Archive for the 'Bhutan' Category

On the trail of the first people in India

Published
by
asianwindow
on January 2, 2010
in Bhutan, Heritage, India and Tibet
. 0 Comments

Akshai Jain in Mint:

The Brokpa villagers who live near Batalik in Ladakh are a colourful but confused lot. Their oral history and songs suggest that they migrated from Gilgit, now in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), a few hundred years ago. But over the last 50 years they’ve come to believe that they’re remnants of an ancient Aryan population that came to India with Alexander’s army.

The “Aryan” theory was floated by a few German Indologists in the 1960s; it caught everyone’s fancy, and the Brokpas turned it into a marketing tool. The problem, however, is that nobody takes it seriously any more and the small, isolated community which had almost convinced itself about the supposition, is now unsure of its roots.

So recently when a group of researchers landed up at their villages, promising to tell them about their genetic history, the Brokpas were excited. The Aryan Welfare Association in Dha village swung into action, organizing a camp at which men from different villages came together to take swills of distilled water and spit into vials. For the Brokpas, it was a solemn occasion. This, they were told, would hold the clue to their origin. More:

Bhutan to get its first railway link

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 31, 2009
in Bhutan and Travel
. 0 Comments

From The Times:

The reclusive Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is to have its first railway after its newly crowned monarch finalised a plan with India to build an 11-mile (18km) link between the two countries.

The railway, funded by India, will be Bhutan’s boldest step yet into the modern world. Lost in time like the mythical Shangri-La, the Buddhist kingdom had no roads or telephones until 1960 and no television until 1999. The track will offer one of the most breathtaking rail journeys in the world across the foot of the Himalayas. More:

Bhutan’s boutique bourse

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 15, 2009
in Bhutan, Business and Economy
. 0 Comments

Reuters:

Traders seeking a break from volatile global markets may want to head to Bhutan’s bourse, where stocks are traded on just four computers — when they have not crashed — only twice a week.

“I’ve got one order to sell 2,820 shares,” said 23-year-old Deki Peldon, the only broker for today’s short trading hours in Thimphu, the capital of the tiny Himalayan kingdom.

“It’s taken 2 to 3 weeks to find a buyer.”

Welcome to the Royal Bhutan stock exchange, where just four brokers work and which will trade about $3 million shares this year, about what many financiers may deal with in the blink of an eye. The average daily trade in New York is more than 1 billion.

In a Buddhist country where national wealth is measured by Gross National Happiness — an idea that spiritual and environmental health are just as important as material well-being — the exchange is crawling slowly along as the country and its $1.3 billion economy tentatively embraces globalization. More

Top adventure destinations for 2010

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 1, 2009
in Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet
. 0 Comments

Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan as a Himalayan group are among the top ten adventure destinations for 2010 picked Gadling.

Travelers to Nepal can choose a myriad of adventure options, including hiking the Annapurna Circuit, making a trek up to Everest Base Camp, located at 17,500 feet, or tackling a mountain such as Island Peak, which stands at 20,305 feet, but remains popular for non-technical mountaineers looking to add a Himalayan summit to their resume. As the birth place of adventure travel, Nepal knows how to cater to the backpackers, vagabonds, and modern day nomads, that pass through its borders.

[A section of the Puna Tsang Chhu river in Bhutan]

Kayakers looking for remote regions in Bhutan

From the New York Times:

Heflin was part of an expedition to the area several years ago — the subject of a 2007 documentary, “Adventure Bhutan” — that explored several remote sections of the Mangde Chhu. This year’s return expedition reunites Heflin with two others from that trip: the adventure photographer Jed Weingarten and Willie Kern, a kayaker who was part of an expedition that completed a first descent of the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet.

The Mangde Chhu and Puna Tsang Chhu contain some of the most impressive terrain in the world. The rivers run at the bottom of lush green canyons, framed by massive vertical rock walls. There, the group would be difficult to reach should it run into trouble.

Portions of both rivers run as difficult as Class VI, the most hazardous classification of rapids. Some sections of the Puna Tsang Chhu, Heflin said, are “unrunnable.” More:


Climate change — Bhutan

Published
by
asianwindow
on October 23, 2009
in Bhutan and Climate change
. 1 Comment

Nature reporter Anjali Nayar hiked for 21 days in Northern Bhutan to find out how this tiny Himalayan nation is dealing with rapidly melting glaciers.

From Bhutan to Bronx

Published
by
asianwindow
on September 26, 2009
in Bhutan and Nepal
. 0 Comments

From the New York Times:

Nearly every immigrant group in New York City has a neighborhood, or at least a street, to call its own. But for refugees from the tiny South Asian nation of Bhutan, the closest thing to a home base is a single building in the Bronx – a red-brick five-story walk-up, with a weed-choked front courtyard and grimy staircases.

Eight families – more than 40 people – have taken up residence here in the past several months, part of a stream of thousands of Bhutanese refugees who have flowed into the United States in the past year and a half. With the help of resettlement agencies, many have found apartments in the Bronx, and the largest concentration has ended up here in the building on University Avenue.

This is their small toehold in a strange new world. The only life most have known was in the rural plains and Himalayan foothills of Bhutan and the dusty refugee camps of Nepal. Few have ever lived in homes with electricity or indoor plumbing, or between walls made of anything but bamboo. More:

The Golden Langur — an endangered species

Published
by
asianwindow
on September 24, 2009
in Bhutan, India and Wildlife
. 0 Comments

From the Telegraph, Calcutta:

golden-langurThe Golden Langur (Trachypithecus geei), found only in Northeast India and Bhutan, is threatened by hunting and the destruction of its forested habitat. It is on the list of endangered species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and on Schedule 1 (completely protected species) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India. Which is why any method of protection of the species is well worth looking into.

As the sound of the langurs moving through the vegetation died down, Kartik appeared. He had been tracking the troop since early morning, partly to help us locate it, and partly to continue his observations of langur feeding behaviour as part of a scientific study that Nature’s Foster is conducting. He is one of the 12 local youths trained in such research, which they combine with their own considerable local knowledge to good effect.

Kartik is one of several villagers passionately involved in protecting the langurs and their habitat. Theirs is a story that is familiar to anyone working on community-based conservation in India. The forests of the Kakoijana hill range, once thick and diverse, had been decimated by a combination of factors. More:

[Image: Tourism Council of Bhutan]

Suicides in Bhutan: How the happy kingdom in the clouds lost its smile

Published
by
asianwindow
on September 9, 2009
in Bhutan, Culture, Economy and Society
. 0 Comments

Bhutan's capital Thimphu at night. Photo: Birger Hoppe / Under CC

Bhutan's capital Thimphu at night. Photo: Birger Hoppe / Under CC

Bhutan has made its people’s happiness a national priority. But a spate of suicides suggests it is struggling to cope with the modern world. Andrew Buncombe in the Independent:

For the emergency department of Bhutan’s largest hospital, last Tuesday was a pressing day. In the space of a few hours six people were rushed in, all suspected of having tried to commit suicide.

One of the patients, a 35-year-old housewife, said she had taken 30 sedatives after problems at home. The second, a woman of 27, had swallowed 15 paracetamol tablets after quarrelling with her husband. The third to require urgent treatment was a 17-year-old girl who was rushed in unconscious having drunk nail polisher remover after an argument with her sister. The other three cases were prisoners from the local jail who had emptied a bottle of mysterious spirit. Some reports claimed they had tried to take their lives, but officials are unsure.

By the standards of a hospital in a large city in the West the numbers might be unremarkable, but the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital is in Thimphu, capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has a total population of less than 700,000. What’s more, this enigmatic mountainous nation is feted around the world for its gross national happiness (GNH) – a national policy in which the emotional well-being of citizens is considered more important than their financial bottom line. More:

[Photo: Birger Hoppe / Under CC]

Bhutan’s unique identity

Published
by
asianwindow
on July 8, 2009
in Bhutan and Travel
. 0 Comments

Paro Airport, Bhutan

Paro Airport, Bhutan

John Julius Norwich in the Financial Times:

The first surprise was Paro airport – and no more beautiful airport building exists in the world. Here was our first sight of traditional Bhutanese architecture – long, and fairly low, surmounted by the traditional three flat wooden roofs laid one above the other, diminishing in size pagoda-style; the walls snow-white, but with all the windows and the entire central section a riot of astonishingly elaborate and brilliantly painted woodwork.

Outside the airport, Hishey was waiting – fortyish and full of charm, enviably sophisticated, his unaccented English as good as ours. He had arranged our trip, planned our itinerary and provided the minibus in which we were going to travel. A superb naturalist and ornithologist, one of the world’s leading authorities on cranes, he can instantly identify any animal or bird. The journey along the valley to our hotel was only 20 minutes but we broke it to watch an archery contest. Two teams of 11 were taking turns to shoot, one at each end of the range, 120m from each other. Their marksmanship was astonishing, the whole target being roughly the size of our normal black bull’s-eye.

The Gangtey Palace Hotel, the first of the six in which we were to stay, proved to be another show-stopper. Upstairs was a Buddhist prayer-hall, ablaze with every colour of the rainbow. (Never miss the Bhutanese prayer-halls.) The garden, looking out across the valley, offered a glorious view of the dzong immediately opposite. More:

[Image: Douglas J. McLaughlin /cc]

Recalculating happiness in a Himalayan kingdom

Published
by
asianwindow
on May 7, 2009
in Bhutan and Travel
. 0 Comments

Seth Mydans from Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, in the New York Times:

Tigers Nest (Taktsang) monastery in Bhutan

Tigers Nest (Taktsang) monastery in Bhutan

If the rest of the world cannot get it right in these unhappy times, this tiny Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayan mountains says it is working on an answer.

“Greed, insatiable human greed,” said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan, describing what he sees as the cause of today’s economic catastrophe in the world beyond the snow-topped mountains. “What we need is change,” he said in the whitewashed fortress where he works. “We need to think gross national happiness.”

The notion of gross national happiness was the inspiration of the former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in the 1970s as an alternative to the gross national product. Now, the Bhutanese are refining the country’s guiding philosophy into what they see as a new political science, and it has ripened into government policy just when the world may need it, said Kinley Dorji, secretary of information and communications. More:

Bhutan trek: Close to heaven

Published
by
asianwindow
on February 25, 2009
in Bhutan and Travel
. 0 Comments

Clover Stroud joins a high-level trek and finds a magical Himalayan kingdom still resisting the lures of the modern world. From The Telegraph:

Photo: Graham King

Photo: Graham King

A Buddhist monk is dancing in the snow in front of me. At his feet, a fluffy, caramel-coloured puppy watches him as he leans down, laughing. He throws a handful of snow at the dog, which sneezes and runs between his legs. My head throbs because we’re at an altitude of more than 13,000ft, higher than I’ve ever been. Below us an eagle soars, etched against the clouds way below, clouds that seem so solid I feel I could step on one and float away. It’s very quiet, the air thick with the muffled silence of snowflakes. The monk dusts snow from his robes and laughs again. He looks no more than 17 or 18.

This is Bhutan, a magical land inhabited by magical people. While a monk laughing and dancing in the snow at dawn on top of a mountain is beautiful, it is hardly surprising. Here, I think, almost everything is magical and almost anything is possible.

More:

Birdwatching in Bhutan

Published
by
asianwindow
on January 21, 2009
in Bhutan and Wildlife
. 0 Comments

Three birdwatchers — Bikram Grewal, Ramki Srinivasan and Sumit Sen — do some birding in western Bhutan. From kolkatabirds.com:

A Fire-tailed Myzornis and an Ibisbill.

A Fire-tailed Myzornis and an Ibisbill.

A Blue-fronted Redstart sat on a post and the ubiquitous Hodgson’s Redstarts were everywhere. We drove past the village of Begana and the road soon ended at a place called Dodina, where the track to the Cheri Goemba starts. The monks at this monastery look after the Gorals (a kind of mountain goat) and feed the pheasants who are exceeding tame. But like all good things in life, they come for a price. In this case you have to climb almost vertically for over an hour before you get to see the game. Our guide Tashi did not think this effort was worth to see a few birds, but it did not deter a slightly-built Bhutanese gentleman, from carrying a humongous cupboard on his back to be delivered to the holy men at the monastery. We crossed the Wang Chu by a lovely covered bridge and came to an open glade where breakfast was served, while Nutcrackers and Choughs soared overhead.

We decided to walk up a path that went gently uphill along the river when suddenly bird activity stated in earnest – Ramki started photographing a Hoary-throated Barwing, Swarna found a Rusty-flanked Treecreeper climbing a mud wall and Sumit discovered a flock, yes a flock of Green-Shrike Babblers. Hell broke loose with people running from one vantage point to the other. Not to be outdone a group of Golden-breasted Fulvettas made a fleeting and sudden appearance and a Little Forktail popped up on the river for good measure. A pair of Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrushes played hide and seek in the low shrubbery.

More:

Bhutanese take divorce in their stride

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 27, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

From BBC:

bhutan

“The divorce case is very, very common. If you go to the court, you will see most of the cases are all on divorce.”

It may sound like a comment from Scandinavia – but this is Bhutan and the speaker is a young artist, Barun Gurung. His own parents divorced 10 years ago, when he was 13 and his brother a little older.

“I think during their marriage they used to have small fights which, you know, used to have bad impact on us,” he told the BBC.

“They used to fight and you know my father used to put hands on my mother. So it was quite bad to see that.”

We meet in the studio where Barun works – a collective of artists in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, its walls plastered with brightly coloured pictures.

At least one of his colleagues joins in the conversation saying he, too, comes from a family affected by divorce. Marriage break-ups are common in this tiny kingdom. So, too, are love marriages, not arranged by one’s family.

More:

Road to Shangri-la

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 6, 2008
in Bhutan and Travel
. 0 Comments

Last month, a new monarch was crowned in the secretive Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The writer Stanley Johnson was one of a tiny handful of Westerners to receive an invitation. But first he had to get there … From the Independent:

Tiger's Nest monastery, Paro Valley, Bhutan

Tiger's Nest monastery, Paro Valley, Bhutan

Jenny and I met our full team, pack animals included, early one morning at the agreed rendezvous. As vantage points go, this was superb. The Paro valley stretched out below us, dominated by the magnificent Paro Dzong.(The dzongs, found throughout Bhutan, are unique Bhutanese fortresses, built in commanding defensive positions and used for both both civil and religious purposes.) For the next hour, as we climbed up through the forest, the image of the dzong down in the valley below grew steadily smaller. Eventually, as the path entered the trees, it passed from our view.

Our travel guide’s itinerary had spoken of a “long but not steep” climb for this first day’s trekking. “Long” and “steep” are really subjective terms. I have to admit that Jenny and I found the going tough. One might have thought that with seven pack-animals at our disposal we might somehow have managed to grab on to a passing horse’s tail. But that’s not the way it is. In Bhutan the horses don’t accompany you as you climb. Each morning you just walk out of the camp, leaving your team to pack everything up. You don’t have to dismantle the tents or even roll up your sleeping bag. That’s all done for you. You might have been trekking for two or three hours before you hear the tinkling bell of the lead horse coming up fast behind you.

This is the moment to step aside, unhook your water-bottle and take a deep swig, as the animals pass. Our horseman, Tshering, brings up the rear. The paths over these hills are narrow. To the untutored eye, the way is often not clearly marked, with several options on offer.

I ask Sonam, our guide, how the horses keep to the track.

“They know the way,” Sonam replies.

More:

Lessons in Gross National Happiness

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 24, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

A chat with Bhutan’s first elected prime minister. Emily Parker in the Wall Street Journal:

thinleyJigmi Y. Thinley, Bhutan’s first democratically elected prime minister, describes his five-year term as “a period within which we will have to prove to the people that democracy itself is worthwhile.” That sounds like a lot of pressure. But when I meet Mr. Thinley at the Bhutan Mission in New York City, he seems quite calm. “I’m not losing sleep,” he admits. Mr. Thinley, born in 1950, is wearing a Western suit. He studied in the U.S., and his English is so articulate that it borders on poetic.

Bhutan’s road to democracy was paved by the fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who decided that the country’s destiny should not be left to accidents of birth. Bhutan is now a constitutional monarchy, and its fifth king was coronated this month.

Many Bhutanese were initially squeamish about democracy. But the election, comprising of two parties with fairly similar agendas, was remarkably peaceful.

More:

Lessons in happiness for all the new kings on the block

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 10, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

Michael Simkins in The National:

An extraordinary event occurred in world politics last week. The world’s newest head of an independent democracy was carried to power in an event that nobody who witnessed it will ever forget.

Even the circumstances of his triumph were significant, in that it was greeted by almost universal acclaim throughout the nation, as well as delivering him a clear mandate for government. Better still, the successful candidate was in the prime of his manhood, vigorous, dashing, and unblemished by corruption or wizened by age. Hallelujah!

No, not Barack Obama. Sorry, you obviously lost me for a moment there. I’m talking about the coronation of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck as the new King of Bhutan.

More:

How to beat the financial blues, Bhutan style

AFP reports from Thimphu:

“It’s the materialism, who can make the bigger buck, overnight fast money that caused the problems,” said Phurb Dorji, a doctor who works in a Thimphu hospital and is a big fan of the official national philosophy.

“The whole world is going towards materialism, and the more they get the more they want. But they’re still not happy. They don’t need to copy us, but they should take a look at other ways.”

Bhutan has been pursuing GNH for the past few decades: it was conceived by the country’s last king, and the new monarch — 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who was crowned on Thursday — says it will remain a policy centrepiece.

More:

Bhutan: The power of spirituality, the will of the people

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 7, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

From Kuensel:

coronationIt was the ultimate empowerment of a Dharma King. In a ceremony, that was deeply spiritual, richly traditional, and shrouded in sacred mystical truths, His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the fifth hereditary King of Bhutan, received the Dar Na Nga on November 1, 2008.

The Dar Na Nga, an arrangement of silk scarves in the five primary colours, representing the five elements, is a direct empowerment from the Zhabdrung himself. The Dar Na Nga is preserved in the Machhen Chhorten, which holds the Kudung (physical relics) of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel. It is returned to the Machhen Lhakhang in a chipdrel procession after the empowerment ceremony of the Kings.

His Majesty received the same Dar Na-Nga, which was received by all the Monarchs of the Wangchuck dynasty – Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck, Jigme Wangchuck, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, and Jigme Singye Wangchuck. It is believed that the Dar Na-Nga was given by Jigme Namgyel to Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck.

More:

The world’s newest king

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 7, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

The coronation of Oxford-educated Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 28, as the fifth king of Bhutan marks the formal transition of power from his father who abdicated in 2006 in order to modernise his country of 635,000 people. The country’s first Parliamentary elections were held in March and the coronation on Thursday took place at an auspiciously ordained time.  Simon Denyar has the story in Reuters.

king

With mediaeval tradition and Buddhist spirituality, a 28-year-old with an Oxford education assumed the Raven Crown of Bhutan on Thursday, to guide the world’s newest democracy as it emerges into the modern world.

As the chief abbot chanted sacred sutras to grant him wisdom, compassion and vision, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was crowned Bhutan’s Fifth Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King, by his own father, who imposed democracy and then abdicated two years ago.

more

BBC News has more pictures here.

And, previously on AW:

Dragon on the wings of time

His majesty the Druk Gyalpo

First step towards democracy

Finally, read John Elliott’s blog on what the king of Bhutan told him about gross national happiness here.

His Majesty the Druk Gyalpo

Published
by
asianwindow
on October 31, 2008
in Bhutan
. 2 Comments

Bhutan will crown its fifth king, the 27-year-old Oxford-educated King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, on November 6. Jigme Khesar became king late in 2006 after his father, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated. The coronation was delayed because astrologers said 2007 was not an auspicious time for the young king to be crowned. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck established a parliamentary democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom with the monarch as head of state.

Kinley Dorji at Kuensel on what the coronation means:

It is the end – and the beginning – of history. On the morning of November 1, the third day of the ninth Bhutanese month, His Majesty the King will be empowered as the Druk Gyalpo in a unique and sacred empowerment ceremony, which symbolises his transcendence of the ordinary and the temporal and the personification of divine wisdom.

His Majesty will receive the Dar Na-Nga, a special arrangement of the primary colours that signify the five elements. The ceremony will take place in the Machhen Lhakhang, and the Dar Na-Nga will be symbolically conferred by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, in the presence of the fourth Druk Gyalpo, with the empowerment prayer chanted by His Holiness the Je Khenpo.

The white, yellow, red, green, and blue silk scarves represent the elements – water, earth, fire, wind, and space – the basis of physical existence, that His Majesty personifies, as well as the underlying energies from which the physical world arises.

More:

The world’s scariest runways

Published
by
asianwindow
on October 6, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

From CNN / Travel+Leisure

It’s 10:45 a.m. on a cloudy day, and the crew of Druk Air flight KB205 is preparing to land at their home airport of Paro, Bhutan. Suddenly, ominous warnings start blaring, alerting them that their flight angle is all wrong and their rate of descent is far too fast. They fly a series of unconventional right-and-left banks through a narrow channel of hillsides before centering the swaying jet and putting it on the tarmac.

An emergency situation? Not quite. In fact, this is a completely normal — however nail-biting — landing at Paro Airport, set 7,300 feet above sea level. Because of the airport’s tightly cropped valley, surrounded by 16,000-foot-high serrated Himalayan peaks, this drama replays itself on every flight.

Paro Airport, Bhutan

Who Flies There: Druk Air, the national carrier.

Why It’s Harrowing: Tucked into a tightly cropped valley and surrounded by 16,000-foot-high serrated Himalayan peaks, this is arguably the world’s most forbidding airport to fly into. It requires specially trained pilots to maneuver into this stomach-dropping aerie by employing visual flying rules and then approaching and landing through a narrow channel of vertiginous tree-covered hillsides.

More:

Losing the yeti in forgotten nation of Bhutan

Published
by
asianwindow
on August 10, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

Tim Sullivan of Associated Press reports from Signyar, Bhutan:

Sonam Dorji, right, relates a tale of his encounter with an Yeti at the remote village of Signyar in Bhutan. AP photo

Sonam Dorji, right, relates a tale of his encounter with an Yeti at the remote village of Signyar in Bhutan. AP photo

Times are rapidly changing as old beliefs yield to the modern ways of life. AP photo

A disco in Thimpu, Bhutan: Times are rapidly changing as old beliefs yield to the modern ways of life. AP photo

He remembers the darkness of the pine forest, and the footprints, and his terror when the creature began to howl. He remembers the stories of his childhood, of a beast that stalked the upper reaches of the mountains, and how fear spread through the village every time it was spotted.

In a remote Himalayan kingdom that held out against the modern world for as long as it could, the old man remembers a time when the yeti was a normal part of life.

“The creature has always been out there, and it’s out there still,” says Sonam Dorji, 77, sitting on the pockmarked wooden floor of his small farmhouse. It’s a cold Himalayan morning, and he warms himself beside a wood stove. The smell of burning pine fills the room. “If you travel the ancient trails, even today, there’s a good chance you’ll meet him.”

His son-in-law, listening to the old man’s stories, laughs dismissively from across the room.

Tshering Sithar is 39, a bulldozer operator helping pave the road to this village, which until recently could only be reached on foot.

“What is there to say?” he asks. “There’s nothing out there in the forest. Any educated person today knows this.”

More:

Ema: The fiery Bhutanese food

Published
by
asianwindow
on August 8, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

From Kuensel:

To most foreigners, chilli is something of a provocative oddity in the cuisine. What kind of vegetable makes a person break into a sweat and yelp and howl and gasp for relief, all at the same time? Or worse, makes you scoot to the loo right after consuming it. There is little room in mainstream cookery for food so potently flavoured and impolite, they protest.

To a Bhutanese, however, ema (chilli) enjoys an exalted culinary position. It isn’t just a food or a fad. It is the stuff of life. It is integral Bhutanese heritage and culture.

It’s not just the vegetable; it’s the taste. A bowl of black dhal or a cauliflower sabzi in a diner in India is likely to contain some chillies, and would be considered very hot by most people there. But that, as every Bhutanese who has studied in India would vouch, is piddling compared with the blistering fury of a highland Bhutanese chilli. But it is not raw heat that makes Bhutanese chillies distinctive. It is their incomparable sharp flavour, which some describe as succulent and earthy, with a clarity that seems to reflect the taste and smell of the skies and landscapes of Bhutan.

More:

Bhutan a big draw in US

Published
by
asianwindow
on July 3, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

The Bhutanese are in Washington, DC for the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival. Kinley Dorji reports in Kuensel:

As thousands of people crowded the Bhutan exhibition to look at a culture that was difficult for them to fathom, however, the Bhutanese participants were equally fascinated by the American people and their country.

“I can’t imagine, even after seeing them, that there are so many different types of people on this earth,” said a Bhutanese swordmaker, looking at the crowd of people of all shapes, sizes, and colours. And, in the heat of Washington’s notoriously hot and humid summer, the Bhutanese find the clothing and lack of clothing of the Americans equally astonishing.

Meanwhile, a Laya herder is still in a daze after the amazing 17-hour flight from Delhi which he found to be an ethereal experience. “I think this is how the deities live,” he said. “It’s so still up in the sky. And they bring you food and drink, serving it up to your chin. I chanted my prayers because I think they would have more merit up there.” He also watched every movie on the menu without understanding a word.

[Photo: His Royal Highness jamming with blues singer Texas Johnny Brown.]

More:

Postage from the edge

Published
by
asianwindow
on June 26, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan ranks high in philatelic firsts. From The Washington Post:

The first 3-D stamp. The first scented stamp. The first textured brushstroke stamp. The first bas-relief stamp. The first on metal. The first on silk. The first on extruded plastic. The first on a playable record. And now, according to its maker, the first stamp on a CD-ROM (though North Korea might have released one earlier).

“They probably have more firsts in the philatelic world than any country,” says Frances Todd Stewart, whose company sells Bhutan’s CD-ROM stamp and who is helping to represent the country at the 42nd Smithsonian Folklife Festival that began yesterday.

More:

An ancient sport bows, but doesn’t bend in Bhutan

Published
by
asianwindow
on May 5, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

Archery is the national sport in the Himalayan kingdom. Bamboo and reed have given way to fiberglass, but the passion hasn’t dimmed and the insults still fly. From the Chicago Tribune:

Dorji, a house painter with close-cropped black hair, draws his bowstring, hooks his thumb on his cheek and takes aim at what appears an impossible target: an 11-inch-wide slip of wood dug into the soil 460 feet away — deeper than center field.

He lets his finger slip and the arrow streaks down the field, raising a puff of dust when it hits the earthen bank just behind the target. He has missed.

“His wife keeps beating him! That’s why he’s getting weaker and weaker!” taunt his friends, gathered in a grove of willows along the rocky Pachu River. Dorji, 47, is accustomed to the insults that are a staple of archery in Bhutan, and just ignores them.

[Picture: Bhutanese Olympic archers Dorji Dolma, left, and her husband, Tashi Tshering, practice earlier this year in Thimpu, the capital.]

More:

In the Himalayas, a climate-change calamity builds

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 24, 2008
in Bhutan and environment
. 0 Comments

Glacial melting threatens disastrous floods in Bhutan, one of the world’s most environmentally vigilant nations. Henry Chu reports in Los Angeles Times:

Punakha, Bhutan: High in the Himalayas, above this peaceful valley where farmers till a patchwork of emerald-green fields, an icy lake fed by melting glaciers waits to become a “tsunami from the sky.”

The lake is swollen dangerously past normal levels, thanks to the global warming that is causing the glaciers to retreat at record speed. But no one knows when the tipping point will come and the lake can take no more, bursting its banks and sending torrents of water crashing into the valley below.

Such floods from above have hit Punakha before, most recently in 1994, a calamity that killed about two dozen people and wiped out livelihoods and homes without warning. But scientists say a new flood could unleash more than twice as much water and be far more catastrophic.

More:

In Bhutan, white scarves fly off the shelf

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 21, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

What does an election have to do with the sale of ceremonial white scarves (khadar)? Everything, apparently. Tashi Dendup of Kuensel Online has the story.

With the recent formal appointment of cabinet ministers and members of parliament, the khadar business has seen a boom. The popularity and usage of khadar has reached such a stage that shops in Thimphu have even begun to recycle them.

As you pass by the shops, you see notices pasted on their windows inviting you to purchase khadar at lower prices. A shopkeeper in the heart of town said that second hand khadars were brought to his establishment by folks they knew. “People don’t want to stockpile khadar after receiving them. Maybe it’s becoming a bit of a white elephant once its use is over,” the shopkeeper said.

more

Business in Bhutan: Financial forecasting mixed with karma

Published
by
asianwindow
on March 28, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

From The Globe And Mail:

Tshering Jamtsho uncoils the burgundy robe from around his chin and smiles as the first light of a Himalayan dawn streams through the casement chiselled into a stone-cold cell at the Pangrizampa Monastery.

Twigs crunch outside, a voice calls out from the dark and an apprentice enters the chamber gripping the “Mopai.” The ancient 250-page goatskin volume provides human calculators, called “tsips,” with intricate mathematical and astronomical formulas to compute a client’s fate and fortune before birth, during life and in the afterlife.

“I am one of the 40 calculators,” Mr. Jamtsho says over cups of the pungent yak-butter tea his predecessors began serving clients here in the Kingdom of Bhutan more than 1,500 years ago.

More:

What use is democracy to idyllic Bhutan?

Published
by
asianwindow
on March 23, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

William Dalrymple in The Telegraph, UK:

bhutanparliament.jpg

There could be no better illustration of the virtues of an enlightened monarchy than Bhutan. Even before your plane touches down amid the steeply tiered rice terraces of the Paro valley, you realise how different this idyllic country is from its Himalayan neighbours.

Instead of the urban concrete sprawl of Kathmandu and Simla – romantic names, but disappointingly shabby realities – you pass over green hillsides dotted with large white Tibetan-style farmhouses made of stone and wood, with intricately carved balconies and verandahs.

Instead of clouds of pollution rising from corrugated iron roofing, there are thin wraiths of cloud hanging above thick conifer slopes. Instead of bare, deforested hills with landslips and erosion, there are great ranges of mountains clad with virgin deodar forests.

[Photo: The timber seats of the new parliament building being built in Bhutan]

More:

Bhutan: First step towards democracy

Published
by
asianwindow
on March 22, 2008
in Bhutan
. 0 Comments

From Associated Press (via IHT):

bhutanking.jpg bhutancrownprince.jpg

Thimphu, Bhutan: The command came from the king, as commands normally do in a nation where royalty has ruled for a century. But when the Precious Ruler of the Dragon People spoke that day, he stunned this deeply isolated corner of the Himalayas: The age of monarchs is ending, he said, and power should be yours.

That was a little over two years ago. Now, on the eve of national elections Monday that will upend a system rooted in feudal monarchism, much of the country remains unconvinced there should even be a vote.

Just ask the candidates. “If you had a referendum, even today, Bhutan would reject democracy. That’s the ground reality,” said Khandu Wangchuk, the burly, gravel-voiced former foreign minister who is running for a seat in the western town of Paro. “But there’s no use wishing democracy away.”

What most people want is what they’ve always had: a powerful king.

[Photo: Bhutan's King and the Crown Prince]

More:

Smile census: Bhutan counts its blessings

In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Wonacott reports from Thimphu:

bhutandzong.jpg

GNH (Gross National Happiness) is about to face a series of big tests. On Monday, Bhutan will hold its first democratic election. That will install a parliament, pass a new constitution and dilute the powers of a popular monarch. Later this year, Bhutan plans to join the World Trade Organization, even though its industry comprises little more than high-end tourism and hydroelectric power.

As Bhutan enters these uncharted political and economic waters, its leaders want to prove that they can achieve economic growth while maintaining good governance, protecting the environment and preserving an ancient culture. To do that, they’ve decided to start calculating GNH. It means coming up with an actual happiness index that can be tracked over time.

[Photo: The Punakha dzong, one of Bhutan's most beautiful buildings]

More: