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Photo Ewen 📷

I want to tell a little story about a stupa in Bhutan called Chendibji, a beautiful place I have visited many times but has a sad story.

It's a special place for Bhutanese, a spiritual place surrounded by wild forests. Recently they restored the stupa and chorten and installed immense flood lights to illuminate at night.

Moths flock to it.

1/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

The stupa at Chendebji
Sleepy dog
One of the locals
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Photo Ewen 📷

Not just a few moths. But thousands and thousands of moths.

When I first stepped through the archway I noticed a few moths on the timber, then I noticed a few more. And the more I looked, the more I noticed.

I started taking photos. I was in a rush and a little confused. Not much art to my snaps. I just kept taking shots.

2/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

A moth. I have no idea what kind.
The first archway leading down to Chendebji.
Another moth
More moths
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Photo Ewen 📷

The sheer variety of moths in one tiny little space was amazing. But why?

I did notice that a lot of them were white. And one particular species far outnumbered the others. The doorway was awash with moths.

I know next to nothing about moths myself. I've only just tuned my brain into being more aware of butterflies.

3/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

So pretty
Lots and lots of this moth
White but not. Amazing variations.
So stylish
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Photo Ewen 📷

I can tell you that Chendebji is covered in white lime. The stupa and chorten are very very white.

But in recent times they repainted and added some super bright flood lights. When I stepped closer to these, I found literally thousands of dead moths.

Not to say they wouldn't have died somewhere in the forest anyway, but it seemed very sad.

4/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

The stupa at Chendebji
White lime
The remains of a spectacular creature
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Photo Ewen 📷

There was more than months too. Beetles were drawn in by the light, big ones! Many of these were still alive. One in particular was so feisty, even flipped upside-down.

I righted him up and he tried to murder me. Nature is dangerous people!

5/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

Crazy big beetle
Check out those chompers
Crazy big beetle
Photo Ewen 📷

I was fascinated by this glimpse into the wild moths of Bhutan. Makes you wonder what else is hiding out there in the forests? You just need the right triggers to bring them "into the light".

I found one fluffy white moth with metallic teal spots. In the right light, the blue/green hues shine back at the lens.

6/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

teal splendour
Hiding in plain sight
Jul 30, 2023, 04:34 AM·Public
7boosts·43favorites
Public
Photo Ewen 📷

None of these guys were doing a great job of hiding I might add. Most were just clinging to grooves in the side of the chorten. Many were on their last legs too, barely able to fly.

A few had camouflage more suited to the forest than a white washed temple.

7/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

Green scene
Green on top, red below
Mossy motif
Classic moth wear
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Photo Ewen 📷

A hint of yellow in the colour range too. I can dig it.

8/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

Big and fluffy
Small and fluffy
Om mani padme hum
Art deco moth with a touch of Frank Lloyd Wright.
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Photo Ewen 📷

I just can't express how much I love those 60s and 70s designs on some of these critters. Pure art. I couldn't paint something that beautiful if I tried.

9/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

Pure art
Chorten carvings
Sooooo many of this moth
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Photo Ewen 📷

I'll wrap it up there. I could have spent hours at the site observing all the moths and trying to capture them with a little more art. Bhutan throws all manner of surprises at me, but rarely something so impressive and unexpected.

Hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into this world too.

10/10

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

Summer skies over Chendebji
Green on top, red down below
Flat as a pancake. Same colour too.
Stunning blend of nature, art, camouflage and chutzpah.
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Photo Ewen 📷

Post Script: All these photos were taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro. A stunning lens to explore the macro world.

I have the L-Mount version for my LUMIX S5II. The stabilization in the camera body pairs brilliantly with this lens for handheld joy. Can recommend. I'm shooting mostly at F2.8 with Auto ISO + minimum shutter of 1/200th. High ISO is invisible on this camera anyway, but for bees and fast moving macro I go to 1/1000th min instead.

11/10

#LUMIX#SigmaPhoto#Photography
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Steven Lawson Photography

@ewen I really enjoyed this thread Ewen, thank you. I, too, am fascinated by butterflies and moths, and the thrill of finding and photographing them never gets old

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Second Chance Bikes

@ewen
thank you for sharing. A nice trip to an interesting far-off land without requiring getting out of my chair!🙂

Quiet public
Wonderdog 🏳️‍🌈

@ewen fabulous photos, thank you for the insights into a place I’d love to visit, but will never be able to.

Quiet public
Photo Ewen 📷

@caity

Very lucky to have seen this place at this moment in time. Not sure what my future holds.

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Andrew Thompson

@ewen thanks for a lovely thread. Beautifully illuminates a special place and its secret night time world of moths. Magical 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🙏

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