Tarot Reading from a Fingerless Man

I am in Paro for the Tschechu, which is a national holiday lasting 5 days. I will be here in Paro from today (Tues) through Sunday morning. I worked this morning in Thimphu and had my first hands-on treatment session with a man who had a stroke a year ago. We were let out early and hopped into a taxi that was enblazened with symbols for safe travel and good fortune, which was highly necessary, given the cliffs and hairpin turns that characterize every moment of the 1.5 hour journey. Luckily i was in the front seat and had a view and could stick my head out the window so that i wouldn't get car sick.

I had only seen Paro from the airport, not the town center. It is a lovely town with a main street that seems to be historic. The buildings seem steeped in history, with wooden signs and faded paintings on walls and the elaborately carved windows. There are also prayer wheels that are turned by passers-by as they conduct their shopping. Thimphu is more of a modern feel, large plastic signs dominate the shops there.

On the walk to the festival, I passed a man with leprosy - he had no fingers left. He had a broad smile, though, and on the way back i realized that he was giving Tarot readings, of a sort. I selected a card and he said (in Dzongha - it was translated for me) some odd things: I was a man in my previous life and at birth I was suddenly formed into a woman (misogynist?) and that i would be quickly cured if I were to be sick, and also that my home has good luck and that i would find good fortune wherever I happened to live.