WE STAYED WITH MONKS IN BHUTAN (a touching story)
Transcript of a YouTube video by Kara and Nate Buchanan documenting an overnight stay at a remote monastery near Thimphu, Bhutan. The couple hike ~1,000 vertical meters to reach the monastery, learn about its revival by a head monk who now cares for about 80 children, participate in daily life (butter tea, games, meals, prayers), and reflect on cultural practices (no traffic lights, cordyceps tea). The tone is personal, travelogue, and emotionally reflective.
Chapters
That's a beautiful thing. Knowing the kind of life that they might have had before and seeing how happy they are here.
I've been really emotional today.
We're Karen Nate. We've been traveling non stop for the last four years and we're currently exploring our 98th country of Bhutan. You can't visit this country without a tour guide. So thankfully we got a really cool one for the week named Taewong. If you missed our last video, he invited us to spend a couple days with his family in his village where he grew up. And today we've been given another incredible opportunity.
We are currently in the capital city of Thimphu and somewhere way up in these mountains surrounding me is the remote monastery where we're going to be spending the night. Also, this, the statue behind me is one of the largest sitting Buddhas in the entire world.
Thank.
So fun fact. Bhutan does not have a single traffic light in the entire country. Instead, they have a traffic policeman who stands at the intersection and waves people through.
Apparently they tried out traffic lights once and everybody hated it, so they just.
Got rid of them. So we are standing at the largest intersection in the capital city of the country and there's man directing traffic.
See you tomorrow. Sure. Enjoy your day.
I'm already out of breath. So we've driven about 20 minutes outside of the city and that's as far as the car could take us because the only way to get to this monastery is by hiking three hours pretty much straight up a mountain. We're at elevation.
We've only been hiking for about five minutes and we've already come out of all of our layers.
All right, well, embarrassed at how hard I'm breathing.
So we started this hike somewhere around 2500 meters. And by the time we get to the monastery we'll be at 3400. We also learned that there are bears and Bengal tigers in these woods. Be cool to see one as long as we don't get eaten.
There are chances that we might come across wild animals. So just to get rid of them, we do something like this.
Go away tigers. Go away bears. I would actually love to see a tiger.
That would be a really bad idea.
We are just getting our first glimpse of our home for the night. We still have quite a ways to go.
Bye bye.
He is one of the workers who is with the renovation of the temple. So he's going back home. So he's carrying his clothes inside the side.
It is so crazy to me that the only way to get up here is by walking getting close.
Two hours 45 minutes later. Almost 1,000 vertical meters. We have made it to the monastery. I can already tell it's going to be totally worth it.
It's so beautiful up here.
We have incredible views of the capital city of Timphu, where we started this morning. The mountains are casting a shadow on the city. We've made it just high enough that we're getting glimpses of the snow capped peaks in the distance.
Good morning. Your English is very Good evening.
Good evening.
Good evening. The fire is very warm. Thank you for the wood.
It's like I'm busy, I'm making a fire.
How old are you?
As soon as we walked up, all the adorable little monks made us a fire. They just brought us some butter tea. I'm feeling super welcome in their home. This is such a cool experience. And they're so cute.
Oh, thank you.
I love them all. Their little noses are running from the cold. Even though they're monks, they're still like 100% little kids. Just like wild little boys running around.
These are our tour guides. Are you going to take us to our room? Yeah.
This is our home for the night. Thank you.
Oh wow. So this is the guest room. This is where we'll be sleeping tonight. And no one else is here, so we have it all to ourselves. There are five beds in here and we can sleep wherever we want. There are lots of pillows and blankets. There's a heater which I did not know we would have, and some tea and a hot water boiler. It's so cozy.
And before it gets dark, the head monk is going to give us a tour of the rest of the monastery.
The light is so good.
So long time ago it used to be, you know, like the people, they wanted to put their one child in a monastery. It was so difficult to get a chance, opportunity to become a monk in a monastery. But this time when the modernization came in Bhutan and everyone want their own, you know, kids to become like a doctor or engineer or, you know, architect. And also they want their children to study if they can. So they want to send their children in other country. So now monastery is became like a, like a, you know, orphanage. Sometimes 95% monks kids, they are from very background, bad background, family and then very poor family. The more I do for the kids, the more I feel happy.
So this is not the only monastery that takes in kids who have poor families or bad home life. But apparently the head monk told us that this monastery is special and different because a lot of the times kids in a Monastery are scared and kind of afraid of the elders and don't want to mess up. But here, he really. He makes sure that the kids feel at home and welcome and free to run around. And you can just see how happy they are. And, I mean, they're just like any other kid. That's a beautiful thing, knowing that. Knowing the kind of life that they might have had before and seeing how happy they are here.
I've been really emotional today.
So you came all the way from down.
No wonder we're so tired.
So apparently, this monastery was about to collapse. There were only four or five monks who lived here. And then when you heard about the problem, that's when he decided seven years ago that he wanted to come here and try to revive it. And now look at it. There are people everywhere. Yeah, but it's not easy living up here, is it?
The head monk is probably too humble and wouldn't want me saying this, but he is such an incredible guy. Not only did he pretty much save this monastery from going extinct, but now it's an orphanage that takes care of 80 kids.
It's like some combination between pool and air hockey. There's like a bigger puck, and then I think you use that to try to shoot all the smaller ones into the corner pocket.
About to get in on the game. This is my teammate.
So now it's my turn. Oh, no.
Okay.
So if you get one in, you get to go again?
Yes.
Now it's your turn.
Now it's my turn. Yeah, yeah. Can I put this anywhere?
From here to here is your boundary. You can go here to here, anywhere you like.
All right, I'm going for this one. Do I flick it like this?
How did that happen? Somehow I hit it, and I made it go further away.
Boys will be boys.
Quick bathroom tour. This little washroom is just right around the corner from the guest house. Looks like there are three stalls.
I brought some hand sanitizer. No big deal. Check out the toilet.
There we go. Oh, the toilet with toilet paper. I did not expect this in this remote monastery. This must be the shower room. The light doesn't turn on, but it's just a giant bucket of water with a faucet. I will not be showering.
We're having dinner in the guest room, which we actually just learned used to be the horses room. Looks like we have rice, some eggs with some onions, and. What is this?
Potato.
Potatoes.
Don't think we're getting cold tonight. That's five layers of blankets.
We're going to sleep so well. You Know when you have like weight on you, how it helps you relax.
Like a baby in the womb.
Like two little babies.
Good night.
Good night.
Good night, Rumi. Good night. We should send your wife a picture.
Yeah.
All right. Good night everybody.
It is a little before 6am and it has to be 20 degrees out here. It is so cold.
A monk's wake up call. Every morning at 6am one of the monks rings that bell, wakes everybody up. It's time to pray. Did not want to get out of bed for this this morning, but I'm so glad that I.
Ram.
So even though the monks don't typically eat breakfast, they were nice enough to cook us some rice this morning. And now we are continuing our hike to the top of the mountain. We're gonna reach 3,600 meters already. Good ways into the hike if you can't.
We have a couple new guides for the day and they're setting the pace pretty quickly. They're used to living up here.
A 13 year old guy, that's lightning fast.
This is cool. Wow.
Oh, we made it.
Oh. Not even a high five.
Waited.
Wow.
This stupa marks the very top of the mountain. Although behind us does look taller.
So how do we do? Were we slow?
No, you're very nice.
They asked us if this was our first time hiking. If that shows how out of breath and slow I was.
This little girl hiked all the way up with us. She deserves a back scratch. So do I.
So we made it back to the monastery just in time for lunch. We're having rice, green beans and eggs. And we are going to end this video here. But before we do, we want to say a huge thank you to all the monks who have, who have had us here and let us experience a day in their lives. And an extra special thank you to the head monk for being one of the most sensitive, inspiring men that I've ever met.
So since we've been in Bhutan, we've been drinking this very unique tea called cordyceps tea. It starts from a butterfly who releases larva into the earth. It then turns into a caterpillar. Then a fungus comes and uses it as a host and completely takes it over and it grows into a mushroom. It only grows over 4,000ft in the Himalayas. So essentially we are drinking tea that came from a mushroom that grew from the head of a caterpillar. Apparently it has a lot of health benefits and it's pretty delicious. Chapsa.
It's the altitude. It's not because I'm out of shape.
How's it going? Yeah. Good. So far, so good.
The altitude I'm used to, but Carrie is having a bit of problem with altitude. But she's fit. We'll make it.
I'm glad he thinks I'm fit. It's a combination of the altitude, the Momos, and I'm very out of shape.
You going to be the helper?
Yes.
I'm crying because the fire was blowing in my eyes while I was filming him. But it was so good, I didn't want to.
I've done nothing but hurt the team so far.
No, not like this.
No.
I was better than you were. Karinchela.
Karinchella.
They're ignoring us.
Too busy fight.
I'm sorry.
It's embarrassing.
Oh, these dogs. Do you think we were slow?
No.
Oh, y' all were too nice. We were very slow.
It was too fast.
