Communities come first on Bhutan’s restored long-distance hiking trail, which promotes slow travel and socio-economic opportunities for remote villages.
this is a must-see destination and one-time home to bhutan s revered and beloved drukpa kunley, known as the divine madman. beep, beep. beep, beep. beep, beep. okay, here you go. wow. i really kind of got nothing to say. now, dear viewer, bhutan is a very devoutly buddhist country. and in such circumstances, i always do my very best to be respectful and restrained, shying away from my usual toilet humor. never in the history of television has a host faced a greater challenge. how to talk about what s happening without well, without making the obvious joke.
for the sad one. you re going for a sort of it s a rainbow, rainbow five, six. i want to see this appearing on the budget, by the way. exactly. how do you write this off? do i add a little tip? do we have a bag? can i pass this along? i m not walking around with it. i mean, i m holding tips. i feel like i m not so what do they tell me what they represent. embarrassment? all right. all this is the legacy of drukpa kunley, a lama and holy man who lived 500 years ago and spread the tenets of buddhism along with a healthy skepticism for the institutions of power. we are sitting just below the chimi lhakhang, which is a temple built in the honor of drukpa kunley. the temple is also known as the temple of fertility. he reveled unapologetically in casual sex, the copious use of spirits and seduction, spiting demons and making frequent friends with what is referred to as his flaming thunderbolt of wisdom, which is a term you and i are unlikely to get away with.
journalist and radio host who knows a few things about the divine madman. the phallus has been a symbol in vajra and buddhism long before drukpa kunley came around. it s just that because he was such a character, it s come to be associated with him. the divine madman was a rebel, questioned his own religion, his fellow monks. so the monks hated him, of course. right. the establishment hated him. but the people took readily to him because he was a guy who came to your house. it didn t mean that, you know, like other monks, you had to prepare a special meal for him. he probably wanted your latest batch of ara, you know, the local rice wine. and maybe he d hit on your daughter and your wife as well in the process. so you could imagine in 16th. century bhutan, a person who was known to have performed miracles would strike the fancy of anyone. what were his miracles? well, things like shooting an arrow all the way from tibet and landed in a house that s about a few kilometers
it s a raw alcohol. the normal toast is tashi delek. tashi delek. tashi delek. may good fortune be with you. i m a retired alcoholic, so i will not join you. okay. pretty good. yeah. kind of a warm sake, but made out of wheat. yeah. yes. could you tell us a little more about the chef? oh, she and her husband are both colonels in the royal bhutan police. oh, wow. we have to use the finger, touch, so that the flavors come out. these recipes, where do they come from? they come from the farmers, from all the local houses. just passed down. these nine grains have a very historical and spiritual significance. there was one saint called drukpa kunley. he s known as the madman. the divine madman. yes, of course. so when he came to bhutan, he carried the nine grains. this is the hide, the yak hide. yes. hot sichuan pepper. lots of tomatoes to tone down the pepper.