Photos

The last photograph I posted from the Paro Festival showed a young girl chewing bubble gum. This elderly lady is more tradiional, she is chewing betel leaf.

(Yes, I have tried it; not impressed!)

Doma zhes is one of the most heard and widespread phrases in Bhutan: " Please have betel leaf and areca nut" becomes a leitmotif each time two individuals meet, at the end of a meal, and in all the occasions of everyday life. It is impossible not to notice the importance that the betel leaf and nut holds in Bhutan. One can multiply the scenes and the examples: Customers buy the betel leaf at the weekly Sunday market, their dress's pocket bulging with silver boxes, or just simply with plastic bags filled with betel leafs; petty sellers at bus terminals selling ready made quid, called kamto, in coneshaped papers; monks returning to the monastery with their bags filled with quantity enough to last for a week’s consumption; betel leaf with a small piece of areca nut that the host offers with his two hands to the guests at the time of a ceremony; betel leafs and nuts put in a plate along with those filled with chocolates during archery games or official ceremonies ; betel leafs and nuts passed round after dinner; red stains in the street; men and women with red stained teeth sweating profusely.
http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/jbs/pdf/JBS_08_03.pdf