| If
you were ever allowed to wander around Bhutan without the ever
watchful guide and driver hovering by your elbow, and if as a
consequence you were to get lost and ask for directions on the one
and only main road in the entire country, when you are told to
follow the road past the airport and you can't miss it, that would
not be an exaggeration. Paro Dzong, once administrative centre
of Bhutan rises majestically through the morning mist right at the
northern end of the runway. The
dzong is a fortified building which serves both as a monastery
and administrative centre. Generally with two courtyards, one
housing the monks and their chapels, the other accommodating the
civil servants of this quaintly medieval anachronism. Not
entirely surprising when the Government is both Church and State.
Brings a whole new dimension to an established church, but then I
suppose that's how it was in Europe....half a millennium ago! |
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