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| Drunk man |
Our
country, the Kingdom of Thunder Dragon is referred to as one of the richest
countries in the world in terms of cultures and traditions that are still
alive. The cultures and traditions that are passed from our ancestors or
grandparents are accepted as most valued ones. Our cultures and traditions are
different from rest of world and due to its uniqueness, the thousands and lakhs
of people from around the world visit to see how it is preserved until now. They
travel around the country where there is unique cultures and traditions that
are alive.
One
of the numerous cultures and traditions that are alive is our traditionally fermented
Ara.
Ever since, the live on the earth started, these traditions of brewing or fermenting
Ara
must have initiated, because our ancestors during those times must have used
alcohol to recreate their tiredness and exhaust. This is very unique cultures
which was existed since many centuries and is still alive in rural Bhutan. The
people in rural areas use such methods to ferment the alcohol for their family
consumption, which directly or indirectly preserves our culture and tradition
of fermenting alcohol. Today, the people in rural areas sell their fermented Ara
in the village and nearby towns. The beverage is usually a clear,
creamy, or white color.
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| Traditional method of fermenting alcohol |
Ara is the traditional wine or alcohol fermented in Bhutan. The
Bhutanese traditional fermented alcohol has to undergo various processes and
methodologies such as collection of materials, followed by boiling it and
adding of yeast to take reactions. Then it is stored in the air-tight container
for a month or more. Thereafter, one should undergo some few steps to ferment
it to make consumable. This is brewed using pot or cylindrical container. Add a
bowl full of Chang Aum (Nursery Wine) and water. The small container is
placed inside the cylindrical container using three sticks, with little amount
of water. The cylindrical container should be made air-tight with its lid and
also wrapped with piece of clothes. The final stage is we should add water in
the container on top of the cylindrical container and change it for four to
five times when water gets heated. Now, alcohol is ready for consumption.
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| Alcohol |
As
and when I visited the village in December, 2013, I asked one of the oldest men
on my way to village about locally fermented wines or alcohol. He shared why
they consume alcohol which is locally fermented. He shared his individual
thoughts that are interesting and also helpful to me. I talked with him or
several hours asking questions on other living cultures and traditions of the
village.
Here it goes:
We live in village;
we generate whatever we need within the village. We work hard for our family.
We start our work early in the morning and until late evening. As and when we
reach home we have to drink to recreate our tiredness and exhaust of doing hard
work for whole day. This has been our regular schedule for last many centuries.
We sometimes, drink in groups and sometimes individually. Before few years,
when we contribute labour to our neighbors, the owner has to serve us with
lunch and dinner along with enough alcohol. During lunch, we are served with
alcohol more than two to three cups. Moreover, an alcohol was served during
dinner time, there is no limit. The owners never feel dire for how much we
drink but rather they encourage us to drink as much as possible. This too has
been part of our culture.
Now system has been
changed after thorough discussion in the village level. We are served with
lunch with alcohol. In the evening we are served with Alcohol before departure
for respective homes. We used to take alcohol a cup or two and depart home for
dinner. The dinner for laborers was cancelled. As soon as we reach home, it is our
culture that we took a cup or more to recreate our tiredness and exhaust. I am
sure that this tradition of consuming alcohol will be alive forever as this
tradition is followed by our children too.
When we drink
alcohol, we never leave our daily works aside. We have keen interest in our
daily works and when completed our farming works, we join construction sites
and earn few thousands to support our school going children and meet daily need
at home. I will share my personal life being an alcoholic man. I used to drink
alcohol ever since I can remember. My late parents used to drink excessive
alcohol. Yet they were strong enough. They passed away at the age of 86 and 82.
Until they died, they were alcohol consumer. Me too, I am alcoholic and I will
be same hereafter. I drink a liter or more every day. My children working in
various places are advising me not to drink more. But I never listened to them.
I drink and I work hard where dosage of alcohol is minimized. I am 66 now and I
have been drinking for more than 57 years, yet I am free of diseases.
Today, the office
goers, school goers and others are drinking too much and died out of alcohol.
The reason is they never work hard. They travel in vehicles, sit on chair for
whole day, and eat less and so on. They do not have to sweat like us. This lead
to alcohol infected diseases and finally they die. If they drink and work hard,
the alcohol may not affect them anyways. This is difference between rural and
urban settlers. When I see news in BBS and from my friends on call who lives in
other parts of the country, I feel sad but when I work, I have no choice than
drinking alcohol.
Now I am becoming
older, so, I am feeling lazy to prepare alcohol. There is trouble in making and
fermenting alcohol. But with help from my wife, we always ferment twice a day and
we drink together. My children drinks a lot when they were young, but now due
to advocacy programs and other related advertisement, they stopped drinking and
advise us a lot.
Ap Thinley shared his views and story on alcohol.
When
people in rural areas are core consumer of locally brewed alcohol, the more people
are died out of alcohol in urban areas. When I asked about how much deaths in
villages are occurred out of alcoholism, he says that death is not caused by
alcohol rather its depends on our fate. “Death is already written on our
forehead, so we should not think that it is caused by alcohol. If person does
not consume alcohol, then for what you will blame the death of that particular
person.” He notified me with question.
From
medical point of view, the locally brewed alcohol is harmful to our health. The
alcohol is strong and alcohol content is 100 percent. Alcohol takes away the
life of consumers. Today, the people of any age, consumes alcohol for the various
reasons; some drinks it to overcome their frustration, some drinks for
pleasure, and so and so on. Once I visited hospital along with friends. There
we can see more numbers of patients are related to alcohol. Alcohol ruins the
life of many people in the world.
Smoking
is much debated issues in the country. Smoking too is not good for health and
import is strictly prohibited in the country. To my point of view, the alcohol
act should be drafted and advocacy programs in rural areas should be carried sooner
than later.
We
all know that there are uncountable negative effects of alcohol in human life.
The bars, restaurants, hotels and other places in the country are filled with
people of all ages to take pleasure of alcohol. They sit together and drink a
lot to make their life gratifying. The happiness out of alcohol is unacceptable
for me. Our country being Mahayana Buddhist country, it is not good consuming
alcohol every day and night. This should be taken measures to bring down or eliminate
from the country.
We
know that alcohol kills, but why people imports foreign wines and alcohols in to
the country. The alcohol ban program should be carried out in the country to
minimize alcohol related death in the country. I heard that people who drinks
alcohol creates problem in the society. The alcohol and related problems are
leading in the society today.
Due
to increase in alcohol consumption in the country, the imports of alcohol are
increasing. The huge amounts of cash are flowing out of the country which leads
to economic depreciation. The young people are died and many are admitted in
the hospital and health care centers owing to the alcohol related infections.
The car accident occurs because of drunk-drive. Many people lost their life to
accidents in various places across the country. The quarrel and struggle within
the families, friends and relatives are aroused. After consumption of alcohol,
the people feel as if they are on top of the world. They argue what other a
person speaks. Their egoistic feelings increases and then finally violence
against wife, children and neighbors are occurred.
Burglary,
robbery and theft problems are rising in the cities and towns. The several
unemployed youths are loitering in the town which led to alcohol consumption.
When they drink heavily and get addicted, they robe shops and other business
centers. This lead to social problems in the society; this is all due to
alcoholism.
གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གིས་
ཆང་ལ་འདོད་ཆགས་ཞེ་སྡང་གཏི་མུག་དང༔
ང་རྒྱལ་ཕྲག་དོག་ཉོན་མོངས་མ་ལུས་པ༔
སློང་བའི་རྒྱུ་རྐྱེན་འདི་ལ་ཚང་བ་ཡིན༔ དེ་ཕྱིར་ཆང་ནག་མ་འཐུང་ཞལ་གདམས་ཡིན༔
Rough
Translation
The lust or desire,
anger, ignorance, ego or pride, envy and hatred are all caused due to consumption
of alcohol. Therefore, never and ever drink alcohol. This is my advice for all.
