,000 per kilo - clearly worth the grueling process of gathering the mushroom as shown in the video.

Nearby ther was a welcome sign for an outhouse. It was quite a nice one.  From a limited sample I inferred that nice outhouses are the exception in Bhutan.

A welcome UNDP project

View from the men's toilet

To get a glimpse of rural life we walked down to Ura, Since it was the weekend younger family members come from Thimphu to help their older relatives. Bhutan, as is true of so much of the world, is losing its younger farming population to the cities.

Ura greeter - bird does not have an enormous crest. It is
the wing of another bird

Traditional house - note the firewood (only a fraction is
pictured here)

Weekend chores for the house pictured aboe

We drove down the road to Thrumsingla National Park, The visitor center was locked up and there was no map to encourage a visit. A knock on trailer door was answered by a child who reported that his father had locked him in. We found a clear area and had lunch - tea, fried rice, potatoes with cheese and fruit.

On the way back we stopped at the Ura-Geyzamchu Walking Trail to read the signs. The walk is said to be easy - 9 km and 4.5 hours. Perhaps we will try it the next time. Along the way we had conversations about how things once were. Karma, a friend of Rattu and a former tourist guide, spoke of when people had to walk to Thimphu to pay their taxes and villages would send an allocation of men to work on projects for royalty. He wasn't talking of the 18th or 19th century but of the mid-20th century.

Our guest house had a tour group from Taiwan who want to see a dance performance so one was arranged. There was a large bonfire and a small troupe did traditional dances. The Bhutanese in the audience sang along. Later we saw the same dances on a national television station. Rattu told us know we did not have to go to a temple festival, but I think that dances of the monks need to be seen.