History Of Bhutan Extended

28 May 2008 (Day 13) - Dzong... Dzong... Dzong
Today we went to Punakha Dzong which is one of the oldest and the most beautiful dzong in Bhutan. Dzong is a fortress cum monastery and Bhutan has 18 dzongs representing each district. There are 20 districts in Bhutan but the 4 southernmost districts i.e Samste, Chhukha, Sarpang and Samdrupjongkhar has no dzong BUT Paro and Thimphu have 2 dzongs each. I'll explain the reason behind the building of so many dzongs in Bhutan.
Dzong History : During the 17th century, Shabdrung the Tibetan Monk ruler fled Tibet. Peoples/Learned Lamas 'thought' he was supposed to be the REAL reincarnation of previous Lama and should rule Tibet at that time BUT there was a conflict going on and the other monk from the rich family was being recognize instead. Therefore, Shabdrung fled to Bhutan and he stole all the artifacts and holy books etc from his 'suppose' to be monastery in Tibet and brought all those things to Bhutan. So, he asked his followers to build dzong all over the district as a protection from Tibetan army. Shabdrung then settled in Punakha Dzong where he meditate/preach etc and then married with local and have a blood lineage until now. His blood lineage now are believed to be the 4 Queens (they're all sisters) of the present King (4th King). The present King married all four sisters at the same time in order to cast away bad spell in the monarchy coz all the 3 previous king died quite at an early age (around 40s). I'll tell you later on about the present monarchy. That's why Punakha Dzong was the 'must see' dzong when you're in Bhutan coz of its history, architecture, artifacts and also coz it was home for the founder of modern Bhutan state i.e Shabdrung.
Punakha Dzong is indeed beautiful and it's located in between of two rivers i.e Pho Chu (Male River) and Mo Chu (Female River) where we can do white water rafting there. The bridge to the entrance was newly constructed (just three weeks old) and some part of Punakha Dzong was badly damaged during the big flood in 2003 (if i remember it correctly) due to global warming (melting of the glacier). But now, it was fully reconstructed and it looks even more beautiful.
After that, we went to the suspension bridge that other tourists told us last night. They said it's scary so I wanna try it but for me it's just nothing and it was just like any other suspension bridge that i had been. Then we proceed to Paro (our last destination), another 3-4 hours drive. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at the restaurant near Dochula Pass. The food was ok but we tried butter tea for the first time and we didn't like the salty taste. As we arrived in Paro (2,200m), we checked in at Gangtey Palace Hotel. It was a real palace for the 1st Governor of Bhutan in 1800s. It was really beautiful and felt like we were in a modern day palace (see below). They really treat us like a king through out our journey in Bhutan so far. It worthies every single USD that we paid.As usual, we checked put Paro town (see below) and it was livelier than Punakha and slightly bigger. After some shopping and photos, we went back to hotel for another photo session and dinner. Before and after dinner we hang out with other tourists at the hotel and chatted until 11pm before we called it a day. We can't wait for the highlight of our journey tomorrow where we will be climbing the holiest monastery in Bhutan i.e Taksang Monastery or better known as Tiger's Nest Temple.
Bhutan Monarchy History : Bhutan first ruler was Shabdrung as I mentioned above. He introduced a lot of systems from spiritual to education in Bhutan. Since his ruling system based on reincarnation and after he died there was a few more of his reincarnation ruled Bhutan until 1907 where the Wangchuk dynasty seized power. The Wangchuk dynasty came from eastern part of Bhutan and the first king i.e Ugyen Wangchuk was the Governor of Bumthang and he and his father who was Governor of Trongsa (the biggest dzong) seized power from the Shabdrung reincarnated at that time. That's how Bhutan monarchy system was born and the history was long and complicated to tell in this post. The bottom line is Bhutan monarchy was really important to Bhutanese and they really love their kings esp the 3rd and 4th (present) king. The system brought joy, happiness and peacefulness to the country.