Bhutan Trip Day 5 - 27 June 2015 Trip to Pema Thek Chok Choling Nunnery, Mebar Tsho, and Zangtopelri

Our half day had gone in a split second. Read what we did here :)

Our simple Bhutanese lunch :)

Once Neela came back home, we had our lunch. See the photo above. Devi just put whatever food available from previous day plus the fresh made Khuley or buckwheat pancakes - a traditional Bumthaps food made of buckwheat flour, water and salt - and Sel Roti. I had filled my stomach with lots of Sel Roti, therefore I took a piece of Khuley and ate it with fish curry and kewa datshi. No dorley chilli for me this time though, to avoid 'too spicy' and burning feeling inside my mouth :D

Pema Thek Chok Choling Nunnery in Tang valley, Bumthang - Bhutan

Again, afraid that I got bored at home, they took me to few places after that. First place we visited was Pema Thek Chok Choling Nunnery (or Anim Dratsang). It's located high up in the Tang valley of Bumthang, not far from Mebar Tsho, founded in year 2001, as an initiative of His Eminence Gangtey Tulku Rinpoche.

Main Lhakhang and dormitories at the side - Pema Thek Chok Choling Nunnery - Bumthang, Bhutan

It was the first Buddhist college for women in the history of Bhutan. Here, the girls and women were able to learn, study, meditate, and have full access to the spiritual education. Click here to find out more about the nunnery and if you would like to provide monetary support as it'd be utilized as a basic support for the young nuns (for their meals, clothing, shelter, education, etc.)

Devi and families with young nuns at Pema Thek Chok Choling Nunnery

We went there to pay a visit to Devi's god-brother's daughter, a 7-year old girl, who was brought there by her parents some time ago. In Bhutan, it was common to bring their son or daughter to the monastery, to let them learning in Buddhism way. Devi brought many vegetables from her garden, Sel Roti, and even tidbits/snacks for the young nun.

Perfect accompany for tea - zaw and biscuit :)

We were invited to sit inside the guest room, served with tea, zaw (roasted puff rice), and biscuits while they had chit chat and updated with their current situation. We made some donation too before visited and prayed inside their main Lhakhang upstairs.

Posed together before leaving :)

We took photos together before leaving the place. It was raining when we went there. Amazingly, once we finished visiting this nunnery, the rain stopped. Therefore, it enabled us visiting our next destination - Mebar Tsho or the Burning Lake.

Second visit to Mebar Tsho or Burning Lake - Bumthang, Bhutan

It was my second visit there. Read my first visit here. Since it was after rain, we had to walk slowly down. The stones and pathway had become slippery and dangerous.

Beautiful stacked stones at Mebar Tsho :)

Stacked stones - believed that wishes will come true :)

Mebar Tsho was a sacred pilgrimage place and one of the holiest lake in Bhutan where people believed that Terton Pema Lingpa discovered the sacred treasure that was hidden by Guru Rinpoche long time ago. He managed to hold the treasure back with a lamp still burning even after coming up from the lake.

Among the extensive array of prayer flags above the Mebar Tsho - the Burning Lake in Bumthang, Bhutan

With the caretaker on top of the bridge of Mebar Tsho - the Burning Lake in Bumthang, Bhutan

We lighted the incense and offered our prayer to the Gods there, and as usual, we looked down from the big stone above horizontally. The caretaker said if we saw the flying white scarfs on the water, it meant that they welcomed us to come to the lake. There were two places where we could see the flying white scarfs. In an instance, we felt blissful and contented, especially when rain had stopped which enabled us to go there. Thank you for the good karma :)

"Zangto Pelri" - Pagoda shaped temple on top of Tang Valley in Bumthang, Bhutan

From there, we continued our journey. This time to the place they called "Zangto Pelri" - a pagoda kind of temple built on top of the Tang Valley. I tried to find the exact name, but couldn't find. So let me stick to the name as per mentioned by Devi and Neela.

Beautiful Tang Valley in Bumthang, Bhutan

On the way there, we passed by beautiful greenery. Neela shared with me his dreams, what he wanted to achieve in his life. One of them was to build a house in a valley like this. A small land, enough to build house with few rooms. Most importantly, there was enough space for gardening, one of their favorite hobbies and past times. They could visit this house during summer where other part of Bhutan would be hot or raining. I didn't dare to have such wish as we didn't have such landscape in our country. So, I just had to be content to wish that his dreams would come true, and I could visit them in their dream house one day :)

Muddy road to the Gate of Heaven :P

The road to the Zangto Pelri wasn't in good condition. It was very much muddy. So we had to stop halfway and walk for the rest of our journey.

Nice evening walk towards Zangto Pelri in Tang Valley - Bumthang, Bhutan

It was a very good evening walk though. We were surrounded by beautiful natures, such as: trees, bushes, goats' shed, and so on. We walked slowly, finding a drier mud to pass through, and finally reached there.

View of the beautiful Zangto Pelri at Tang Valley - Bumthang, Bhutan

Nananana..... here was the beautiful pagoda from near sight. It's beautiful, wasn't it? :) All the walk seemed worth it. It wasn't opened though. So we just circumambulated the Pagoda thrice and conveyed our prayers there, also took photo of the beautiful surrounding :)

Thank you for your delicious dinner la!!! :)

At night, we went to Yeshey and Bungay Bhai's house as they invited us for dinner. As usual, they also knew my favorite - Druk 11000 :D They served delicious chang pa to have it with hehe... Thank you la both of you for your invitation and delicious dinner!!! It's great meeting all of you again, after some time!!! We filled our day full of activities today!!! So satisfied!!! We went home afterwards and finally took a good rest. Zzz.... ;)