Bhutan

1 Thimphu, Bhutan	2 Downtown Thimphu	3 THE traffic cop	4 Kitchen goods store in Thimphu As you can see, modern appliences are readily available in Myanmar. Walmart is planning stores there.	5 Electronics shop
6 Thimphu shops The blue signs with white lettering meet government standards, though some shops have broken out of that mold.	7 More modern signage	8 Fashion shop	9 Fabric shop Most of the fabric comes from India. The fabric in front of the counter is destined for the traditional men's clothing, the gho. The men in the image are wearing these. The cloth behind the counter will be made into keras, the ankle length dresses worn by women.	10 Phallus shop The phallus is said to ward off evil spirits.
11 Bhutan countryside	12 Rice paddies In March, the paddies lie fallow.	13 A mountain (name forgotten) The "real mountains" are the ones which are snow-covered all year. The Bhutanese feel that if one had to remember all the others, there would be too many.	14 Temple detail	15 Man turning prayer wheel at temple
16 Student monks at a dzong Dzongs are fortified monasteries. Here, the seated monks are defending Buddha'a teachings. The standing ones are trying to refute them. It's similar to the Jewish pilpul.	17 Mural in a dzong	18 Spirit catcher Note the bidirectional phallus cross-piece.	19 Monk along the road Our guide, a former monk, knew this man and we stopped to greet him.	20 Paro market
21 Whisks and brooms	22 Chilli pepper The basic spice of Bhutanese cooking.	23 Goenpo's family Goenpo, left, our guide, his mother, and his sister.	24 Archer Archery is the national sport of Bhutan.	25 Compound bow The bows used by most Bhutanese archers come from Ohio and frequently cost more than $1,000.
26 Archery target From over a hundred yards away, the target itself looks like a small spot.	27 Carving student at craft school	28 Finished example	29 Sewing student For beginners, the exercise is just following the line. The sewing machine has no thread nor needle.	30 Mask being finished
31 Masks drying	32 Students in the crafts school	33 Weaver Note the strap around his butt - that's the tensioner for the warp.	34 Weaving detail The main warp threads are passed with a shuttle, but the intricate patterns are hand woven.	35 Metal worker
36 Silver worker making a bowl	37 Chasing a silver bowl	38 Preparing the bark for paper The next images are at a paper factory where paper is hand made from the inner bark of the Daphne.	39 Separating the fibers	40 Mashing the fibers
41 Picking up a page The bath is a slurry of paper fibers. The worker dips in a frame with a screen of bamboo fibers to form a new sheet of paper.	42 New sheet	43 Putting a sheet on a pile	44 Pressing the water out of a pile of sheets	45 Putting sheets on hot plates to dry
46 Door detail	47 Old ladies praying The one on the right is the photographer's wife.	48 Entrance to the Takin preserve The Takin is the national animal, an endangered species with its own genus.	49 Takins in the preserve	50 Mr. Takin
51 Shrines along the road	52 Typical Indian ornamented truck	53 Truck detail	54 Festival at the Punakha dzong	55 Singers and clowns
56 Masked monk	57 Another	58 Musicians blowing long horns	59 Bang!	60 Farm house
61 Stable This had originally been the house. When the larger one was built, this was given to the farm animals.	62 Winnowing rice	63 Splitting wood	64 Drying herbal tea and distilling rice wine	65 Farm wife
66 Farmer	67 Preparing tree seeds for pressing The seeds are gathered from a local tree, cooked, ground, and pressed to get cooking oil.	68 Cooking the seeds	69 Pressing the seeds	70 Woman washing clothes
71 Kitten meets child	72 Loading a horse with a sack of cow dung	73 Dogs playing	74 Paro dzong	75 Dzong entrance
76 Dzong detail	77 Mural	78 Poetry pattern Starting anywhere and taking the next few squared up, down, or sideways yields a poem.	79 Inside dzong	80 Monks dining
81 Guardian	82 Prayer flags	83 Farmer making adobe bricks Many buildings in the countryside are made either of adobe bricks or packed dirt.	84 The making of a new farm house Here, the walls are packed dirt, carried up by the man on the ladder and pounded into place by the women atop the wall.	85 Adding formwork
86 Securing the forms	87 Completed forms	88 Making the crown of the house	89 Keyed join	90 The main door The main door is the first part of the house to be erected. It is placed on an auspicious day chosen by an astrologer.
91 Door blessing After the door is placed, it is blessed by Buddhist monks who leave a bag of spices as a blessing.	92 Lumber for the house	93 Attic of an old farm house	94 The farm house's general purpose room	95 The farm house's shrine room
96 The family's photos	97 Paro dzong on the first festival day	98 Detail of festival	99 Fesitval musicians	100 Dancers
101 Clowns wrestling The clown in stripes is deemed an intruder. The others try to drive him out. Eventually, they make peace with each other, a story about tolerance.	102 The Hunter The central character in an old tale being reinacted at the Paro Buddhist festival, the wicked hunter is cajoled into repentance by clowns. The actors in these morality plays are monks.	103 Clown at Paro festival The clowns are not only background levity at the festival, but prompters for the dancers lest they forget their parts. The role is similar to the Shakespearian jester. Lay people take these roles.