Next is a picture of the prayer wheel in a small village, being turned by a nun. She was there keeping the wheel in motion the entire time we were stopped. Every time the wheel spins, it sets the prayer in motion that is painted onto it, and it rings a small bell hanging from the roof. Imagine living in this village, with perhaps a few hundred other people, and hearing the bell ring every few seconds throughout the day. There are no other sounds, for cars and trucks are rare. Just the wind in the trees, the murmer of conversation, and the bell ringing whenever someone turns the wheel.

You can also see how incredibly brightly painted everything is. The wheel is mostly red, the geometric patterns on the posts and the windows and roof lines are orange and yellow and blue, the nun is wearing red and orange. Everything is made of simple materials, wood and stone, and then decorated with intricate patterns like you see here. Bright colors are everywhere.

We visited more than a dozen monasteries, and saw monks and nuns everywhere. Some monasteries were fortresses (called dzongs) built in the thirteenth century to protect the country from Tibetan invaders. The dzongs are the seat of government, and the largest buildings in the country. Here is an image of the Trongsa Dzong, one of the largest. You can see the town of Trongsa behind it, one of the bigger towns in the country, yet home to only a few thousand people.

The temple rooms in the monasteries were incredible, with sacred images painted everywhere, on every wall. One eighth-century temple room had the original wooden floor, and in the spot in the middle in front of the altar, the floor was worn in the shape of bare feet. I stood in the spot, feeling the balls of my feet nestling into the smooth wood, feeling the many thousands of people who had stood and bowed to the Buddha millions of times over more than a thousand years in that spot.

We hiked to several wonderful monasteries. On the way up to a nunnery built on a cliff side, we met the senior nun while she was walking around a chorten on the path, spinning the prayer wheels. One of the people in our party gave her a small medallion with a picture of the Dali Lama on one side, and she burst into tears. She showed us a similar, but very worn, medallion hanging around her neck, with a picture of the Dali Lama as a young man. She blessed us and happily let us take pictures of her. She has one of the most beautiful faces I have ever seen. You can see the chorten and the small prayer wheels behind her on the right side of the picture, and the cliff face behind that.

On our last full day, we climbed several thousand feet to reach Taktsang Lhakhang, the Tiger's Nest Monastery. This fantastic place is built into a cliff, twelve thousand feet up in the Himalayas. The two-hour hike, plus the 800-steps down and back up to cross the canyon to the monastery, were well worth the effort. The buildings are recently restored from a fire, and the decorations and sacred images were very lovely.

I’m still digesting everything I've received on this trip. I got swept by so many feelings that my meditation practice became really important. I remember feeling terrified by some of the protector deity images we encountered in the temples, and having to find my way back to center. I remember feeling very lonely and isolated, gone from my home for three weeks, and finding stability and presence by connecting to center. Bhutan has taught me about how I can center in the face of powerful feelings and experiences.

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