Where No One Wears the Pants in the Family

This Bhutanese family stopped me on the street and asked me to take their picture.  Then, they politely asked if I could send them three copies of the photograph. On the piece of paper with his address, the man in the middle, obviously proud of his profession, wrote "woodcarver" after his name.

 
My guide (left) and driver (right)

One of the first things that catches your eye in Bhutan is that everyone wears a similar type of dress in public.

For men, the traditional dress is a one-piece garment called a gho which looks a bit like a waistcoat, tied tightly around the waist.  It's worn knee length, with knee socks or tights.  The long sleeves are topped off with wide cuffs. For women, it's a floor-length dress called a kira, together with a long-sleeved cuffed jacket.

The textiles used for clothing are usually in a traditional striped or checked pattern.  Weaving is an art in Bhutan, and some of the textiles I saw people wearing (such as the colorful one worn by my driver, at left), looked like beautiful tapestries.

Until recently, anyone who appeared in public wearing anything other than this compulsory garment was fined. From what I hear, these days the fines are not as strictly enforced. But the majority of people I saw, both in the city and in the country, still wore some form of this garment.