Why is Bhutan so obsessed with phallic symbols?

There’s a lot that’s unique about Bhutan. It’s the world’s only carbon-negative country, the king abdicated for the sake of democracy, most Bhutanese share the same birthday, and the government is more interested in promoting happiness than wealth. Clearly this is a country that does things different.

Following this theme, one other thing that all new arrivals to Bhutan are very quick to note is the abundance of enormous phallic symbols painted (often in pain-staking detail) on walls throughout the country. Okay so yeah, Bhutan is hardly the only country in the world that has giant penises graffitied onto walls… But the difference here is that it’s not graffiti and they’ve been done for cultural and spiritual reasons. But why is Bhutan so obsessed with phallic symbols and what do they really mean? The answer is Drukpa Kuenley and his Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom.

It all began long ago and, like almost everything concerned with Bhutan, it's all wrapped up in a good bit of unverifiable legend. Drukpa Kuenley, fondly known throughout Bhutan as the Divine Madman, was a 15th-century Tibetan Buddhist monk and poet who is now one of the most popular saints in Bhutan. By all accounts, Kuenley was a bit of a religious maverick. Eschewing more conservative forms of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as celibacy and asceticism, he instead felt that the path to enlightenment was through music, dance, humour, drink, and sex. Lots and lots of sex. In fact, he soon became known as the Saint of 5000 Women.  

It seems that he wasn’t all that fussy about who he had sex with. Legend says that even his own mother became one of his lovers!  His phallus even gained the nickname of the Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom. Not surprisingly, his antics shocked the more traditional Buddhist clergy but endeared him to the people (well, so long as it wasn’t your wife he was trying to achieve enlightenment with…).

Kuenley was also partial to annoying the religious establishment. One well known tale describes how a group of monks were walking toward a village. Passing a large boulder the monks looked up to see a man stood on top with his ‘Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom’ out. As they passed the man, who was of course Drukpa Kuenley, peed on the monks. When they reached the nearby village and complained about the welcome, they’d just received the villagers examined the head of the monk who’d been peed on and were amazed to find that the words Om Mani Padme Hum were written in gold script across its crown. Kuenley had in fact blessed the monks, albeit in a rather unpleasant way.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his less than conventional approach to spiritual matters it didn’t take him long to build up a reputation for being able to help the common person along the path towards enlightenment. He was also regarded for his success in defeating the pesky demons that were so common in the Bhutanese countryside in the 15th Century and for his ability to bring good fortune to people (mainly women) through blessings. However, Kuenley demanded payment for his skills. It’s said that if you wanted him to bless you then the payment was a bottle of alcohol and a beautiful woman.

Legend has it that Drukpa Kuenley could have any woman he desired and there are a great many tales about his promiscuity. One of the better known describes how he fired an arrow from his bow and followed the arrow to where it landed inside a house.  On seeing the wife of the house, Kuenley turned to the husband and sang, “The arrow has certainly not gone astray, since it has led me to this voluptuous goddess, Tsewong, mine host, please leave us I must lay this lady this instant!” Many of the women who paid Kuenley a visit – or were presented to him - are said to have had trouble conceiving and that a session of ‘enlightenment’ with the monk could help them with this.

Kuenley didn’t just help women create babies. Legend has it that he even created an entirely new species of animal. The story goes that arriving in a new village the local people demanded to see a miracle. Kuenley agreed but only on the condition that for lunch the villagers served him an entire cow and a whole goat. The saint devoured the lot and then, no doubt with a contented gurgle of his stomach, he took the bones of the cow and the goat and fixed the skull of the goat onto the body of the cow.

Then, with a click of his fingers and the muttering of a magic mantra, a new animal that appeared to be half goat and half cow, sprang up and started grazing on the nearby grass. That animal still exists today. Known as the takin this rare and strange looking creature is the national animal of Bhutan.

And in the end, after all the drinking and womanizing, what happened to the Divine Madman and his Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom? Well, nobody really knows. Some say he returned to Tibet where he eventually died at the age of 150. Others though say that he never actually died and instead, his consciousness travelled to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa where it entered into the side of the Jowo Śākyamuni statue. It’s said that it remains there to this day waiting for the appropriate time to return to benefit all the living creatures of the world.

Drukpa Kuenley remains one of the most popular saints in Bhutanese mythology today. His womanizing reputation means that he is considered a fertility saint. The phalluses you will see painted on walls throughout Bhutan are representations of the saint while the Chime Lhakhang (see below), which is a temple dedicated to him near Punakha, continues to attract childless women hoping to conceive.

If you want to learn more about Bhutan’s Divine Madman then be sure to visit the following during your Bhutan holiday.

Tango Monastery (Thimphu)

One of the many treasures within the 13th Century Tango Monastery (14km north of Thimphu) is a beautiful gold thangka (Tibetan Buddhism-themed painting on a cotton or silk sheet). Legend has it that Kuenley urinated on the thangka and that the urine turned to gold. A clever trick if you know how to do it! Unfortunately, the thangka is normally kept locked away so you’d have to be lucky to get a glimpse. Even so, this monastery, which dates back nearly a thousand years, makes for a fantastic half-day outing.

There’s a rewarding two-hour hiking trail to it and the lack of other visitors makes for a big welcome from the resident monks. There’s a six-week period during the summer when thousands of insects emerge out of the ground around the monastery. To avoid accidentally stepping on one of these insects all of the resident monks spend the period in meditation. Outside visitors should avoid the monastery at this time.

Chime Lhakhang

The best-known Bhutanese site associated with Drukpa Kuenley is the hilltop Chime Lhakhang, around 13km south of the Punakha. According to folklore, a demoness named Loro Duem lived at the nearby, and hugely strategic, Dochula Pass. The demoness spent her days doing demony-like things such as terrorizing passing travellers. Eventually, Drukpa Kuenley was brought in to subdue the demoness with his Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom. To escape the demoness turned herself into a dog, but Kuenley killed her with his mighty phallus. He then buried the dead demoness under a hill, which he named Chi-Med which means No Dog (interestingly there are quite a lot of dogs here today…). The temple built on top of the hill, which is known as Chimi Lhakhang, is dedicated to Drukpa Kuenley.

The small temple is visited by many Bhutanese couples hoping for children. Inside is a wooden 30cm phallus totem, plus the bow and arrow said to have belonged to Kuenley. Together these are used as fertility blessings. Women hoping for a baby have to carry the phallus around the circumference of the Lhakhang three times. A wooden effigy of the saints thunderbolt is then used to give childless women a wang (blessing) by tapping them on the head with it.

Next, the hopeful women roll a set of 300-year-old bone dice. By examining the way, the dice fall the resident monks are able to conclude the couple’s chance of conceiving. If the result is positive, then many couples ask the monks to help with naming the future baby. To do this, a small piece of bamboo parchment is pulled at random from a stack. From this, the monks can interpret the name, which is always either Chimi or Kuenley.

Almost all the buildings around the hill are painted in bold and graphic images of phallic symbols and shops sell small – and not so small – wooden copies of Drukpa Kuenley’s Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom, which certainly make for an unusual souvenir!