A visit to the Memorial Chorten

Today I went to the Memorial Chorten (Stupa) which is just across the road of my hotel. It is the tradition to circumambulate the stupa three times clockwise so I just joined the crowed in doing so. Then, I took a seat outside the temple where a lot of people were sitting and just enjoyed myself observing the doings. It is a place of peace and coming together. You hear people chanting prayers to themselves or exchanging a few words. Some sitting there working on their bead necklaces and staring into the distance. Some just sitting there in silence. Others chewing betel nuts.  

​After a while an elderly woman sat next to me and I smiled at her and she smiled back. After a minute or so she said something in Dzongkha which I of course didn’t understand. I didn’t know what she said but I thought maybe she asked where I stayed or what I was doing. So I just told her in English that I lived in the hotel just over the road and pointed towards it. She of course didn’t understand the English so we just continued to smile at each other and she continued doing her praying and spinning her mani prayer wheel (a small prayer wheel which you hold in your hand) and her bead necklace. After a while she took out some fruits of her bag. Looked at me, smiled, said something in Dzongkha and handed it to me. I held out my hands in appreciating gesture and thanked her in English and then said “gadinche la” which means thank you and is about the only Dzongkha I know. She smiled and took one more out of her bag and continued chanting and stared off into the distance. While doing this she started to peel a small part of the fruit and now I saw that it was a kind of plum. She took some pieces of the pulp out and flicked it towards the stupa. I guessed that this was a religious offering. Then she gave me a fruit as well, and I copied her with the offering and then ate it. After some bites the lady looked at me again and said something and pulled a face so I immediately understood that she wanted to say that it was sour and then she put the rest on the windowsill behind her. A view minutes later she offered me a small packed muffin which I gladly took, copying her offering and then ate the rest of it. But when she unpacked a fruit juice package and I wasn’t sure if she had drunken out of it yet or not I did a small hand gesture of refusal but smiled and she understood and drank it herself after doing some religious offering. Soon after that I left and smiled at her when I went. It was nice to share this moment with her!