|
|
Article: Spiritual Bhutan transforms visitors, itself
- Article from:
- Oakland Tribune
- Article date:
- July 20, 2008
- Author:
-
|
Copyright informationCopyright 2008 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
I lost it on a hillside trail overlooking Thimphu, capital city
of Bhutan.
Halfway through a nine-day journey to this remote Asian nation, a
torrent of intense feelings overcame me. They grip me to this day.
I felt it while walking through a serpentine-like processional of
hundreds, perhaps thousands of ferociously flapping prayer flags.
Nearby was my partner -- who less than a year ago lost his mother
to cancer -- and just behind him a close friend, whose wife had died
a few years back.
None of us needed to speak; each of us needed to leave something
behind on that hill.
We walked through the whiplashing flags in silence, powerless
witnesses to these swirling masses of cloth that held the ...