"A buddha once said that all suffering comes from the wish for your own happiness." "I'm travelling to Bhutan, a mountain kingdom in the Himalayas." "I want to understand what it must be like to live in a world where gods and ghosts rub shoulders with holy men and yak herders." "But this would turn out to be a very different journey, one that would challenge some of my most fundamental values, as I try to see this land through the eyes of a Tibetan Buddhist." "My name's Bruce Parry." "I've been travelling to some of the world's most remote places to see how people there live and how they're adjusting to a rapidly changing world." "I believe there's only one way to really understand another culture and that's to experience it first-hand, to become, for a short while, one of the tribe." "Heading deeper and deeper into the Himalayas..." "I've still got ten days' trekking ahead of me before I reach my final destination, which is living with the Lunap people who are one of the highest communities on the planet." "They're blocked off half the year because of snow, and in fact the pass just to get there is higher than I've ever even been in my life, and right now it's still closed." "So touch and go whether I'm even gonna make it." "Bhutan is a remote mountain kingdom in the Himalayas, with a population of only 650,000." "It lies between India and Tibet, and I'll be heading north to the most inaccessible part of the country, to Laya and Lunana, two villages separated by a series of dramatic 5000-metre passes." "From the low-altitude tropical forest" "I will have four days of hard trekking before I reach my first destination, the village of Laya, at an altitude of nearly 4000 metres, three times the height of Ben Nevis." "My guide for the journey will be Chimmi Dorjee who has spent 20 years trekking through some of the most remote regions of Bhutan." " Are you Chimmi?" " Hi." "Yes." " Very nice to meet you." " You must be Bruce." " Chimmi, at last, how are you?" " Fine, thank you." "We've had a wonderful journey so far." "Have you been waiting here long?" " Not too long." " Oh, fantastic." "Are all of these your animals?" " Yes. 32." " 32?" " Yes." " Wow." "And have you news of the pass, is it all good?" "The pass is still closed... but by the time you get to Laya, probably you will be able to get through, yes." "OK." "Oh, that's good." "Fantastic." "Right, well let's get going." "I have to take enough food for the trek in, and to get me and the team across the mountain passes." "After a long winter, I can't presume the villagers will have enough food to feed us all for a month." "These lush forests look so pristine and beautiful, but there's a nasty lurking in their midst." "At least when I get leeched I can pull mine off." "This poor mule doesn't have that luxury, look, he's been leeched everywhere, and here's one nice one here." "Come on." "Look at that." "There you go, baby." "So Chimmi, when I pull my leeches off, I like to cut them in half as revenge, but I suppose as a Buddhist, that's not allowed." " Just pull them out, and leave it." " You just leave it?" "No..." "You don't feel any..." " negativity towards the animal?" " No." "Well you're a better man than I am, Chimmi." "You're a better man than I am." "Maybe I'll have to learn that." "After two more days, we reach Gasa, the last significant town on our route." "The people of northern Bhutan are Tibetan Buddhists and this is an important religious centre." "But we are aiming higher, another two days' hard trekking, and another thousand metres up the mountains." "Wow..." "It's pretty, Chimmi." "So this is Laya." "Shall we go and say hello?" "This is the school, yeah?" "Hi, there!" "Hello." "You've got gloves, you're the wise one, aren't you?" "Look at you!" "Hello there!" "Hello." "Hello." "Hey." "Look at your hat." "Can I have a look at your hat?" " Do you like Laya?" " Yeah, I like it so far." "I've just arrived." "But it's very nice." "And everyone's very friendly." "Especially you lot." "Laya is my first destination." "At 3800 feet, I need to acclimatise to the thin air." "Chimmi has sent word that we are coming, and Kencho, the spiritual leader of the village, invites us to stay with him." "Kencho." "Come and join us." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Kencho, it's so very nice of you to let us come and stay in your place." "Thank you so very much." "Well, that says a lot." "Well, you know... we're gonna have to think about our plans, my friend." "It's clear that I won't be getting over the passes to Lunana for a while yet, so Laya will be my home for now, and Kencho will be my host." "Laya has a population of 700, with houses dotted along a shoulder of land just above the tree line." "There's little good farm land here, so the Layaps depend on yaks for cheese, meat, clothing and much else." "Everyone sleeps in the main room in Kencho's large wooden house." "This is luxury compared to many places I've stayed." "Yak-wool blankets and an open fire." "So can I..." "Can I help?" "I'm sure I'd just put the fire out or something." "Kencho's wife, Among, shows me how to make yak-butter tea." "OK, let's have a go then." "See if I can do that." "There's always some on the go in Laya, and the teapot is something else." "I can smell it." "No lumps, that's a good job." "It's quite nice serving you for a change, Kencho." "Oh, just a little bit." "There's me having drunk tea after tea after tea, thinking it's really rude to say no, and before I even pour it to them, they put their finger on the spout." "I just pour a little bit and they tip it back!" "They've got it sussed." "They know exactly..." "They've probably smelt my tea." "It's a bit rancid." "Kencho was trained as a monk, and while I'm here, he will be my guide to Buddhism." "Wow, what's this?" "Kencho, what are you drawing here?" "There's six, and there's three positive and three negative." "So, when I die, you say all of my karma is added up, and if it adds up to being positive, I'll go to this side, and if it adds up to being negative, I go to this side, is that right?" "If you're gonna learn about Buddhism, now this is the place to do it." "One of the first teachings that the Buddha gave was about the noble truths." "The first one of these is about suffering." "Now we've all experienced suffering in our lives, and me, right here, now, my legs are on fire just walking up this hill." "That's tangible, as is the suffering of bereavement or the suffering of lost love or whatever." "But another area that's quite interesting is this suffering of change, as they call it." "Now imagine you've just bought a car." "You're so excited." "But you drive it out the forecourt and before you know it you're putting in the petrol and the MOT and the tax and that's a real nightmare." "A few years later it's a rust heap and you've got to buy another one to overcome that loss, and then you enter into this cycle, and what they would say is, anything you become attached to, after a while," "will inevitably bring you some form of suffering." "Now that's quite interesting." "And actually, quite at odds with how I live my life back home." "As I get to know Kencho and his wife," "I discover that married life in the highlands of Bhutan has developed in an extraordinary way." "Kencho's wife Among was married to both Kencho and his elder brother at the same time." "Polyandry is one of the rarest forms of marriage in the world." "So his elder brother is the first husband," " and he's the second one." " Wonderful." "And you have different houses?" " No." "One house..." " Oh, all in the same house, OK." "And from his brother there are six children, and from him there are six children." " So these 12 children, they have two father." " She's busy." "But his elder brother now, he expired now." "I hope this is not too cheeky, but is there any jealousy?" "I knew these girls were tough, but when I was asked if I could go out collecting wood with them," "I had no idea just how tough they were." " Yeah?" " Yes." " Again?" " Yes." "Er..." "OK." " Would I carry it long?" " No." "You want to chop it here?" "OK." "I've chopped wood many a time before, but this is something else, man, it's like... anything out here that raises your pulse just a little bit, takes it out of you so much." "I'm just made to look like an idiot, compared to these cool girls, who just are beavering away without even the slightest puff." "So what are we doing?" "This here?" "Oh!" "What are we doing?" "Oh, my God." "I think we're gonna collect some flowers." "Fantastic!" "What are these for?" "For the house?" " For you?" " Yes." "For you!" "This is the quandary." "Two very pretty girls, one bunch of flowers." "It's all in the balance." "Seriously, could you have a better day in the hills?" "One thing I'm interested in is that a lot of the women in Laya have more than one husband." "Is this something that you see is gonna continue for many years to come or is this the old ways do you think?" "What do you think about having two husbands." "Is that something you might contemplate?" "The second noble truth that the Buddha talked about was the understanding of the true nature of desire." "Now, I know desire in my life." "Of course I..." "The senses." "I overload them every day at home." "Love and taste and lust and all these things." "We kind of feed on them." "But to Buddhists, all forms of desire are wrong." "And what I'm gonna try and do in some small way while I'm out here, freaky as it sounds, is try and live my time without any desire at all." "That's enough." "That's enough." "Oh, my God!" "I thought I'd got the trick right!" "I've been here ten days now." "The passes to Lunana are still closed, but every day I spend in Laya, I'm learning more about the Layaps and their beliefs." "Like all Tibetan Buddhists, the villagers believe in reincarnation, that your behaviour in your past lives determines what you've become in the present." "I'm just about to meet the village astrologer who is not only gonna tell me what I was in a previous life, but also, depending on the path I take, what I could be in a future life." "It's quite a big thought for me, and I'm not entirely sure I even wanna know." "But here goes." "Wow." "No, leave it open, leave it open." "It's good, it's good." "Things have just started to change and the wind's picked up." "Now he's going to talk about your coming life." " My future life?" " Future life." "OK." "So, in your next life you'll be monkey." " A monkey?" " Monkey." "Is that confirmed?" "How about if I have a good life?" "Will I..." "Do I have an option of going up?" "I have six realms..." "No, I think he might probably explain you how to improve your..." " I see." "... weakness." "And he says after monkey, then probably you will come to a rooster or a hen in a house." "Our plan is to go to the Valley in Lunana." "I was wondering if there was any chance that you could give us some advice." " Some problem or something..." " Some problem." "...might arise." " OK." "And also obviously that it's a hard route." "I knew that it was gonna be a hard route and that doesn't deter me." "But, could you tell me - just you and me - if... if we were... if..." "Is it disrespectful to listen to the advice and then say we will go anyway?" "You know, I..." "My whole thing is, I must be culturally sensitive and I wasn't expecting him to say, "Don't go because it's bad"." "That would be..." "That's quite a big thing for me." "So, um, what's your advice?" "Do you think that this puts a new angle on even going?" "Chimmi and I decide to give it another week." "At least that way I can get to know more about life here in Laya." "In recent years, the villagers of Laya and Lunana have struck it rich by collecting a weird caterpillar fungus called yarsagumba." "It's a highly prized Chinese medicine that can only be found at these extreme altitudes." "And it's about the strangest gold rush I've ever heard of." "That small?" "Really?" "It's a sort of browny red." "All right." "Let's have a look." "Is that cool?" "OK." "Well, wish us luck." "He's off already." "He obviously knows what he's doing." "It's quite cold on the old hands as well, isn't it, all day long." "Frozen ground." " Yes." " Oh, my God." "That's so not what I was expecting." "Is this still alive?" "It's gone off..." "It's dead already." "OK." "My God." "I don't want to touch it cos I might break it" "But do..." "Show us how you take it out." "So you don't need to excavate it." "Oh, you just pull it up!" "My God." "Look at that fat one." "So you're saying that the caterpillar was alive underground but the fungus has infected it, it's growing out of its head - poor thing, imagine that - and then this is about mid-growth but it would be up to about here, with a head." "Yeah." "And at that stage, when it's fully grown, the caterpillar's consumed and gone." "Oh!" "Ooh, ooh, ooh." "Ooh." " Is that one?" " Oh!" " Yeah, baby!" "Look at that!" " Wow." "I've found one." "Can you believe it?" "I managed to spot that, amongst all of this." "I am actually quite impressed." " Ooh." " Check that, baby!" "That's worth a million bucks." "How much is this one worth?" "About eight rupees." "Eight rupees?" "About 10p." "Oh, no." "This is not..." "This is..." "That is not really a gold rush." "My Lord." "I'm gonna have to collect a lot to make my fortune." "The third noble truth is that once you've understood that all suffering actually comes about because of desire, then you're beginning to rid yourself of that ignorance which causes desire in the first place." "And until you understand that you're always going to be brought back in this endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth." "There's a rumour around camp that we're finally off, can you believe it?" "We've got a six-day incredibly hard trek ahead of us over four of the highest passes around." "Everyone says we're never gonna make it." "I kinda think we are." "We're setting off pretty much in time with what the astrologer said, which is good." "But the biggest thing is, of course, if we do make it we still have no idea what our reception on the other end is gonna be like." "We're taking Chimmi's ponies some of the way but soon we'll have to rely on the yak herders from Laya." "A thousand metres higher up and we rendezvous with Kencho's son, Pianki, an expert herder." "He's mustering the male yaks at base camp, ready for the ascent." "We'll need all their skill and knowledge of the route to have any chance of crossing the 5,000-metre passes." "Now, the fourth and final noble truth, is Buddha's methodology for living out your life as correctly as possible." "What the Buddha said was, all desire is just a mental construct anyway and so therefore, if we want to overcome that and combat it, we have to go into our mind and fundamentally restructure the organisation of it through meditation." "Now, if we can do that, we'll not only overcome that desire but all the pain and suffering that comes with it." "By next morning, the yaks are loaded and ready and we begin the real climb." "These yaks, I just love 'em." "Look at them, they're so amazing." "There's more innate Himalayan knowledge in one of those than any amount of humans who've ever climbed Everest." "These guys can just smell the danger." "I love 'em." " 5,000 metres, Chimmi." " It's almost 5,000." "Almost 5,000." " So, this is our first big path." " Yeah." " We can tie it here." " Cool." " Do we have one for every pass, Chimmi?" " Yes." "This is called lungta." " Again, asking for the protection." " Yes." " From the local deities from the new valley." " Sure." "And giving thanks to our..." " Previous ones..." " Our previous deity from the other valley." "Cool." "Wonderful." "Getting people and goods over this terrain is how the Layaps have traded for more than 500 years." "But at 5,000 metres, even yaks can run into trouble." "Hi." "What's the problem, my friend?" "How are you?" "Tell me, what's the latest..." "It's too high, it's up here, is it?" "Really?" "So, what's the solution, do you think?" "Yaks can sense danger, sometimes." "Sometimes they pierce a hole through the snow and don't move, no matter you whip them" "Sometimes they just lie down here." "What you see there." " They know, don't they?" " You can walk and see..." "Yeah, let's go and have a look." " Kile is going to go out." " Sure." "And there's no way around at either side?" "Yeah, you can see here." "Thing is, the yak just goes in much further than us, doesn't it?" "Could we not shovel it or make a path?" "How far is this?" "It's not that deep." "Doesn't seem that bad." "I don't want to push anyone because it's not my place but I was wondering if there's any option..." "If there was any option it would be good." "But I don't..." "You know, we can't push anyone." "But if we can come up with an idea or maybe our people... shovel a path." "Something." "It would help them." "But... it's up to you, my friend," "I don't want to put pressure in any direction." "I just want to offer advice or help." "Not to be defeated by deep snow, the guys have spent the last few days digging out a path and today is our fifth day of trying to get over this path." "And, er, I'm hoping... we're all hoping that finally we're gonna be successful." "This really is the moment of truth." "It's taken the guys two days to build this path up this really steep bit." "Come on, baby." "You can do it." "You can do it, you can do it..." "There's this one at the top here and it's just stuck up to its waist but they won't let me help." "If the yaks see or smell me they just run off in the opposite direction." "Unfortunately there's nothing I can do, it's really annoying." "Yes!" "Well done, guys, well done." "That's such good news, this is such good news." "If these yaks make it over this bit, there's only two or three other elements in the next few days before we get to Lunana that are like this." "And if we can succeed here, it's a really good sign for the rest of our journey." "But it looks now, finally, like we're gonna make it over this pass." "It's fantastic news." "The guys are even wearing sunglasses made from yaks' hair." "I love these animals." "I'm above the clouds now and there's only one major pass between me and Lunana, the 5,100-metre Ganglakarchungla." "It's in the sun's shadow for most of the day, making it the most treacherous of all the passes." "And we're so close to Lunana and so, rather than go back, we'll try and make a yak motorway." "It's this ice here that's the real difficulty." "It's cos it's just beneath the surface and the axe will just get no purchase." "It's gonna be like this all day, I think." "The path we've cut today, genuinely, honestly, what is your view of the yaks getting over that path?" "Cool, well then for me, the final decision - no more ums and ahs - the final decision is we will go with the yaks tomorrow, we'll try with a few up front to see if they work." "If there's any problems, if they turn around, doesn't work, we come back and we go home." " And that is it, we won't try again." " OK." "Come on, guys." "Come on." "You can do it." "This... is the moment of truth." "Come on." "Not too bad, it's not too bad." "My heart is in my mouth, really." "But so far, so good." "Brilliant." "Awesome, awesome." "They're moving it, that's fantastic." "Come on." "Oh, no." "No." "Damn." "Damn, damn, damn." "Damn." "What happened?" "Too much?" "Too steep?" " The one just slipped." " Yes." "And the second one started to push the last one." "A whole month I've been wanting to go to Lunana and I feel like it's a failure, frankly." "I feel disappointed and frustrated and I'm not used to that." "All my life, whatever I set myself, I go for it and I nearly always succeed, especially physical challenges." "And this just feels awful." "Erm..." "But, in a funny kind of way, what have I been talking about?" "What's this journey been about the whole way?" "What would the Buddha say of me now?" "Frankly, he would be laughing at me, wouldn't he?" "Because I'm feeling suffering, I'm feeling pain and anguish." "And that has come about because of my blind desire to get to Lunana." "Well, Bruce, if you can't work that one out, then what good are you, frankly?" "Because that is it." "The penny has finally dropped." "It's..." "I can talk about it forever, but now, here and now, I finally realise what it is that I've been saying." "It's desire that's caused my pain, and..." "Desire, man." "It's a tricky thing." "Come on, Chimmi, let's go home, man." "We need to get back to Laya, but for now we have to wait at base camp until Chimmi's horses are brought back up to collect us and our gear." "We may be here for a few days, so Piyanki suggests I stay with his 78-year-old uncle." "He lives here during the summer months, looking after the yaks." " What's your uncle's name?" "Penjo?" " Penjo." "Penjo." "OK." "Wow." "Incredible structure." "If it's a very big storm, if it's really raining, does this still keep you dry?" "OK." "Just about to do my daily chore of collecting the yaks, only today I'm doing it with Penjo who's 78- that's over twice my age - and I'm worried sick whether I'm gonna be able to keep up with him, frankly." "Are you OK, Penjo?" "Shall we go?" "Up here?" "I'll follow you, my friend." "He's just nails." "I mean, imagine, 78, climbing these steep hills, it'd just absolutely knacker me." "I think Penjo's just spotted blue sheep." "Yeah, look." "Wonderful." "That's amazing." "I so wanted to see blue sheep on this trip, it's my first sighting." "Blue sheep are incredibly rare, and only live here in the Himalayas." "Maybe my luck's changing." "Whoo!" "Char-lie!" "Penjo and I spend the whole afternoon bringing down the smaller, female yaks." "Whoo!" "Char-lie!" "Hey!" "Later, there was work with the mighty male yaks." "OK, I'm coming." "One thing I wasn't expecting to be doing on my journey to Bhutan was wrestling yaks." "Hey, hey, hey, hey." "This looks barbaric but what we're doing is giving it salt, and the only way to give a big animal like this salt is to get it on its back and, er... it's not as easy as it looks." "In fact, it's about as hard as it looks, let's put it that way." "At ease?" "Yeah." "Obviously, all animals need salt, but I think that they force-feed these ones salt as kind of a fattening process to encourage them to eat." "Piyanki, can I have a go at the?" "Yeah?" "OK." "So..." "It's strong." "OK?" "OK." "That wasn't so hard." "Thanks, Piyanki." "I know he really didn't want me to do that." "He was quite worried... that I might get gorged, but... it wasn't so hard." "Just the hope the poor old hairy beast isn't feeling too bad after his compulsory dose." "Back at the tent, Penjo offers to make me a brew of yartsa gunbu, the caterpillar fungus we'd collected out on the hill." "Tell me, will... what will... will I feel anything?" "Will I be suddenly overcome with a sensation of health or..." "Will I feel any different tomorrow?" "What should I expect?" "So, I think we're melting butter." "We're gonna add the yartsa gunbu to the butter, I believe." "And then..." "I think we're then gonna stick 'em in some whisky." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Oh, you want the whisky already." "Cool." "A screw top." "I'll let you pour it in, cos I don't wanna be accused of... cooking the arse out of this." "Oh, hubble, bubble." "OK, this is, erm..." "You want a bit more?" "I thought you might." "There you go." "It wasn't just a little bit more." "That's half a bottle." "How many of us are having this?" "I don't suppose your two nephews are having any." "My Lord." "Looks like it's gonna be a good night after all." "Now I know why everyone thinks these things are waterproof." "It's cos you're so pissed you don't know what's going on." "That's a mug of whisky!" "Oh, my God." "We are gonna sleep well." "No, no, that's cool." "Ooh." "Some might call this... butter fungus caterpillar whisky, but I call it yartsa gunbu." "Now..." "You've already gone and..." "What are you trying to do?" "Ten days after we left, we are back in the village." "Maybe one day I will make a film in Lunana, but for now I'm rather pleased to be back in Laya." "It feels a bit like coming home." "The annual festival is about to happen, and Kencho is keen for me to get involved." "Feel like an Elizabethan queen." "Ooh!" "Is there a reason why they make the cuffs so long and have it white?" "OK." "Fantastic." "Kencho, that's so, so lovely." "Show me how to do that." "That's such a good move." "Kencho, one quick question." "Have you ever won this competition?" "And how many times have you won it?" "Four times they have a..." "Not by himself, but..." " His team." "His team." "Wow." " Yes." "That's a nice shot." "Kencho..." "Yes, sir!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Ooh." "Everyone runs for cover." "It's a bit of a wobbler but it wasn't too far off." "My second shot." "You're brilliant." "Let's make a move." "Wow." "This here is the beginnings it's still early morning, of the annual village festival." "Half-spiritual affair, half-fète." "And, of course, at the helm as ever is my wonderful host Kencho." "The festival is an intense three days, starting with offerings to cleanse the village of evil spirits." "Before I came on this journey, most of my readings had been about the original Buddha himself, and his spirituality, his lifelong journey, his reaching of enlightenment, and his philosophy as such." "And although of course that is very prevalent here, the interesting thing is that the day-to-day activities that I see all the time, and even festivals like this annual ceremony, aren't about that at all, they're all about what I would consider as almost like an animist belief." "It's all about the appeasement of spirits and Gods that come from the sky and the ground, and effigies and devils and demons, and it's all that sort of stuff." "And I had just no idea about that, it's so much more complicated than I'd ever given it credit for." "Ah, my friend." "I never got near my target on this journey, but by coming back to Laya" "I feel I have got much closer to Kencho, and I think I have understood something else - life doesn't have to be all about achieving your goals, come what may." "If the pass hadn't been blocked," "I would have missed out on so much here in Laya." "But, as it is, I have come to realise just what a remarkable community this really is." "You've all looked after me so well." "Among, Among, what can I say?" "Thank you for everything, you're so lovely." "Thank you so much." "And, Kencho, give me a hug." "OK." "Well, Kencho, let me tell you that..." "I have learnt so much from you." "You don't come any further, Kencho." "It's all very muddy here." "But thank you so much." "You really have changed me as a person." "You've made me think so much about my life, and for that I'm really very grateful." "Thank you." "No, no, no, no." "You stay." "Stay, stay." "Kencho." "Stay." "Stay, stay, stay." "No, no, no." "OK." "It's muddy, Kencho."