This is part two of an account of a study trip by a group of twelve students and a professor from Hiram College to the Kingdom of Bhutan in the spring of 2002. For a full description of the group and goals of the trip, see the beginning of the first writeup, 23 Days in Bhutan.
This is a combination of class lectures and observations in the field (in plain text) and additional writings (in monospace). All altitudes are estimates, based on atmospheric pressure. For this reason, there will occasionally be multiple altitudes given for the same location.
17 April
Today we left Thimphu, the capitol of Bhutan, located in the western part of the country, and drove east, along the single paved road connecting the country. Bhutan is a series of large valleys parallel to each other, oriented north to south. Each valley defines the vegetation and animals that inhabit it. As we left the capitol, the steep road twisted up the valley side, the vegetation becoming more and more lush, the higher we went, approaching and reaching the pass, where the road goes down in to the next valley.
Observations:
Fruit trees in narrow terraces, higher up valley.
More farming of things that require better conditions are in small valleys off main valley. These valleys are isolated from the wind, rain, and cold air that hit the main valley so directly. They may also be at a better angle of incidence to the sun. In some way, they are protected.
So green, even as we get higher. And actually, as we get higher, getting greener.
We are not just going further up the valley wall, the valley is going up. That is, the distance from the top to the bottom of the valley wall remains the same, but the bottom becomes higher and higher above sea level, as we head north.
Species diversity of this valley is much higher than the valley that Paro was in, or even the lower part of this valley, in the area leading up to and around Thimphu.
And there is a higher density of plants.
Near the top of pass, there are many deciduous trees - below there were more conifers, further apart.
Hemlock. Magnolia. altitude:10,000 feet.
Warbler migration.
trees covered with epiphytes - moist.
Many birds. Junipers - little
Perhaps this area was grazed for a while.
hemlock. firs.
The air feels more humid than it did lower in the valley - it became more humid as we climbed up the valley. And cooler.
White Collared Blackbird. Greenbacked Tit.
Far more streams in the Thimphu valley than in Paro.
Clouds are coming from the other side of this pass to the Thimphu valley.
Most of the water here is from fog and clouds.
Water condenses on trees - epiphytes grow on trees.
Epiphyte load can become so heavy that it causes limbs to break off.
Hemlock have very flat needles.
Oak leaves look waxy.
Wind is coming toward Thimphu valley - it is blowing from the other side of the pass.
Big magnolia. Prevailing winds crop trees. Brachen fern.
This area has been heavily grazed.
The soil is less rocky here. Perhaps this is due to the larger quantities of plant life here. Huge rhodendrons.
This was Gochula pass. Lots of sand up top.
Yew tree. Alder.
At the top of the pass was a small shrine and large quantities of prayer flags, on poles, strewn between trees, and on the ground. This seemed to clearly be a spiritual place. And then we started down into the next valley.
It was very cloudy at the top, so we could not se far. The area appeared to be dense forest, but it was not possible to see very far. As we progressed into the valley, the view became clearer - this was a huge, lush, green valley - the largest expanse of deciduous forest that I have ever seen. The trees stretched, mostly interrupted, as far as I could see.
So green. So much diversity. And all the farming. The impact of the farming did not seem to be very significant - the farms are small, and they are very connected with the land - the farming is done by hand, without large machinery. It is about working with the land, not against it.
Fewer trees as we go north, especially on the west side of valley.
Glacial rivers. Grazing is so evident.
The valley bottom. 4410 feet - 6000 feet lower than the top.
cactus. Bananas. Eucalyptus.
The valley, lower, seems drier. Dusty. Across a bridge, a stop for lunch, then up another valley, a similar sort of progression to what we saw earlier in the day. Up, up up. Yaks! Yaks by the side of the road! To:
Lawala Pass - lots of small bamboo. 10, 917 feet.
Tamarack (or larch) tree.
We cross over the pass to a very high valley. The sun is breaking through the clouds - the quality of the light reminds me much of what San Francisco was like - Muir Woods. A few buildings are visible, as the road twists and turns on the narrow, rocky, rough dirt road that leads through this valley. On a rise, the bus stops, and we are close to the monastery of the valley, Gangtey Gompa. It sits on a wooded rise, a couple hundred feet above the valley floor. We cannot see much of it, but clearly it is special.
We continue, slowly, on the dirt road, for perhaps another half hour or forty five minutes, through a small village, a school, where the children all wave at us. They wave at us wherever we go. On the edge of the village is the hotel that we are staying at. The bus somehow made it up the rough, steep driveway. The building is of the traditional sort, heavy, sturdy, probably 600 years old.
We walk up a wood staircase to an entrance on the second floor. The building is dark inside. Inside, the heavy timbers that make up the construction are much more obvious than outside. Low doorways and small rooms, with heavy sliding shutters over the windows - this construction is built to last. The rooms are small, perhaps 8 x 10 feet, but adequate. Each room has a small, very dim, electric light, just enough to barely see in the middle of the night. Down the hall, a bathroom with cold running water.
Upstairs, on the third floor, is a common room, with relatively large windows and a wood stove. We have tea and a lecture.
lecture - Physical Environment:
Climate - key to understanding the physical environment of mountains
The four zones: equatorial; subtropical; subpolar; polar.
Low pressure areas tend to be wetter.
Von Humbolt's altitudinal zones: hot; not so hot; cold; frigid
Same sort of systems.
Sort of - like climbing a mountain - big changes.
Day length - greater growing season. But the days here are shorter. Angle of incidence affects amount of light coming in, and mountains block light.
Amount, interesting, of UV light - damaging to all life forms. The more you protect against UV light, the less light you can take in.
Continental climate = screwed - no moderation of temperature by sea temperature.
Greater fluctuations in temperature at high altitudes.
Huge high landmass. Hot tropical air is driven over Tibetan plateau. Air cools as it rises. - Topographical Barrier - stops movement of people, animals, plants.
Monsoons.
Mountains are ephemeral.
40-70 million years ago, India collides with Asia, subducted under Asia.
moving at 100 mm/year
40 million years ago, slows to 50 mm/year - basically forces out Southeast Asia. (no uplift)
India has moved 2000 km.
Earth's climate changed 18 million years ago with rise of Tibet.
Sedimentary Rocks forced up. Metamorphic rocks pushing this stuff up - jagged peaks of Himalaya.
Less plant life. All Tibet is a vast desert. And tremendous monsoon on the other side - causes continuous rain for months at a time.
Absolute need for irrigation.
Plateau is the largest in the history of the Earth.
Uplift is 18mm/year.
Lots of erosion. 15 million km2 of sediment eroded in the past 8 million years from Himalaya.
The exposed rocks of the Himalaya are a Major CO2 sink - causes decrease in temperature, by silica!
Glaciers
The Himalaya - up 700 mm/Kyear. Down 10-20 mm/year, in places.
Grazing increases erosion.
Nature has a big effect, long term. People mess up, long term.
(end of lecture)
Reactions to today:
Wow. Huge, 5,000 foot deep valleys.
Gangtey Gompa - built in the 13th century. Being rebuilt. (call art museum)
Class is mostly boys. (at Bhutanese school)
Today we left Thimphu and headed east. Over the top of a mountain pass to some of the most green land I have ever seen.
18 April
A day in the valley we stayed in last night. A walk, in the morning, to the monastery, Gangtey Gompa, a bit of a lecture in the afternoon, and observations all the while.
The soil on valley bottom - more spongy than most of the rest of the soil that we have seen. It is springy, bouncy, almost.
Up a little, ten or twenty feet higher than the valley floor, black soil.
Must have low pH - 2-3
legumes - nitrogen fixing bacteria.
Gangtey Gompa - amazing. 13th century frescoes. Row of prayer wheels around base. There is something amazing about the old structure. The intricate woodworking, the frescoes, they are all so old. The style, the character are clearly different from the newer ones we have seen, yet most, if not all, of it, is going to be destroyed. It will be documented, torn down, and then another building just like it will be built on the same site. It seems like such a shame, but what can be done? The building is falling apart. Time has taken a heavy toll.
Massive timbers sit outside, awaiting the reconstruction.
Wind blows up valley.
Lecture: Physical Factors
As wind comes across Arabian Sea, it is compressed. When air is compressed, it is warmed and rises. First it hits Tibet, Nepal, Sikhim, then Bhutan.
This area only gets about 1 meter of rain a year. At higher altitudes, snow - makes a glacier.
Glacial retreat is not retreat - it is the front end of the glacier melting.
Have to have irrigation - glacial runoff - to farm here - glacier makes growing possible.
More sunlight here, greater length of day, so you can grow tropical stuff.
Rice growing at 5,000 feet.
Potatoes, wheat, bananas, cactus.
Apples are a major cash crop - require a cool winter. Only grown on sides of valley - valley bottom is too cold.
Warmer = faster growth rate.
People are existing at the limits - growing season is short here - must be able to trade down the valley for food of higher caloric value.
Synoptic Airflow and Convectional Air Flow.
Cloud forest - clouds cooled, moisture condenses on trees, providing them with the water they need. Fog can add a lot of precipitation
North facing slopes get less sun, covered with evergreens. South facing slope - poor.
Radiation receipts - too great on south slopes.
These fields are not irrigated.
You cannot afford to have something not work for a season - there is a heavy reliance on family and community - this sort of climate requires a social structure that supports successful agriculture.
Grasses are fast plants - different, high metabolism. Can capture CO2 more efficiently\ - can grow in drier conditions. Where do [grass grow? - bad places - hilltops.
Trees and shrubs are more picky - fast plants are less picky.
Carbon 14- paleobotany
Shift in plants
Also, pulls more moisture from Arabian Sea, heats top, change in fossils (hot surface water!) Summer upwelling. Changes entire jet stream
Why do we see so much litter? No disposal service? A multicultural thing. Theory of environmental degradation.
Forcing us to come up with models that describe what actually happens.
ESSAY: Use your own observations from journal and discussion , support one of the following myths:
Last part: To what extent is the view supported a myth? 4-5 p, handwritten, double spaced.
Focus on Bhutan!
(end of lecture)
Observations:
This is a glacial valley. People do have a huge influence on landscape. Monastary. Wormed wood. Steep trail going up. Greater distance between trees than in second growth. Still lots of vegetation.
The walk today seemed rather difficult. Across the valley floor, up the steep trail on the rise in the center to the monastery. The temple, so old, so amazing, and probably gone by now. Spinning prayer wheels, listening to monks blow horns, offering incense, drinking some sort of beverage, offered to us by the monks, all so... different. These people understand spirituality.
Afterwards, a walk down the hill, observing some plants along the way, meandering around the valley, back to the hotel for lunch. We visited a school in the afternoon - what an awkward experience - their method of teaching is so different, and we are so... something. We need to be a little humble. And we need to figure out how to communicate using concepts familiar to them.
A bit of rain in the late afternoon, tea, dinner, more talking, then sleep, early. When it is dark, what else is there to do?
19 April
Leaving the Gangtey valley, back on the same bumpy, jarring, dirt road. Continuing east.
Lots of bamboo - bigger here.
Wool.
Glacial erratics in this valley.
Bumthang valley is smaller than the other valleys that we have been in. It is neither as deep nor as wide.
Snow at the tops of mountains.
Wool.
19 April. More observations.
More animals (visible) per land than in other valleys. (This is for the Bumthang Valley.)
Sheer size of forests is amazing - 5000 foot deep valleys, covered entirely with thick deciduous forests.
Lots of young animals. (It is spring, after all.)
And dogs. There are lots of dogs.
All of this trash on the ground - almost all of it seems to come from smallish packaged foods - only occasionally is it the larger package or bottle seen.
Wood is still used for most heating and cooking.
Birds. More than I can see - so varied in song.
A raven, staring at me.
Open storage on the top floors of the houses.
Lots of garbage dumped in areas by the edge of town, without real regard for proximity to water. And it smells. (But it is the biodegradable things that smell - it would have been thus previously, before the introduction of Western goods.
Prayer flags - some say that they litter the landscape, however, they are confined to a limited area, have spiritual significance, and seem to biodegrade relatively quickly. They are generally confined to a specific area, although they are found in many places. In most places, there are so few that they degrade quickly. In the places where there are many more, they degrade more slowly, once they have fallen to the ground. This does not seem to be a significant amount of litter to me.
These descents really seem to be killing the transmission on the bus.
Occasional roadblocks, where our driver must provide documentation for the vehicle and its passengers.
Fruit trees grow well enough in some places - they are short.
It is cold outside in the morning - good for waking one up, but also for making one want to go back to sleep.
The big shift in vegetation is at the passes between valleys - radical change in species. Becomes less pronounced lower in valleys. Cloud forest effect is very obvious.
All these dogs, and almost no cats. And all they ever seem to do is sit around. And bark.
These earth structures are interesting - relationship with nature - decay.
Sunrise is much earlier than I am used to getting up.
A dark, gray, valley this is that we spend the night in. The town of Jakar. An internet café! Sigh. And also, one of the nicest hotels in the country, the Swiss Lodge.
The Swiss Lodge was built about 30 years ago by a Swiss man who traveled to Bhutan and married a Bhutanese woman. He built a Swiss style lodge, constructed in the fashion of traditional Swiss buildings. Lots of exposed wood, and vaguely more European food. This was a major vacation spot for the Bhutanese even before the national highway was built. Amazing bread and Swiss cheese. And the water from the tap may be consumed without fear!
20 April
Thinking about the paper.
Lecture: Mountain Communities
Mountain community is based on culture
Doing stuff to conserve calories - if any of the roles are changed, there are not enough calories.
Plants and animals are living at their limits.
Switzerland. Settlement in the mountains - not good land.
Earliest structures are in defendable places.
People come from Tibet and from the south.
Mountain communities are a sort of refuge.
Attitudes tend to be different - everyone has to have a role in society to survive.
No major settlements here until the 11th century. Caves are sites of the first settlements.
Cannot understand texts as history - myth is part of it - and there is truth to the myths.
Settlement patterns.
Different things in different valleys - different ecological zones. All at the same latitude, but other things affect - orientation, rain.
Terraces require communities working together.
Bhutan is not a refuge, just people in the mountains.
Markets are important - Periodic work - origins of products variable.
People respond rapidly to this - cash changes what people want.
ROADS - Most construction took place since1987 - Change
Culture - changing set of ideas and meanings. Determine how we interact with the environment. Distinct local dialects. Local community based.
Not static - accepting of change.
Religion - Tantric Buddhism - spirits, witches, and the like - the environment. Experiences of living in an extreme environment. Dzongs - forts, religion - Mountains change religion.
Buddhism affects use of livestock - helps maintain landscape? Equality, too? Preservation of mountain landscape.
Revivals in traditional music? We have spurred revival of their culture.
Interaction of culture - so much of what we know is not true. No such thing as stability.
Terraces can save Nepal. And terraces ARE saving Nepal.
Attitudes in mountain communities are more dynamic. Much of what we say is myth.
Factors that affect environment:
Local conditions:
Himalaya extend east to Thailand and west to Pakistan. Hindu Kush. Himalaya very different in Pakistan.
Really wet here - Separation - tropics from desert.
Monsoon. Monsoons determine climate, prevent continental climate.
Three climatic zones (in Himalaya)
- Southern, outer Himalaya. Sikhim. 5-6 m. of rain a year. Outer Bhutan.
- Inner Himalaya. Upper Sikhim, Inner Bhutan.
- Upper Tibetan Himalaya - really dry.
Cacti were actually planted to inhibit invasion of dzong.
Change is continuous - Von Humbolt's models are convenient. Community as a continuum. Zones are made up to define a place.
Understanding that we are in the Eastern Himalaya.
East - Monsoon
In Myanmar, with less rain, zones are 1000 m. lower.
We are in the zone of the highest trees in the world.
Transition from wet in east to dry in west.
Biggest glaciers in Himalaya are in west - Pakistan.
(end of lecture)
After the lecture, a day of hiking, to a campsite, where we will stay for the next two days. A four or five hour walk, up the Swan Valley. The trail does not seem so difficult - we are making good time. And I managed to get a watercolor done while waiting for lunch. A beautiful campsite, just by the farm, where we will be staying for the two nights.
Passed some interesting buildings on the way up, curious transitions, so different.
Observations:
Igneous intrusions in some sort of rock.
Lots of bamboo, some growing higher.
This is a river valley.
Horses and other pack animals have clearly left their mark on the landscape here - wherever the land by the trail is wider, the animals have spread out, and have grazed most of the ground cover.
Bridges are... interesting.
Rain! Strong for 45 minutes, total 1 1/2 - 2 hours.
Very humid here, at camp, earlier in the morning.
21 April
Clouds moving through valley and across mountains quickly (when I went into the tent to get my camera, the scene I had gone to photograph had already changed considerably.) The fancy bright yellow tents against the somber greens and grays of the valley are an interesting contrast.
This campsite has obviously been used for a while - grazed low, relatively flat. And there is marijuana growing here.
Water powered prayer wheels at many of the houses here.
Mostly coniferous forest in this valley - there is something about the relationship between the conifers and the bamboo.
Eight or so in the morning, on a field a couple hundred feet above the farmhouse, learning how the Bhutanese farm.
Burning cypress offerings first. And offering apple wine.
Chopping up dirt using angled wooden rakes.
These fields are not irrigated, and less flat.
Planting buckwheat.
Oxen are used to plow. Rocks at the edges, from the field.
Reddish black soil, terraced, a little.
These fields are only planted every five years - they are too far from the house to farm every year, and so it remains fertile.
On the lower fields, chemical fertilizers are used, since 1975.
Tossing seeds by hand, but with a precise pace and hand motion.
The soil will be plowed, to put the seeds under the soil.
The seeds will germinate in a week, be reaped in 4 months.
Lots of wild boar.
Forest over this field was cut down at least 4-5 generations ago.
Nitrogen and phosphate for fertilizer. And manure. - grows much faster, greater yield.
Growing season is 4 months for buckwheat, barley, wheat.
This is all sustenance - not for trade.
Extensive use of bamboo when something flexible is needed.
Two oxen used for plowing. Steel-edged wood plow.
Spreading fertilizer by hand.
The oxen seem so calm
Also some ashes are spread in the field.
Potatoes grow well here, but difficult to transport, thus not a cash crop. But with the road, would be good.
Boars come in big groups - 40-50. Bears too. So someone has to guard the field all night until crop is harvested.
Singing to make the oxen go more smoothly.
Oil, naturally occurring on top of the water.
Woven bamboo roofs on lesser buildings.
In home, open mud fire pit type thing and newer wood stove.
Rice with rasins, sugar, butter. Yummy.
Now I see why these ceilings are so tall - the level of the smoke from the open fire is just above the heads of these people . I, at 6 foot 8, am not so fortunate.
Construction of these windows is cool.
Note: do not pour boiling water on cuts.
looks like a Lecture.
Farm a total of about 25 acres - may be spread over 20 plots.
grubs cause a problem for wheat - do not use pesticides or herbicides - buckwheat grows faster than weeds.
Dark soil may increase growing season.
Above a certain point, just yak herding.
Lowest plots are most intense agriculture.
Using soil enrichment
1 hectare of terraces = 1300 worker days!
Allows water to roll off
Bari terraces - do not hold water
Hket terraces - hold water
Terrace requires whole community - very high maintainence - only works in tightly bonded communities, and with cheap labor.
War does not help - terraces have washed off Italy.
Source of water:
Glacial melt is good, but brings glacial flour over everything, too. And is cold.
Takes a community to build an irrigation system. And high maintainence.
Environmental hazards - earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, flooding (monsoons and glaciers)
97% of hazardous earthquakes occur in mountains - aftermath is what hurts.
FEMA
These are not unexpected events - the need to prepare!
Nepal - 2 landslides per km of road / year.
(end of lecture)
Nature will overcome, eventually. 1. Landslides. 2. Glacial flour. 3. Bridges wash out. 4. Mud houses decay, stuff grows over them. 5. Roads fall off mountains. 6. terraces collapse. 7.
Gangtey Gompa was amazing - now I understand a bit more the spirituality of these places and these rites. And I believe it.
But why is there so much trash around?
All the tools seem to be about the connection to the earth.
These people are connected with the earth. They have to be. Yet they are also willing to accept change. Living in houses hundreds of years old. They have history. Perhaps we can learn something?
22 April
Hiked out of the Swan Valley, a much briefer walk, downhill, than the hike up.
Observations
ANew road is being built in the Swan Valley - gorgeous, dark, rich soil is revealed by the bulldozer. Now I see how these people can farm here, and why everything works - when you take care of the land, you get good results. And these people are using the best land for farming, not for housing.
Still lots of farming.
The road will change the way of life here. Once people can ship their goods to market, everything will change.
How long will this way of life last?
The valley will eventually change. Tourists will come in. And it will erode. And there will be more tourists.
Pine burns really fast.
It does rain quite a bit. In this valley, in the mid-afternoon, generally 3-5 pmish, though it sprinkled a bit this morning (8:30-9:00 am).
The change in the temperature between day and night is drastic - it is up in the 70s during the day and in the low 40s at night. The change at night is fast. And in the morning, warming is slow - sunrise at about 6 am, and still cool by 9. Warmer by 10, but not near peak temperature until at least noon.
Management of water is different - lots of irrigation channels, but not built and cleared like the ones in the Western USA - they are built where they fit the land well and are in harmony with the lay of the land.
The structure of the houses is one built to survive earthquakes - it is post and beam but in such a way that the beams just rest in notches, allowing movement if the land moves.
Hot showers, relaxation, and writing, at the Swiss Lodge. Troubles working the wood stoves - something about fire needing air. Oops.
23 April
It is warmer here, at the Swiss Lodge, early in the morning, than it is in the areas up in the valley where we stayed for the past two nights.
The honey here tastes wonderful, as does the cheese.
The woodwork in the houses is amazing - so nicely crafted, so planed to fit together, so connected to the people who built it.
The non-glacial valleys do not haveglacial flour in the riverbeds like the glacial valleys do - they have far more coarse rocks in their riverbeds - glaciers are needed to create glacial flour.
I have not seen any of the small mammals that I am used to - no squirrels, or anything else, really. Lots of pet dogs, and a few pet cats, but very few, if any, wild mammals. Lots of birds. And not many bigger mammals - I hear stories of wild boars and bears, but have not seen any of them. I have seen monkeys.
In Jakar, there is an internet café. Very slow, but still, it is there -there is enough demand for an internet café that it exists.
I purchased Coca-Cola yesterday, in Jakar, a 2 liter bottle, bottled in Thailand, for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Not too old.
Most of the people here drive either Indian-made minivans, really tiny things, or Indian Bajaj scooters, surprisingly similar in appearance to Vespas.
After another wonderful breakfast - the bread and cheese are so comforting, we visited two Buddhist temples and a Dzong, before continuing the drive east.
Kurjey Temple - built in the 13th-14th century.
Valley was ruled by king.
The weighing of souls. The wheel of life.
Paintings seem to be on cloth that is mounted on the walls.
Tantric Buddhist symbolism is really surreal.
So many buildings, new and old, are given corrugated steel roofs.
108 Chorten. (Auspicious number)
The following, the second temple, was a short walk from the first
First temple in Bhutan - 7th century - This one and Paro, first. Jampey Harem.
Unique festival in November. Naked Dance, at Midnight.
First monastery in Bhutan.
Earlier paintings are of different styles - this idea of a classical style is an invention.
The Dzongs are forts, built to guard valleys, beginning in the 13th and 14th centuries. They are a combination of administrative centers, where government officials work, and religious centers, with monks in residence and temples.
Wow. The dzong was amazing. So tall, so vertical.
So strange to be the first college student group to visit this country to study. So amazing.
More wood at the front of the house - as much wood there as possible. Stone at the back. More wood is more expensive.
Silverwork here is amazing. Silver does not have the shine of sterling, but is still nice.
After visiting the Jakar Dzong, we get back in the bus, and head east, again, for the village of Ura, the highest inhabited valley in Bhutan. There is a festival, with dancing, that we (and many other tourists) will witness.
The camp: This place, in Ura, is AMAZING.