Tashi lebe

Nobody does ceremony better than the Bhutanese and at the end of each ceremony everyone makes a giant circle and we dance the lebe lebe. It's kind of a low key hokey pokey.

Spectacular boots

Stag dance

Today at the Painting School's anniversary celebration we watched a cultural show with dancing and a quiz competition. We looked at a juried exhibition of art from the students and ate a lavish lunch. The school seems to be doing well since I quit teaching there. There are about 200 students and they all live at the school. When I taught English the school had 60 students. The official name of the school is the Zorig Chusum Pekhang, or School of Thirteen Arts. What 13 arts? Basketry, weaving, painting, masonry, metalworking, wood carving, sculpting, embroidery, silversmithing, leatherworking, caligraphy, paper making and slate carving.

Home

We arrived last week in Thimphu, more specifically Kawajangsa, home of the Painting School where Namgay and I met. As luck would have it, our new flat is just across the street from the house where we first started out 11 years ago. Here it is, and that's our little car waiting for us on the street.