Results tagged “Prayer”

Q:  What is your best memory from Bhutan?
A:  When I got my prayer beads blessed by a lama (click here to watch the video). It was special because we did it as a family. I also really liked the people in our tour group. They were very nice to me. I also really liked our guides, Tshering from Bhutan and Richard from Scotland. Richard is an expert on Bhutan and told us a lot about the culture and Buddhism. I learned a lot.

Q:  What's the biggest difference between Bhutan and the United States?
A:  In Bhutan, we are the foreigners (or Chilips as we were called). They have terraced rice fields almost everywhere you look. You don't see that in America. They don't have any traffic lights in the entire country, so you don't have to wait in traffic. My dad liked that!

Bhutan is full of so much great culture, like their prayer flags. Prayer flags are long pieces of cloth that come in all different colors. They are stamped with prayers. People hang them up in trees near temples and holy sites.

Hello everybody! I'm here in Bhutan, a country located in the Himalayas. In Bhutan, they rate how successful the country is based on "Gross National Happiness," which I think is cool because that means they value happiness more than having money.

In Bhutan, we were with a National Geographic Expedition group. We all first met at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand, where we boarded a plane to Paro, Bhutan. As we landed, we got really close to the mountains and you could see the whole valley. It was awesome.

Kuzuzangpola, everybody! Kuzuzangpola means hello in Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan. That's where I am now. Bhutan is in Asia and it's a really small country in the Himalayas with a lot of snow-capped mountains.  

Most people in Bhutan practice Buddhism and there are lots of temples and monasteries. I really like the colorful prayer wheels in the temples. A prayer wheel is like a big giant top that you spin with your hand. Inside, they have paper with prayers written on them. You have to spin the wheel clockwise and when the wheel goes around once, it rings a bell. One ring equals one prayer. Lots of people spin the prayer wheels with prayer beads in their hands. Prayer beads have 108 beads. You are supposed to go around in a circle, holding each one with your fingers while saying a mantra. A mantra is a phrase you say over and over like praying for good health or good fortune.