Personal travel impressions in stories and pictures from National Memorial Chorten, Thimphu, Bhutan. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate National Memorial Chorten and navigate the world using Google Earth
Locate National Memorial Chorten on map
N 27° 27.992 E 89° 38.268
Book a budget room in one of the youth hostels in Bhutan
Order your free brochure with offers for travelling to Bhutan
Trongsa Dzong
Bhutanese women
Bhutanese monks
Kunzangdrak Monastery
Punakha Dzong
Petsheling monastery
Khamsum Yuelley Namgyal Chorten
Cheri Monastery
Bhutan phallic symbols
Bumthang Tsechu
Chimi Lhakhang
Ugyen Chholing Palace
Prayer flags
Tango Monastery
Thimphu Dzong
Rinchengang
Burning Lake
Thowada Goemba
Tiger Nest Monastery
Visited: October 2009
These pictures have been tagged with the following tags (clicking on the tag will take you to all pictures on this site with that tag)
Search pages at Traveladventures.org
You can travel the world using images - select your preferred language below:
If you want to be updated regularly about new stories and pictures:
Click your way around Bhutan with pictures (needs Google Earth software)
Explore Bhutan and the world through flags, maps, money, and images; compare Bhutan to any other and test your knowledge at Visual Geography Bhutan
It is possible to advertise on this travel site. Travel advertisers, ask for more information!
Will the current economic crisis affect your travel plans?
View Results If you have any travel related question which you would like to ask our public, please write to us!
After arriving in Thimphu on my first day in Bhutan, and after my first Bhutanese food, we headed to the National Memorial Chorten for an introduction to Bhutanese Buddhism. As we got close to the entrance, we noticed a crowd on the other side of the road, and my guide told me that one of the religious teachers, Dungse Rinpoche, was about to arrive. In fact, when we got to the road, his car just whizzed by, people worshipping the car and the master inside, of whom I could only see his arm stretching out of an opened window. I would see him in person a few days later, in totally different circumstances on Shertang La mountain pass in central Bhutan.
As the master continued, we returned to the entrance of the National Memorial Chorten. Most of the people we had just seen worshipping the revered religious leader entered the Buddhist landmark with us. Right at the entrance, we saw a line of giant prayer wheels, and mostly women keeping the prayer wheels in motion by walking around them, and setting them in motion by pushing the wooden handles underneath the robust cylindrical drums. The prayer written in large Bhutanese characters on the sides of the prayer wheel were being dispersed in the air as we continued to the chorten itself.
The third king of Bhutan wished to have a monument for world peace erected, but did not live to see the National Memorial Chorten as he died in the early 1970s. Within two years after he died, the chorten was consecrated and ever since, has been a place for worship for many Bhutanese. Once inside, your eyes immediately catch the gold-spired white-washed chorten, its small bells tingling in the air. I followed the crowd to the chorten, and at the base of the chorten, turned left with the rest to walk around it in a clockwise direction. Unlike the crowd, I stopped often, to watch, to look, to soak in the atmosphere. This was my first real impression of the country, and its people, and it was a peaceful one - one that was to be confirmed during the rest of my stay.
