Folklores from Bhutan ~ Phallus paintings on walls

Who wants to have paintings of huge,  colourful phallus on the walls of their house? Not many people I suppose. However this little village that falls on the way from Thimpu to Punakha has every house with at least one elaborate phallus painting on its walls. There must be some very strong reasons which holds even up to this day. Intrigued we got to know the folklore from the locals.

The popular Bhutanese saint Drukpa Kunley, an unorthodox and eccentric saint who migrated from Tibet and settled in Bhutan was extremely fond of women and wine. He tried to preach Buddhism to the common people through worldly and unorthodox days. He believed that to be a good follower of Buddhism one does not need to be celibate to give up all pleasures.

According to folklores, there was once an extremely evil demoness who lived near Dochula Pass. She used to kill and torture people in the disguise of a dog. Angered by this saint Drukpa Kunley defeated the demoness with his ‘organ’ weapon who fled the region. From then onwards symbols of an erect penis in Bhutan have been intended to drive away the evil eye and malicious gossip.

A monastery is dedicated to Drukpa Kunley or the ‘Divine Madman’ at Chimi Lhakhang is extremely popular with the locals and tourists. Visitors are blessed with a wooden phallus. It is also believed that childless couples who gets blessings from Chimi Lhakhang soon gets blessed with child.

Beautiful landscape on the way

There it is!

The monastery

Some facts about the monastery

Curio shop

Houses with phallus paintings

Houses with phallus paintings