I wake up and push back the curtains.

The mountains have been there all night, but they still take me by surprise.

They’re covered by thin clouds that look like smoke; the clouds move fast and by the time I make my tea and practice yoga, they’ve drifted enough so I can see the tallest peaks – still covered in snow.

On my second day in Bhutan, I focused on Sauca, or self purification. I chose to be mindful of the food, emotions, and thoughts I let into my body.

We visited Kichu Lhakhang temple, Dungtse Lhakhang, and Paro Dzong.

The smell of smoke and incense is everywhere – even outside of the temples and monasteries.

Our bus passes women in the fields, bent over and hard at work.

There are old people walking on the side of the street with big packs on their backs.

When we pass a mom, her baby is swaddled to her back.

All the children smile and wave.

Stray dogs (tons) and cats roam the streets (Buddhists believe all living beings are sacred…so I guess it’s a bit tough to manage the stray animal situation).

And the mountains.

They’re everywhere.

They are sacred to the Bhutanese.

There were so many beautiful (and realistic) descriptions of the mountains in Beyond the Sky and the Earth by Jamie Zeppa:

• The sky weeps and wipes its face on the mountains
• 360 degrees of mountains folded into one another, ridges running down into unseen valleys and rising again, this geography repeating itself over and over
• Bhutan is all and only mountains
• All around, the mountains sleep, blankets of cloud drawn up to their shoulders, over their heads
• The mist is at war with the mountains, and winning. But the next day, the mist is gone and the sky is a clean, clear, dazzling blue. I can see every contour of the mountains all around, edges and lines are hard and bright in the sharp morning light
• On the other side of the mountains are mountains, more mountains and mountains again

 

As for the landscape, fortresses are sprinkled across the mountainsides.

Houses are typically white, painted with different symbols like dragons, snow lions, tigers, even phalluses to bless the house with fertility.

But the most omnipresent item are the prayer flags.

Tattered prayer flags blow in the breeze always (it’s said that when they blow, the animals will hear the sound and will know Buddhism also).

There are groups of tall white prayer flags (108 as that is a symbolic number in Buddhism) that mark when someone has recently passed and ensure safe passage into the afterlife.

The nature, the symbolism, the clouds, and the smell…all my senses are telling me I’m in another world.