Punakha Dzong

Warning - Big: This photo of the Dzong is composed of three individual photos stitched together in Photoshop. It will make a fantastic print, and it will give you a chance to explore the image in great detail if you click on it and choose (O)riginal resolution. But it may take some time to download. The Dzong is located at the confluence of the Mo and the Po rivers, a highly defensible position and one of great scenic beauty.

While at the Dzong we saw the "changing of the guards." Not physical or military guards, but monks, the religious and cultural guards here.

I mentioned previously that the location of the Dzong was defensible. In fact, to reach it you must cross a bridge which has been recently rebuilt in anticipation of the coronation. This is a view through a gateway onto the bridge deck.

Detail photo of one of the large prayer wheels here.

Each Dzong we visited had a neat flag in front. This isn't a prayer flag as such but more like a flag to symbolize the administrative functions which occur here.

Flag detail.

Warning - Big: Here's another image stitched together from six individual photos. I am here at the Dzong with the wrong lens on my camera - my 70-300 mm lens instead of the wide angle that would have let me shoot this in one go. Photoshop to the rescue. Because of the size of the image, it would also make a fantastic print, even a pretty large one. And you can zoom in to explore its terrific detail. Enjoy! I am interested in these Mandala images. The detail fascinates me. The symbolism! The colors! The symmetry! I like it all!

Here's another example of the mandalas we saw, perhaps more celestial.

And another.

And another.

And still another.

Many of the buildings we saw were ornamented with these neat gargoyle-like rain spouts. Obviously we've had no recent rain.

I like the intellectual notion of cats, but I'm allergic and, mostly, cats are wildly ambivalent about me. This one was wondering around the Dzong. It seemed healthy, alert, a neat example of the species.