Susan Emerling in The New York Times:
When American curators arrived one spring morning at Norbugang Yu Lhakang, a Buddhist temple in a remote village in western Bhutan, they found a group of monks sitting on the floor in bright robes, chanting. They had been there since 6 a.m., intent on creating the right ambience for a divination ceremony.
The question before them was whether a small 18th-century gilt bronze sculpture – a female personification of supreme Buddhist wisdom – could make its way to the United States for a traveling exhibition of Bhutanese art.
It fell to the sculpture’s owner, a Bhutanese businessman whose family had had the piece for generations, to roll the divination dice. Tremulously, he rolled a two, a six and a nine.
The guide to Bhutan
Bhutan has always been beautiful, but now it is beautiful and luxurious. Tom Fordyce in The Times, UK:
It was a disturbing scene. Three half-naked men, all wearing hideous carved masks, were running towards me, brandishing wooden phalluses the size of monkey wrenches. On my right, a shaven-headed monk mumbled a monotone mantra while striking a pair of discordant cymbals.
Overhead circled a large flock of ravens, getting closer with every lap. From the ancient monastery to my left came another man, wearing what appeared to be a welder’s mask, a sheen of oil and not much else.
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