The Hirshon Bhutanese Phaksha Paa (Spicy Pork Belly With Vegetables) – ཕག་ཤ་པ།

My glorious Citizens, it is a pleasure that you once again have seen fit to lift up your eyes beyond mere supplicatory worship to bravely look once again into the radiant countenance that solely illuminates your culinary universe! As the celestial Dragon, your unyielding desire to learn pleases Me no end and in reward, I choose to share with you today a recipe worthy of the Dragon King Himself. This is a Bhutanese recipe of exceptional spice and savor that is guaranteed to awaken your slumbering palate and elevate it to the Celestial Sphere of Nirvana itself – My phaksha paa recipe is THAT good!

The King of Bhutan, officially the Druk Gyalpo (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་; lit. ’Dragon King’), is the constitutional monarch and head of state of the Kingdom of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Drukyul which translates as “The Land of the Thunder Dragon”. Thus, while the kings of Bhutan are known as Druk Gyalpo, the Bhutanese people call themselves the “Drukpa”, meaning “people of Druk” (Bhutan).

The current sovereign of Bhutan is Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the fifth Druk Gyalpo. He wears the Raven Crown, which is the official crown worn by the kings of Bhutan. He is correctly styled “Mi’wang ‘Ngada Rinpoche” (“His Majesty”) and addressed “Ngada Rimboche” (“Your Majesty”). King Jigme Khesar was the youngest reigning monarch in the world, being 26 years old when he ascended the throne on 9 December 2006 after his father, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated the throne in his favor. He was 28 years old when he was crowned on 6 November 2008.

Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ; Wylie: ‘Druk gyal khab) is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and India to the south, with the Indian state of Sikkim separating it from neighbouring Nepal. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of 38,394 square kilometres (14,824 sq mi), Bhutan ranks 133rd in land area and 160th in population. Bhutan is a democratic constitutional monarchy with a King as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government. The Je Khenpo is the head of the state religion, Vajrayana Buddhism.

The population of Bhutan had been estimated based on the reported figure of about 1 million in the 1970s when the country had joined the United Nations and precise statistics were lacking. Thus, using the annual increase rate of 2–3%, the most population estimates were around 2 million in 2000. A national census was carried out in 2005 and it turned out that the population was 672,425. Consequently, United Nations Population Division reduced its estimation of the country’s population in the 2006 revision for the whole period from 1950 to 2000.

It is estimated that between two-thirds and three-quarters of the Bhutanese population follow Vajrayana Buddhism, which is also the state religion. Hinduism accounts for less than 12% of the population. The current legal framework in principle guarantees freedom of religion; proselytism, however, is forbidden by a royal government decision and by judicial interpretation of the Constitution.

Buddhism was introduced to Bhutan in 746 AD, when Guru Padmasambhava visited Bumthang District. Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (reigned 627–649), a convert to Buddhism, ordered the construction of two Buddhist temples, Jambay Lhakhang at Bumthang in central Bhutan and Kyichu Lhakhang (near Paro) in the Paro Valley.

The national language is Dzongkha (Bhutanese), one of 53 languages in the Tibetan language family. The script, locally called Chhokey (literally, “Dharma language”), is identical to classical Tibetan. In Bhutan’s education system, English is the medium of instruction, while Dzongkha is taught as the national language. Ethnologue lists 24 languages currently spoken in Bhutan, all of them in the Tibeto-Burman family, except Nepali, an Indo-Aryan language.

The Himalayan mountains in the north rise from the country’s lush subtropical plains in the south. In the Bhutanese Himalayas, there are peaks higher than 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) above sea level. Gangkhar Puensum is Bhutan’s highest peak and is the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The wildlife of Bhutan is notable for its diversity, including the Himalayan takin and golden langur. The capital and largest city is Thimphu, with close to 15% of the population.

Bhutan and neighboring Tibet experienced the spread of Buddhism, which originated in the Indian subcontinent during the lifetime of the Buddha. In the first millennium, the Vajrayana school of Buddhism spread to Bhutan from the southern Pala Empire of Bengal. During the 16th century, Ngawang Namgyal unified the valleys of Bhutan into a single state. Namgyal defeated three Tibetan invasions, subjugated rival religious schools, codified the Tsa Yig legal system, and established a government of theocratic and civil administrators.

Namgyal became the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche and his successors acted as the spiritual leaders of Bhutan, like the Dalai Lama in Tibet. During the 17th century, Bhutan controlled large parts of northeast India, Sikkim and Nepal; it also wielded significant influence in Cooch Behar State.

Bhutan was never colonized, although it became a protectorate of the British Empire. Bhutan ceded the Bengal Duars to British India during the Duar War in the 19th century. The Wangchuck dynasty emerged as the monarchy and pursued closer ties with Britain in the subcontinent. In 1910, the Treaty of Punakha guaranteed British advice in foreign policy in exchange for internal autonomy in Bhutan. The arrangement continued under a new treaty with India in 1949, signed at Darjeeling, in which both countries recognised each other’s sovereignty.

Bhutan joined the United Nations in 1971 and currently has relations with 56 countries. While dependent on the Indian military, Bhutan maintains its own military units. The 2008 Constitution established a parliamentary government with an elected National Assembly and a National Council.

The precise etymology of “Bhutan” is unknown, although it is likely to derive from the Tibetan endonym “Böd” for Tibet. Traditionally, it is taken to be a transcription of the Sanskrit Bhoṭa-anta (भोट-अन्त) “end of Tibet” through Nepali Bhuṭān (भुटान), a reference to Bhutan’s position as the southern extremity of the Tibetan plateau and culture.

Since the 17th century, Bhutan’s official name has been Druk yul (literally, “country of the Drukpa Lineage” or “the Land of the Thunder Dragon,” a reference to the country’s dominant Buddhist sect); “Bhutan” appears only in English-language official correspondence. The terms for the Kings of Bhutan Druk Gyalpo (“Dragon King”), and the Bhutanese endonym Drukpa, “Dragon people,” are similarly derived.

The first time a separate Kingdom of Bhutan appeared on a western map, it did so under its local name “Broukpa”. Others include Lho Mon (“Dark Southland”), Lho Tsendenjong (“Southland of the Cypress”), Lhomen Khazhi (“Southland of the Four Approaches”) and Lho Menjong (“Southland of the Herbs”).

Stone tools, weapons, elephants, and remnants of large stone structures provide evidence that Bhutan was inhabited as early as 2000 BC, although there are no existing records from that time. Historians have theorised that the state of Lhomon (lit. ’southern darkness’), or Monyul (“Dark Land”, a reference to the Monpa, an ethnic group in Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, India), may have existed between 500 BC and AD 600. The names Lhomon Tsendenjong (Sandalwood Country) and Lhomon Khashi or Southern Mon (country of four approaches), have been found in ancient Bhutanese and Tibetan chronicles.

Buddhism was first introduced to Bhutan in the mid of 7th century AD. The Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo (reigned 627–649), a Buddhist convert, extended the Tibetan Empire into Sikkim and Bhutan. He ordered the construction of two Buddhist temples, Jambay Lhakhang in Bumthang in central Bhutan and Kyichu Lhakhang in Paro Valley. Buddhism was propagated in earnest in 746 under King Sindhu Rāja (also Künjom; Sendha Gyab; Chakhar Gyalpo), an exiled Indian king who had established a government in Bumthang at Chakhar Gutho Palace.

Much of early Bhutanese history is unclear because most of the records were destroyed when fire ravaged the ancient capital, Punakha, in 1827. By the 10th century, Bhutan’s religious history had a significant impact on its political development. Various subsects of Buddhism emerged that were patronized by the various Mongol warlords. Bhutan may have been influenced by the Yuan dynasty with which it shares various cultural and religious similarities.

After the decline of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century, these subsects vied with each other for supremacy in the political and religious landscape, eventually leading to the ascendancy of the Drukpa Lineage by the 16th century.

Locally, Bhutan has been known by many names. The earliest Western record of Bhutan, the 1627 Relação of the Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral, records its name variously as Cambirasi (among the Koch Biharis), Potente, and Mon (an endonym for southern Tibet). Until the early 17th century, Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms, when the area was unified by the Tibetan lama and military leader Ngawang Namgyal, who had fled religious persecution in Tibet.

To defend the country against intermittent Tibetan forays, Namgyal built a network of impregnable dzongs or fortresses, and promulgated the Tsa Yig, a code of law that helped to bring local lords under centralized control. Many such dzong still exist and are active centers of religion and district administration. Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral were the first recorded Europeans to visit Bhutan in 1627, on their way to Tibet.

Bhutan’s sixth Five-Year Plan (1987–92) included a policy of ‘one nation, one people’ and introduced a code of traditional Drukpa dress and etiquette called Driglam Namzhag. The dress element of this code required all citizens to wear the gho (a knee-length robe for men) and the kira (an ankle-length dress for women). A central plank of the Bhutanese government’s policy since the late 1960s has been to modernize the use of Dzongkha language. This began with abandoning the use of Hindi, a language that was adopted to help start formal secular education in the country, in 1964. , Australia, and the United States, have allowed resettlement of the majority of the Lhotshampa refugees.

Bhutan’s political system has recently changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck transferred most of his administrative powers to the Council of Cabinet Ministers and allowed for impeachment of the King by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly. In 1999, the government lifted a ban on television and internet, making Bhutan one of the last countries to introduce television. In his speech, the King said that television was a critical step to the modernization of Bhutan as well as a major contributor to the country’s gross national happiness, but warned that the “misuse” of this new technology could erode traditional Bhutanese values.

A new constitution was presented in early 2005. In December 2005, Wangchuck announced that he would abdicate the throne in his son’s favour in 2008. On 9 December 2006, he announced that he would abdicate immediately. This was followed by the first national parliamentary elections in December 2007 and March 2008. On 6 November 2008, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was crowned king. In July 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhutan became the first world-leading nation in its role of vaccinating 470,000 out of 770,000 people with a two-dose shot of AstraZeneca vaccines. On 13 December 2023, Bhutan was officially delisted as a least developed country.

A staple of Bhutanese cuisine is Bhutanese red rice, which is like brown rice in texture, but has a nutty taste. It is the only variety of rice that grows at high altitudes. Other staples include buckwheat and increasingly maize.

Buckwheat is eaten mainly in Bumthang, maize in the eastern districts, and rice is eaten across the country. The diet in the hills also includes chicken, yak meat, dried beef, pork, pork fat, and lamb. Soups and stews of meat, rice, fiddle heads, lentils, and dried vegetables, spiced with chili peppers and cheese, are a favorite meal during the cold seasons. Zow shungo is a rice dish mixed with leftover vegetables.

The Bhutanese national dish is known as ema datshi (ཨེ་མ་དར་ཚིལ།) with rice (mix of Bhutanese red rice and white rice). Ema datshi is a spicy dish made with large or small green or red chili peppers in a cheesy sauce (similar to chile con queso), and became the national dish for its ubiquity and the pride that the Bhutanese have for it. Other foods include jasha maru (a chicken dish), phaksha paa (today’s recipe! – dried pork cooked with chili peppers, spices, and vegetables, including turnips, greens, or radishes), thukpa, puta (buckwheat noodles), bathup, and fried rice.

Popular snacks include momo (Bhutanese dumplings), Hoentay (Buckwheat dumplings), shakam Ezay (eezay), khabzey (dried fritters made with flour, water, and sugar, which are then deep-fried), shabalay, juma (Bhutanese sausages marinated in spices), and noodles.

Dairy foods, particularly butter and cheese from yaks and cows, are also popular, and indeed almost all milk is turned into butter and cheese. Cheese made from cow’s milk called datshi is never eaten raw, but used to make sauces. Zoedoe is another type of cheese made in the Eastern districts, which is added to soups. Zoedoe is normally greenish in color and has a strong smell. Other types of cheese include Western types like Cheddar and Gouda. Western cheese is made in the Swiss Cheese Factory in Bumthang or imported from India.

Popular beverages include butter tea prepared using tea leaves, salt and butter (called suja), milk tea (called ngaja), black tea, locally brewed ara (rice wine), and beer. Spices include curry, cardamom, ginger, thingay (Sichuan pepper), garlic, turmeric, and caraway. When offered food, one says “meshu meshu”, covering one’s mouth with the hands in refusal according to Bhutanese manners, and then gives in on the second or third offer.

As for today’s recipe for phaksha paa, it is not a complex recipe but it IS an exceptional one, replete with spice that will elevate your tastebuds to the summit of Mount Everest to cavort with the Dragons on high! Phaksha paa is typically made with pork belly or pork shoulder – since I am a great fan of both cuts – belly with its meltingly tender meat and succulent fat, and shoulder for its meaty chaw), I have chosen to use both cuts in My recipe. The dish also incorporates dried pork for texture and I find this festively-named “Berzerky Jerky” fits the bill admirably and adds some sweetness – buy it here.

Mustard plays a vital role in adding nose-tingling, sinus-clearing heat to the dish – this mustard (aptly named “Mother-in-Law’s tongue”) is exceptionally sharp and lives up to its humorous name and works perfectly in the dish – be advised that a little goes a LONG WAY! Buy it here.

Given that Bhutan is very close to India, it is no surprise that I have made a modification to the recipe to include asafœtida, the Indian dried resin that adds a wonderful garlic flavor – you can buy the real deal from My favorite supplier here. Sichuan peppercorns are used throughout Bhutanese cuisine and My favorite version – by far – are supplied fresh from this fine purveyor here or buy the genuine wild Himalayan version from here (they are less strong).

Instead of just plain chili powder in My phaksha paa, I strongly prefer the smoked Chilean hot chili spice known as merkén especial – either make My version or buy it from here, as you see fit. I strongly encourage you to serve this with the classic Bhutanese red rice – you can buy it from Amazon here. You will need a few Chiles de Arbol for added heat and you can grab them from here.

Replete with vegetables, peppers, meats and heat(s), this recipe for phaksha paa is wonderful and filling – I hope you see fit to add it to your kitchen repertoire with the greatest alacrity, My Citizens!

Battle on – the Generalissimo

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