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Wangdue Phodrang, Bhutan
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| There's not a huge amount in Wangdi, except a truck stop, a dzong, and a very clean downtown area. The town was established on a bluff overlooking the Punak Chhu in the 1600s by the Shabdrung (who united Bhutan). Its position along the main trading route helped it become Bhutan's third most powerful dzongkhag. | |
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This single gas pump is the pump in Wangdi, and it is quite in demand. Here the driver refills our van. Buying gas is a somewhat complicated transaction, involving a fair amount of negotiation and then driving to a nearby building to make payment. |
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Bhutanese lorries are all quite decorated, even moreso than their Indian counterparts. This lorry sports several auspicious symbols of Bhutanese Buddhism, an image of the Buddha, a landscape painting, and two swastikas. |
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Main street in Wangdi receives quite a lot of praise from Lonely Planet for its cleanliness. True, it is cleaner than Chicago, where smokers toss cigarette butts on the streets like chips at a gaming table. There are rubbish receptacles every 30 feet bearing the words "use me." Today, I had arrived before most of the shops had opened, as it is a long drive to Bumthang. |
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Residents gather around a giant prayer wheel for conversation and selling food. |
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The dzong at Wangdi commands a cactus-covered hill over the Punak Chhu. Built in 1638 by the Shabdrung, the dzong was situated on a site chosen when scouts saw four ravens fly in the four directions, as if carrying Buddhism in the four directions. Bhutan's bridges are the best part of the road infrastructure. Often a concrete bridge of Western standards will link two stretches of roads that are more mud and uneven gravel than asphalt. This bridge, near a site bearing a span since 1685, was built by the Swiss. This pic was taken from the police checkpoint along the main road. |
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Across the Punak Chhu from Wangdi is the old village of Rinchengang, probably one of Bhutan's oldest. The village is remarkable for its closely-spaced mud-bricked houses and its numerous quality stone masons, who build roads, dzongs, and lhakhangs. |
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