Visit Bhutan to explore the strange customs of the Kingdom of Bhutan
The Kingdom of Bhutan, abbreviated as Bhutan, is a landlocked country located on the southern slope of the eastern Himalayas between China and India. Tourism is an important economic pillar of Bhutan and was opened to foreigners in 1974. Bhutan is the last country in the world to open up television and the Internet. Although Bhutan's economy is quite backward, in the "Global Happy Countries Ranking" released in 2006, Bhutan ranked 8th and first in Asia. Let's go and learn about it from Xiaobian below.
Kings are like stars
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Walking into Bhutan, you will see not only the green mountains, green waters, blue skies and white clouds, but also the photos of the king everywhere. The current King of Bhutan is named Jigme Kesar Namyeir Wangchuck. He is young and handsome and is known as the most handsome king in the world today. His heroic posture can be seen in Bhutan's airports, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and residential buildings, as well as on Bhutan's banknotes, stamps, and badges. In 2008, the people of Bhutan had just experienced a "self-coup" in which the king voluntarily returned to the people's government. He handed over all power to the first democratically elected government. The people think the king is stupid and naive, but because of this, they feel that their king is more worthy of love.
In a supermarket in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, the female salesperson was not in a hurry to promote goods, but enthusiastically urged the China female tour guide around me to send an e-mail to the king to express her love. The female tour guide quickly declared that she was married, but she was still persevering. She said: "What does it matter? All you have to do is write and say you like him and love him. In this way, our king will be happy. Before that, he only knew that American girls and Indian girls loved him, and now China girls also like him." Ha, it turns out that the Bhutanese people worship the king as a star!
The whole country believes in Buddhism. Every family likes to paint flying penises, dragons, tigers and beasts on both sides of door frames, walls, and roofs to ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings. Among them, the flying penis tied with colorful silk and spraying semen is the most incredible!
According to local people, this strange belief and custom of using the painted flying phallus as a door god comes from the "Tibetan Buddhist Buddha Jigong" most admired by Bhutanese people, Zhuba Gunlei Drukpa Kunley, 1455~1529). This person has high Buddhist cultivation and boundless Dharma power, but he does not abide by the Buddhist rules and precepts. He is greedy for wine and lecherous, and has no fixed place. He has traveled in Xizang and Bhutan all his life, leaving many interesting stories among the people. When people listen to him promoting Dharma, it is like watching witty and humorous drama sketches. Everyone laughs until they turn back and forth. After laughing, they can often suddenly understand the Buddhist doctrine and the truth.
Zhuba Gunlie highly praised the power of the phallus, believing that having a large phallus on the body is like having a "Vajra pestle" in his hand, which can be used to whip mountain demon demons. It seems that the most famous successor of Zhuba Gunlei is the Sixth Dalai Lama, Cangyang Jiacuo (1683 - 1745). Cangyang Jiacuo also vigorously promoted the charm and magical potential of the penis and wrote many love songs that made people's ears heartwarming hearts beat. In the tantric beliefs of Tibetan Buddhism, physical relationships can be a gateway to enlightenment. The most shocking representative figure of this belief is Zhuba Gunlie, the "crazy holy monk".
After the death of Zhupa Gunlei, various anecdotes related to him became myths passed down by word of mouth among the Bhutanese people, giving rise to some bizarre customs: flying penises became door gods, and temple monks tapped the heads of believers with wooden penises to pray. It is the most eye-catching and shocking. When visiting temples in Bhutan, as long as you pay a little attention, you will find that there are often stone phallus and wooden phallus in front of the Buddha statue. The exquisite and bright polishing of the phallus is amazing.
Bhutanese drivers like to hang wooden phallus above the cab or tie it under the chassis of the car. When the car swings around on the winding mountain road, the wooden phallus also swings along, as if Zhu Ba Gan Lie is shaking his head and preaching with his own written jingle scriptures. Bhutanese generally believe that as long as you carry a wooden flying penis with you, you can bring peace and happiness. In Bhutan, whenever a new house is completed, relatives and friends will always gather together, sing and dance, and hang a huge wooden penis from the roof beam very solemnly. It is said that one can exorcise exorcism, and the other can prosper. What is curious is how the male owner and hostess feel when they lie in bed every day and see such a big guy hanging on the beam?
Temple hangs over cliff
The miracle of religion is often reflected in architecture. The Taktsang Monastery in Bhutan is not far from the ancient city of Paro. You can see it within about half an hour's drive. At this time, it stands on the cliffs of the 900-meter-high ancient city of Paluo at an altitude of 2280 meters. The true altitude of Tiger Cave Temple should be about 3180 meters. It is integrated with the majestic mountain peak and is much more dangerous than the Xuankong Temple in Shanxi, China. To climb Tiger Cave Temple, it takes two to three hours on foot, and it takes most of a day to go back and forth, which tests both one's physical strength and perseverance. For the monks who built Tiger Cave Temple, it also tested their piety and untaught architectural wisdom.
Tiger Cave Temple, as the most important Buddhist shrine in Bhutan, has always been strictly prohibited from entering tourists. In the past two years, Bhutan has deliberately opened up tourism, and tourists have the honor to enter this mysterious temple of Bhutan's "Hanging Temple". The only restriction is that all photography, camera equipment and backpacks must be stored outside the temple and are not allowed to be brought into this holy place. Once a person removes the burden on his body, the feeling of being free and unrestrained has quietly approached the realm of Buddha. In this way, on the cliffs where all hope is hopeless, the heavenly voice from the Buddhist Kingdom will be easier for you to hear.
Stamps Sing
As soon as I heard that I was going to Bhutan, a friend who was keen on collecting stamps blurted out: I want to bring me Bhutan stamps! At this time, I learned that Bhutan is a well-known "stamp country". In 1962, mankind's first singing record stamp was born in Bhutan. To date, Bhutan has always been a world leader in the diversity of stamp design, printing and materials, and has won awards at many international stamp exhibitions.
National animals are very shocking网站图片位Bhutan not only has strange stamps, but even its first-class protected animal "Takin" is very shocking: its head is like a horse, its horns are like a deer, its hooves are like an ox, and its tail is like a donkey. It is a "four things"! I saw "Tajin" in a protected area in the mountains of Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. It is said that this animal mainly lives at the eastern foot of the Himalayas at an altitude of 2000 to 4000 meters, and there are only about 300 of them in the entire territory of Bhutan.