I arrived from deep winter in Switzerland not even a week ago here to Thimphu Bhutan.
And here it is LOVELY SPRING!
Yesterday Sunday, was pedestrian day!
There used to be every week on Tuesday a no car
day, but actually taxi’s could drive…so it was quite good as there were much less cars on the streets, but still a taxi here and there. There were too many complaints from businesses concerning this weekly no car day and now they shifted to a
monthly pedestrian day each first Sunday of the month, but this time without ANY cars, no taxis (except some tourist buses…what a shame...grrr)
It was a lovely spring Sunday and everywhere it was full with people strolling around,
kids playing football, people riding bicycles, small kids on tricycles, old people sitting by the side of the roads chatting, groups of young people “hanging out” and having fun in the middle of the streets, families just walking around together
taking up all the space of the usually car dominated streets!
It was like humans have at last taken over again!
The pace, the rhythm of only walking people gives a feeling of something really HEALTHY!
What really
was nice was to hear all the sounds of “living beings”: birds singing, people chatting, laughing, baby’s crying, bees humming, dogs barking, the wind howling…and I realized that this constant noise of cars totally covers up “living
sounds” that actually are very present!
And for sure, the air was nicer to breathe…! Even here in Thimphu you notice the difference!
Tho and me went to Changankha Lakhang, our “grandson’s temple”,
Ilya just loved this place! He wanted to go there every day when he was here!
Many young families with babies came for blessings and I felt “recharged” with this wonderful energy of all these young babies and children circambulating
the temple in the soft spring breeze,
As everyone walks, you have time to say hello when passing by someone, people stop to chat,
Oh, believe me, it is a relief!
Tho and me passed by two
monks that we have actually never met before. They stopped to say hello and we found out that we knew of each other and that we actually wanted to contact them anyway for the ceremony of the new GNH centre office next week!
We exchanged
cards and realized one of the monks was Chung Tulku, a close colleague and friend of Hefu Tulku…
Well this is Bhutan…you meet Tulku’s strolling around on pedestrian day!