Tuesday, March 29 | Punakha/Wangdue to Thimphu
After breakfast the pilgrimage continued on to Thimphu , the capital city of Bhutan. Arriving in Thimphu the group drove up to the impressive Kuensel Phodrang (Buddha Point) conceived with the aspiration to bestow blessings, peace and happiness on the whole world. The 51.5 meter/169 foot bronze statue of Buddha Dordenma, symbolizing indestructibility, is one of the largest statues in the world. It is filled with 125,000 smaller statues of Buddha. Many thousand additional buddhas are displayed in the magnificent complex of shrines which form the throne of the Buddha. Group members offered khatags at the central shrine and received blessing water from the monk in attendance. The statue itself is mentioned in an ancient terma of Guru Padmasambhava himself, said to date from approximately the 8th century, and recovered some 800 years ago by Terton Pema Lingpa.
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