Dzong | The Fearful Symmetry of Bhutanese Architecture | 10.27 In a way, for me, there's something long-reaching, far-running, back into my mind and memory for the spirit and personal connectedness that I've got with the nature and spirit of Bhutanese, and Himalayan, architecture; there's something that's right about it. And I'm not sure why. It's like ravens -- why, do they attract me? Why do these buildings fascinate me? It's like the lightning bolt discovery, the first time seen -- Potala,...

Transparencies (10.27) Mist, layered -- messages diaphanous. I think about things in layers. And I keep referring to that. I think about something on one layer, and then another on another, and another -- beneath that. I think that I like to design in that manner, as well. I design in layers -- one layer on another. Something seen on one level, another seen, on a different layer. Level on level ---- And I'm thinking about layers in the context of the word, and the word beneath. If we see, if...

Bhutan Journal THE WORD | 35 YEARS AGO... I supported myself teaching drawing, bookbinding and calligraphy -- it was a way to add something to the cost of the college tuition and living expenses. But what I explored, as usual, was the idea of writing -- the translation of the mind -- as being something magical, not merely the scribblings, but markings -- descriptions -- that take one form of content and move it to another. The concept of that demarcation having power is at the very fundamental...

The concept of the turning prayer I'd known about for nearly four decades. I'd seen it in a book, then being in Tibet, I'd seen the pilgrims wandering, spinning the prayer wheel in one hand, the turning mala beads being counted out in another. What I did learn, to the measure of the counting beads, this time, is the Bhutanese concept of multiple counters. That is, having as many as 10 counters for beads of 10, attached to the mala of 108 beads. So the counting rounds out to many levels of...

Bhutan Journal Tandin Ney | Hermitage Every moment, in doing, in exploring, is alive. It does come down to what our attention is -- what are we held by, what are we holding. What are we compelled by, and what draws us to that place of connection. For me, it is mystery, all ways, pure and powerful. And I've been drawn to anything -- and everything, which is out of the grasp of the known and the easily seen, for as long as I can remember. When I first considered the idea of coming to Bhutan,...

I'm wrapping it here in Thimphu and heading out to the hills -- and will likely be off line for a couple of days. Near the bigger towns, the mobile works, text comes in -- and my last spot I snagged a WIFI connection. It will be tough for me for a bit. I'll try to post some updates to Grant, to link at tim.girvin.com | diaries, as I'd noted before. Wishing well, all... Incredible, here... ----

Hi. Well I did get there, Bhutan...and it's been a long running in exploration. It didn't just happen, there were synchronies involved. And it seems like the best travel takes you about two days to get out there. There's the first jump, then the second -- and finally when you get there, there's a third and fourth jump, that takes you further. Further, farther out. And I do like to live there, in that place that's further out. Being there, brings you closer to the connections of -- and with --...

K U Z U Z A N G B O L A . . .. Bhutan. There must be a reasoning for exploring this place. And for me, there is - and it's one that stretches back decades. I'll not get too far into it here, in terms of the specifics, because over course of the days, there will be revealing that will come back to that. And I'm pretty sure that it will be that, over days -- since I can't hope for any consistent access to place. Even this has been waiting for days to send across the wires. But the traveling over...

 Aloneness (10.22) | Chele La Pass, Kilagompa Nunnery I have this journal from 2005. I'd started it there on the presumption that I'd be taking that to Bhutan, finishing it in 2006. But I couldn't put the trip together, given the complexities of making it happen. There are procedures, challenges, visas, applications that are difficult for the administratively challenged. I'm one of those. Leaving Paro, driving to Chele La Pass (11.5K m), high up in the mountains, I could see this. And it was...

CHELE LA PASS | The wind, the prayer, the moon We were late, because we keep stopping; there's clearly a lot to look at; surely much of it I'd known about -- but seeing it, it's wonder making -- driving up into the interminable mountains, things getting darker. And darker. Forest looming black. And I was chilled from the climb to the nunnery, perched high in the mistbound cliffs. Now, wind ripping in the forests -- and the typical roadside workers -- who come and disappear like ghosts,...