Why Bhutan should be your next travel destination?
Posted on 15/01/2020
ABOUT BHUTAN SOUL TOURS AND TRAVEL
Before talking about Why Bhutan should be your next travel destination?. Our biggest strength as a company is our passionate team members. We strive to be an informative and reliable partner for our guests. Assisting them with a hassle-free experience while planning their trip to Bhutan, and ensuring a memorable trip during their stay in Bhutan.
Why travel with Bhutan Soul Tour and Travel?
- Our team is led by an experienced leader with over three decades of experience organizing tours to Bhutan for international tourists.
- We ensure that our guests are guided by some of the most seasoned certified tour guides in the country to ensure quality time during their stay in the country.
- Our guests are chauffeured in well-maintained cars with an experienced professional driver to ensure their safety.
- Our dedicated support staff strives to respond to all your queries and ensure that we deliver on the expectations of our guests.
Authentic Culture Experience
the first reason Why Bhutan should be your next travel destination is the, Cultural authenticity stems from its long period of uninterrupted isolation from the rest of the world. During this period of time, people in Bhutan learned to adapt to its inhospitable environment at the time and fed on what nature provided. This set the Bhutanese on a journey of brewing an authentic way of life. The journey was accompanied by incremental improvement and adoption of new ways of doing things along the way consistently refining the Bhutanese way of life. The influence of Buddhism is rooted deep in the Bhutanese culture inspiring certain groups of people to pursue enlightenment and for those not as fanatic serves as a disciplinary remedy instilling a sense of moral conscience.
People in Bhutan have a traditional dress code. Men wear a knee-length robe and women wear an ankle-length dress. In the efforts of preserving its unique culture and tradition, the dresses are worn during business hours, while visiting institutions and schools. Dzongkha is the national language. It roughly translates to the official language used by the officials in the Dzongs (Fortress). It is taught as a mandatory subject in schools and the National Parliament proceedings are held in Dzongkha. A visit to the countryside offers an authentic experience of the Bhutanese culture. Festivals, animism-inspired rituals, and celebrations are ideal times to experience the local culture. The celebration usually entails food, alcohol, and folk dances. Caught in the middle of this experience, an outsider would truly feel that he or she has arrived in a new world.
Medieval Architectural Sites
The second reason Why Bhutan should be your next travel destination is the unification of modern-day Bhutan in the 17th century was marked by the construction of colossal fortresses locally known as Dzong across the country. Its commanding presence symbolized the recognition of a single rule and authority. Architecture enthusiasts might be surprised to learn that the Dzongs were constructed without a blueprint or use of nails and what might be deemed as a failure of compliance to modern-day engineering best practices, these fortresses have stood the test of time since the medieval period and most of them remains functional to this day.
Dzongs by tradition served as the seat of central and district civil administration and it also housed the central monk institution. Within the high-rise walls of the Dzongs, it was standard to have a central tower that usually housed sacred shrines and several other temples and prayer halls adorned with giant statues depicting Buddhist saints and gods. It is also interesting to note that the choice of the location and the design of the Dzongs were strategic. The construction of the Dzongs happened at a time when Bhutan was under the threat of foreign invasion. Thus most Dzongs are built on a ridge inaccessible from all sides except the entrance which was heavily guarded by towers and the high rising walls made it impenetrable to maintain the structural integrity.
Dzongs continue to serve their traditional roles including hosting the popular mask dance festival in the open courtyards within the premises of the Dzongs.
Incredible Hikes
Secluded locations that offered intimate connection with nature and away from human contact were some of the conditions serious meditators sought in the ancient days. These locations are generally occupied by ancient shrines and small housing complexes for the meditators and the monks. Peasants supported the monks by offering essential supplies such as food and clothes and during the auspicious days, they would make a trip to the temple to make offerings to Gods.
The ancient trails that connected these isolated areas from the closest village ensured that Dharma practitioners never ran out of supplies while peasants could feel good about themselves because they believed that offering donations for a religious cause earned them good merits. Thus hiking in Bhutan generally offers total immersion into nature and is usually accompanied by significant elevation in altitude which offers a spectacular view of the valley below making it a blissful solitude moment for the hikers. The medieval tradition continues to this day and the trails are becoming popular amongst locals and tourists.
Spiritual Rejuvenation
In a land where people are culturally taught to be content in life and constantly reminded about the impermanence which is one of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism, a sense of calm seems to prevail in the air. Often mistaken for laziness, people in Bhutan are generally relaxed and accepting of whatever circumstances they find themselves in. Although no longer isolated from the global community, for most Bhutanese, the radius of their life do not span beyond their secluded village nestled somewhere within the mountain valleys highlighting the simplicity of their lives. For them, global issues such as economic recession, the election of the leader of the free world, or the global superpower race couldn’t be more important than what they are going to eat for dinner.
Ignorance really is bliss in this part of the world. From the moment you begin to descend to Paro airport, the experience of soothing traditional music playing in the cabin as the wings of the plane gracefully glide through the mountains is known to induce a sense of tranquility. If you let it, the pristine environment, simpler lives, and content and happy locals can cast an overhead shield that is impervious to stress, anxiety, and insatiable materialistic desires that capitalist societies bring offering anyone a true getaway.
With the above-mentioned facts about Bhutan, now hope you know Why Bhutan should be your next travel destination? Bhutan Soul Tours and Travel is waiting for you.
