GEEO Nepal and Bhutan Google Earth Presentation

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USA

Today I’d like to share with you a great experience I had traveling to Nepal and Bhutan through a non-profit organization called GEEO. GEEO helps educators travel abroad so that they can learn more about different cultures to share with their students. I was joined on my trip by teachers from all around the United States.

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Asia

Nepal and Bhutan are both located in Asia, Earth’s largest continent. Asia covers 30% of the world’s land and is home to 60% of the world’s population—nearly 5 billion people.

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Nepal

My trip started in Nepal, a country bordered to the north by China, and to the south, east, and west by India. The mountainous northern half of the country has eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest.

Over 80% of Nepalese people practice Hinduism—the highest percentage of any country. Buddhism is a minority religion but deeply connected to Nepal’s history and culture. Many Nepali Hindus also worship Buddhist deities, and the two religions often blend together in daily practice.

Nepal had a Hindu monarchy for most of its history until a civil war between the government and communist forces. In 2008, Nepalis voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a democratic republic.

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Kathmandu

We started our journey in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. With over 1.4 million residents, Kathmandu is the largest city in Nepal. It is over 2,000 years old and is packed with history and religious significance.

On April 25, 2015, a massive earthquake hit Nepal, killing over 8,000 people and damaging many of Kathmandu’s historic buildings. But, there are still so many great things to see.

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Durbar Square

Durbar Square is a cluster of ancient temples, palaces, and courtyards dating from the 12th to 18th centuries. The palace complex was the royal residence until the 19th century and the site of important ceremonies including coronations. The buildings have elaborately carved wooden windows and panels, and three museums display artifacts from Nepal’s former kings.

In the nearby city of Bhaktapur, the five-story Nyatapola Temple towers over Durbar Square. It was built in 1701-1702 under King Bhupatindra Malla and is dedicated to Siddha Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity. The pagoda-style temple is one of the tallest in Nepal.

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Swayambhunath

Swayambhunath is an ancient religious complex on a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of the city. It’s also known as the Monkey Temple because of the sacred monkeys living in parts of the temple in the northwest. The Tibetan name for the site means “Sublime Trees” due to the many types of trees found on the hill. The Swayambhunath complex consists of a stupa and various Buddhist shrines and temples. [Have your students guess what a stupa might be, then explain: A Buddhist shrine, traditionally dome-shaped]

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Rani Pokhari

Rani Pokhari, or Queen’s lake, is a pond that was built by King Pratap Malla for his beloved wife in 1670. At the center of the pond is a Hindu temple known as Matrikeshwor Mahadev. The pond and temple were badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake but have been restored to their original design from 1670.

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Boudhanath Stupa

Boudhanath Stupa is the largest stupa in Nepal and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. Located in the town of Boudha on Kathmandu’s eastern outskirts, it was probably built in the 14th century. After China invaded Tibet in 1959, thousands of Tibetans fled to Nepal, and the temple became one of the most important centers of Tibetan Buddhism in Kathmandu.

The stupa has Buddha’s eyes and eyebrows painted on it. The dome at the base represents the entire world. When a person wakes up (represented by the eyes of wisdom and compassion) from being trapped by worldly concerns, they reach enlightenment.

Check out this site for some beautiful 360º images from Kathmandu.

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Pokhara

We left Kathmandu and traveled to the beautiful city of Pokhara. It is the second largest city in Nepal and is located on the shore of Phewa Lake. Pokhara lies on an important old trading route between India and Tibet, and today it is used as a base for trekkers hiking the mountain nearby called Annapurna.

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Sarangkot

A great thing to do if you’re staying in Pokhara is to walk up to Sarangkot for a sunrise view of the mountains. The name for the mountain comes from the Hindu deity Annapurna, goddess of food and nourishment. This is because rivers flowing down from the mountains support vegetation year-round on the lower plains.

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Chitwan National Park

Next, we traveled to Chitwan National Park, the first national park in Nepal. Chitwan is home to more than 700 species of wildlife, including 68 mammal species like clouded leopards, golden jackals, Indian wild dogs, sloth bears, and rhinoceroses. It’s also one of the best places in the world to spot a Bengal tiger.

After visiting Chitwan National Park, we said goodbye to Nepal and headed to Bhutan.

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Himalayas

Our journey from Nepal to Bhutan took us over the Himalayan Mountains. The name Himalaya comes from Sanskrit, an ancient language from India, and it means “abode of the snow” because the mountains are always covered with snow.

There are over 100 peaks in the Himalayas that exceed 23,600 feet in elevation. In contrast, the highest peak outside Asia, Aconcagua in the Andes, is 22,838 feet tall.

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Mount Everest

The Himalayas have many of Earth’s highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest at 29,032 feet. Tectonic plates keep pushing Everest and the entire Himalayan range upward at about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) per year.

The mountain was named Mount Everest in 1865 after Sir George Everest, who was Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. The mountain is also called Chomolungma in Tibetan and Sagarmatha in Nepali. On May 29, 1953, Tenzing Norgay of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand became the first people to reach the summit.

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Bhutan

Bhutan sits on the eastern Himalayas. Until recently, this small kingdom remained isolated from the rest of the world, which helped preserve its deep Buddhist traditions and pristine landscapes. To protect their culture, Bhutan strictly limits tourism and requires visitors to pay a daily fee. Bhutan didn’t allow TV or internet until 1999—one of the last countries in the world to lift the ban.

The government of Bhutan is guided by a philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). Unlike the more common economic indicator, Gross National Product (GNP), GNH measures development by considering the overall well-being of the population, emphasizing harmony with nature and traditional values.

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Paro

Bhutan is so mountainous there’s no room for an airport in Thimphu, the capital, so we flew into Paro instead—about an hour’s drive away. Paro is Bhutan’s third-largest town and home to the country’s only international airport. The Paro Valley is one of the most beautiful parts of Bhutan, surrounded by temples and ancient buildings.

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Thimphu

From Paro, we drove to Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital with about 115,000 people. At 7,656 feet above sea level, Thimphu is the fifth-highest capital in the world. For comparison, the highest point east of the Mississippi River is Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet—nearly 1,000 feet lower than where people live and work in Thimphu. The city has Bhutan’s important political buildings, including Parliament and Dechencholing Palace, the official residence of the King.

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Buddha Dordenma

In Thimphu sits the Buddha Dordenma, a massive bronze Buddha statue covered in gold. This gigantic statue is 169 feet tall and holds 125,000 smaller Buddha statues inside it, ranging from 8 to 12 inches tall. All the smaller statues are also bronze and covered in gold. This means there are more Buddha statues in Thimphu than there are people. The statue was built in 2015 to honor the 60th birthday of Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Bhutan’s fourth king.

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Memorial Chorten

The Memorial Chorten is a stupa in downtown Thimphu, built in 1974. The Memorial Chorten is a prominent landmark in the city with its golden spires and bells. It’s a focal point of worship for many people in Bhutan, and elderly Bhutanese people shuffle around it meditatively every day.

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Motithang Takin Preserve

The Motithang Takin Preserve is home to Bhutan’s national animal, the takin (rhymes with “rockin'”). The animal looks like something Dr. Seuss created—it has a head like a goat and a body like a cow. According to legend, a 16th-century folk hero named Drukpa Kunley created the takin. His followers asked him to perform a miracle after a feast, so he took a pile of cow and goat bones and reassembled them into this new animal. Here is a video of takins at the San Diego Zoo.

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Tashichho Dzong

This is the Tashichho Dzong. Dzongs are fortified monasteries found mainly in Bhutan and Tibet—massive buildings with towering walls that surround courtyards, temples, offices, and living quarters for monks.

The Tashichho Dzong has been Bhutan’s seat of government since the mid-1900s and houses the king’s throne room and several important government offices. It was first built in 1216 AD and has been rebuilt several times. The current structure was rebuilt in 1962 using traditional methods—no nails were used in the construction.

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Dochula Pass

From the Thimpu Valley we traveled over the Dochula Pass, which is 10,171 feet above sea level. A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. The wife of the former King of Bhutan has built 108 stupas here in honor of Bhutanese soldiers who were killed in a battle against insurgents from India in 2003. When the weather is clear, the pass offers panoramic views of the Himalayan Mountains.

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Punakha

We continued on to the ancient city of Punakha, the former capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. Today, Punakha is a small town with a peaceful, but still regal, atmosphere.

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Chimi Lhakhang

We took a hike from Punakha to Chimi Lhakhang, the temple of the “Divine Madman,” Lama Kunley. Kunley taught Buddhism in unorthodox ways, using singing, humor, and outrageous behavior. It’s said that when he founded the site in 1499, he subdued a demon and trapped it in a rock near the temple. Today, aside from tourists, the temple is mainly visited by women as it is known as the temple of fertility.

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Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Nunnery

We also visited the Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Nunnery and Temple complex. The nunnery sits on a ridge overlooking the three valleys of Toebesa, Punakha, and Wangdue Phodrang. The complex is a meditation and traditional arts training center for about 120 Buddhist nuns, who learn skills like tailoring, embroidery, sculpting, and painting.

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Punakha Dzong

Two of Bhutan’s most important rivers, the Pho Chu and Mo Chu, meet in Punakha. The Punakha Dzong is a fortress built right at the point where the two rivers join. It’s the second oldest and second largest dzong in Bhutan and houses many sacred relics.

The fortress was built in 1637-1638 and was Bhutan’s capital until the early 1950s.

Flash floods from glacial lakes have damaged the fortress repeatedly. Engineers have deepened the river channels and raised the embankments to protect it from future floods.

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Paro Taktsang Monastery (Tiger’s Nest)

One morning, we hiked to Taktsang Monastery, also known as Tiger’s Nest—Bhutan’s most iconic site. The monastery clings to a rock cliff nearly 10,000 feet above the valley and offers incredible views of the mountains below.

The monastery was built in 1692 around a cave where Guru Rinpoche, a Buddhist master from India, meditated and taught in the early 9th century. Legend says he flew from Tibet to this spot on the back of a tigress—giving the monastery its name “Tiger’s Nest.” Guru Rinpoche is credited with spreading Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan.

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Rinpung Dzong

Paro has its own dzong whose formal name, Rinchen Pung Dzong (usually shortened to Rinpung Dzong), means “Fortress on a Heap of Jewels.” It was constructed in 1644 on the foundation of an older monastery. The fort was used on numerous occasions to defend the Paro Valley from invasions by Tibet. Just up the hill is the amazing National Museum of Bhutan, housed in a former watchtower for the dzong.

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Kyichu Temple

We also visited one of Bhutan’s oldest and most beautiful temples, Kyichu Temple, originally built in the year 659 by Emperor Songtsen Gampo. Legends say that the temple was built overnight on the left foot of a giant ogress who lay across Bhutan, and the temple is one of over 100 that were established to overpower her so Buddhism could flourish far and wide. The beautiful temple contains some incredible artwork, sculptures, and relics.

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Nepal and Bhutan Overview

Our journey came to an end in Paro, and we flew home from Bhutan.