There is great excitement in the Phobjikha Valley in central Bhutan when the black-necked cranes arrive for the winter. They swoop in from the Tibetan Plateau and settle in the wetlands of this huge U-shaped valley, where a conservation area has been set up to protect them.
The Phobjikha Valley is also the site of one of the most famous, ancient monasteries in Bhutan, the Gangtey Monastery. Intriguingly, as the birds arrive they circle the Gangtey Monastery three times, and then they circle it three times again before they leave in the spring. Circling a sacred site is an important ritual for Tibetan Buddhists and nobody knows why the birds also follow this tradition.
So … where is the obvious place to hold a festival to celebrate the arrival of the black-necked cranes? In the main courtyard of the Gangtey Monastery, of course!
We arrived the day before the festival and the streets of Phobjikha were rammed with stalls selling the usual variety of souvenirs, and the crowds were beginning to gather with many of the locals in their most expensive, hand-woven costumes. Bhutan is famous for textiles and weaving, and many of the very costly outfits are passed down from generation to generation.
The cranes are rather tricky to spot in the wild, as the valley is large and the viewing platform is a fair distance from where they’ve chosen to set up home, so we went to the Black-Necked Crane Information Centre to see a couple of birds who were taken in and nursed following an injury, and now can’t be returned to the wild.
We were shown a video in the information centre about a night vision camera they’ve set up to watch the cranes after dark, and the camera footage clearly showed two leopards following the cranes around in the dark. There was no information about any strategy for protecting the cranes from predators, so I’m hoping the leopards haven’t started to view the valley as their local fast food outlet. Athough, to be accurate, it’s the leopards who are fast here, rather than the food.
We arrived at the monastery as the locals were streaming in, and we joined the crowds sitting on the ground to watch the show.
There was a very jolly monkey dance, which began with the MC throwing handfuls of bananas on the ground which the boys dressed as monkeys picked up and ate. The only problem was that one banana was left on the floor, near where we were sitting, and so we watched anxiously as the dance began, in case an enthusiastic dancer skidded on the banana and knocked us all over, cartoon-style, like a row of dominoes.
But my favourite dance was the drum dance. The dancers, in bright yellow costumes and masks, twirled, twisted and jumped, keeping time perfectly, while banging their traditional drums. The Bhutanese people dance in masks to honour their deities and to appease them, and the spectators gain religious merit from attending a festival, as well as having a jolly good day out. The drum dancers were trainee monks from the shedra, or monastic college, next door to the monastery.
As we were leaving the festival I met a monk who told me that he had been one of the drum dancers, and I came over all fan girl and asked him for a photo.
Bhutan is famous for its festivals, and I felt very privileged to have experienced such a unique cultural event.