Picture of the Week #74 "Monks Making Mandala"

Picture of the Week #74 "Monks Making Mandala" Thimpu, Bhutan 2000 Signed and Stamped

I adore Bhutan, the Kingdom high up in the Himalayas, East of Tibet, South of China and North of India. What makes it so special are the people, the customs, the landscape and most of all their hospitality. Bhutan might just be Eden on earth. The rolling mountains and vegetation are out of a storybook. There are no power lines. No plastic, no traffic lights, and virtually no crime. The King's mandate for his people is happiness. Health care, work, and education are guaranteed to the residents. They all dressed in traditional robes and the women all had the same hair do when we were there 10 years ago. That might have changed. What has not, is that they only allow about 5,000 visitors in to the country every year. It requires a special visa and you can only fly in on their Druck Airlines from 3 neighboring countries. They had the fastest internet connection while we traveled from one end to the other over the 15 or so days that we were there. After all they only had phones installed in 1988. Bhutan will always remain one of my favorite places and I highly recommend anyone interested in enjoying a different culture to visit Bhutan, the friendliest place on earth. This image was taken in one of the many monasteries that we visited. The gentleness of the Buddhist people was apparent wherever we went.