Sunday at Ogyen Choling

,Sunday Catherine and I started walking up the Tang valley. In the village where we are living -Misithang- the valley is quite narrow. The Tang river runs behind the school and across the river, the mountains rise quite steeply. On this side of the road, the farms back onto steep hillsides, where the cattle graze and small fields are stuck to the steep hillside. As we walked up the valley, it opens to a stunning landscape. The river is larger and the valley bottom wide. Hills rise with small villages and large homes. Fields of pink buckwheat and yellow mustard.  There are even some high altitude rice paddies, growing since 2008, thanks to global warming. 

 From everywhere in the valley the wanderer can see a prominent structure - Ogyen Choling.  For many centuries,  20 generations, the same family held this property. In Bhutan, it was until the mid nineteen fifties that land owners were manor lords and indentured labourers worked the land. The third king emancipated the serfs at that time. It was a great change in the country.  Ashi Keunzang Choden was born here in 1952.   She was sent to school in Kalingpong, India at the age of nine. It was a twelve day journey by caravan as there were no roads. 

On Sunday she greeted us at the gate. We had a wonderful tour of the private museum. Her family manor is now part of a foundation and she and her family have worked hard to preserve artifacts and the buildings in order to tell the story and keep an important part of Bhutan's history available for both Bhutanese and foreigners.