Bumthang is the spiritual nucleus of Bhutan. Nowhere else has such an edifying wealth of auspicious monasteries and temples confined within such a small area. Much of your exploring, uncovering and discovering, can be done afoot from the Amankora lodge when you get there. Besides, some of the area’s jewels are right beside you!
The Amankora lodge is quite staggering. It has a dramatic dzong quality, derived from its cathedral-sized proportions and exceptional vaulted stone-walkway that leads to the glorious suites. Dining is both inside and ‘á la sensational terrace’, which looks onto the First and Second Palace of Wangdichholing, now a residence for monks. By night a sunken tepee-shaped fire, surrounded by cushion-clad fitted-stone seating, roars beneath the dreamily unpolluted night sky. By day, the sounds of young monks chanting mantras, playing, laughing, praying and horn blowing, drifts around the lodge, together with the blissful melodies of songbirds, along with the omnipresent caw of the raven. It is here, on this terrace, that you can soak up a meaningful slice of Bhutan’s spiritual essence.
We visited two exceptionally profound temples dating back centuries on the site of the Kurje complex. By the time you reach Bumthang, the complexities of Mahayana Buddhism are coming together a little more.
Another enlightening experience for us was at the Khodrakarchu monastery belonging to one of Bhutan’s most revered trulkus, Namkhe Nyingp Rinpoche, a reincarnation of one of the Guru Rinpoche’s disciples. On our day of good fortune the Rinpoche was holding, together with hundreds of burgundy and red robed monks, a 24-hour ‘blessing ceremony’ in the golden-hued temple and we received a blessing before we left.
Evenings at the lodge have a surreal quality to them and, after visiting the treasure filled ‘Burning Lake of Bumthang’ before sunset, we were ready for some ‘song and dance’ with our local ‘tipple’ around the blazing fire. While Choke plucked the strings of a lute-like (dranyen), the sweetest treacle-tinged voices filled the crisp night air with several ‘folk’ songs, some belonging to Bumthang and others to all of Bhutan.
Magic and mystery, feast and fire, it all unfolds in Bumthang, and the newest Amankora lodge within the ‘pilgrimage’ has its understated luxury sensationally refined. That night, while Lu and I ate al fresco beside the comfort of the flames, beneath those dreamy stars, we looked across the way to the young monks, now in silhouette, practising a ritual dance before bedtime. With another wonderful spread before us, including our ‘favourite’ indigenous dishes, and a ‘galactic massage’ beneath our cashmere, we decided that the mileage was infinitesimal in comparison to the reward… and we would do it again, and again.
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