Festival

Today was the opening of Thimphu's 3-day Fall Festival, which draws a substantive amount of people, not just from Thimphu but from surrounding areas as well. It was an absolute feast for the senses: the milling crowd, the rhythmic dancing, the patterns, and the colors - brilliant and almost super charged in the festive outfits the locals wore. The sounds of guttural chanting and humming, drums and long horns were trance-inducing

This group of lovely ladies is just one of dozens of pix I took today of the attendees in their fineries, whom I found more interesting than the actual dancing. The men sport ghos and the women keras; both are complex garments of one piece, intricately put together (I don't think I could handle that first thing in the morning!). The festive versions, worn by old and young alike, feature delicate patterns, brilliant colors and often woven or embroidered silk.  Just lovely. I had to stop myself from becoming a real public nuisance by stopping every other person to take a pic ;)

The extra is a shot from the courtyard inside the dzong where the festivities took place. Fun day, which also included a visit to the largest Buddha statue in the country (it stands at almost 200' and overlooks the city): very impressive but I've now run out of extras... :(