Puja

Yesterday I was invited to the annual puja (a religious gathering) of the family that owns the house I live in. I've attended a few puja's since being here but I've never taken many pictures or really written about them. So I tried to take pictures of all the food - and there is a lot of food - the praying and the dancing. 

When we first arrived around 3:00 pm we were served suja and accompanying tea snacks. Suja is butter tea - butter, salt, and tea churned together. I really don't enjoy it but drink it when served at gatherings like this. Except for the popcorn ,the snacks are very standard for Bhutan: puffed rice, wheat things, and flattened maize kernels. 

This is a picture of my suja and a dish that is made from rice with boiled egg, oil, chili powder, and coriander.

After the rice dish I was given chunkay. This alcoholic dish is rice fermented with yeast with added bits of boiled egg. 

When families have pujas they request monks and lamas from local monasteries. The monks arrive the day before and prepare the family's alter room. The monks create the statues made of flour, water, and rice and paint them with water colors. All families have alter rooms in their houses but during pujas they give offerings of fruit, veggies, and junk food seen just behind the butter lamps. After the ceremony, it is believed that the food is blessed and that eating the food will bring blessings and long life. 

Across from the alter, the monks and lamas spend the entire day chanting in order to appease the local deities and drive away the demons.

And then there's this - my attempt to take a video but also not be annoying with my camera. So we have the view from my camera sitting on my lap as I scan the room. 

Along with the food, other items are blessed such as arra- the homemade alcohol. After it is blessed it is, naturally, served out of a human skull to insure blessings and long life.

I've told two people about the human skull and they had a LOT of questions. So to explain further - Bhutanese cremate their dead. After the cremation they go through the bones and look for skulls and thigh bones that are still intact. They use the thigh bones to make horns that the monks use to make music during ceremonies and the skulls are cut, painted, and turned into proper bowls. 

There are lots of preparations done for pujas. Sometimes people have to sacrifice their time, their money, and their cows. It makes you wonder if the white cow has any idea that she is resting under her friend's, or more likely family member's, bloody skin. 

The spread - rice along with many different versions of the unlucky cow who was alive just a few days before.

And the stove that it was all cooked on. 

And finally, while we may enjoy sweet deserts after dinner no Bhutanese meal would be complete without Doma - the beetle nut that give some of the Bhutanese their distinct red mouths. 

After dinner there were a few hours of traditional dancing. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the dancing which makes my mission to take pictures of the whole night feel unfulfilled.

While driving home after the puja around 9:00pm, it struck me how familiar this all feels. Not to say that it feels normal, because believe me I don't feel normal drinking out of human skulls or watching cow skin dry, but it feels familiar. And part of that is due to how welcoming everyone in Bhutan is, especially the family that owns my house. In a way, it was a little Thanksgiving celebration for me as it came the day before Thanksgiving - not that anyone in my village knows what Thanksgiving is.