ས་ག་ཟླ་བའི་དུས་ཆེན། Saga Dawai Duechen

Lord Buddha

༉ ལོ་བསྟར་བཞུན་དུ་འབྲུག་ཟླ་བཞི་པ་འདི་ ས་ག་ཟླ་བའི་དུས་ཆེན་ཟེར་བརྩི་སྲུང་ཞུ་སྲོལ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན། དུས་ཆེན་ལྔ་འཛོམས་སྦེ་བརྩི་སྲུང་ཞུ་མི་འདི་ཡང་ རང་ཟླ་༤པའི་ཚེས་༡༥ ལུ་ལྷུམས་སུ་བཞུགས་པ་ སྐུ་བལྟམས་པ་ བདུད་བཏུལ་བ་ སངས་རྒྱས་པ་ མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་དང་ དུས་ཆེན་ལྔ་འཛོམས་སྦེ་བརྩིཝ་ཨིན།

Endlish Translation below:

In the 15^th Day of 4^th the month of Bhutanese calendar is said to be auspicious days, apart from 4^th month being Saga Dawai Duechen. It is the day of Buddha’s Parinirvana on which, Buddha was conceived, born, subdued evil, gained enlightenment and attained Nirvana. 

Happy Buddha Day!!!

Still there: the PRELIMS for University Graduate

Graduates waiting for Preliminary Exam paper

‘Do away with preliminary examination’ is one of the much expected pledges made by People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which formed the government after landslide victory, during the campaign. It has then become much debated issues within parents, relatives and mostly within the graduates. The thousands of university graduate students are eagerly waiting for the same. The great expectations generated within the groups. The contentment out of pledges of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ was one where every graduate are waiting for so long.

Indeed, I am aware that in the democracy, the pledges made by parties are partially fulfilled. In many democratic countries in the world, the pledges are made in two categories. This time in our country, the pledges are made in two categories viz. 100 day pledges and pledges for the entire tenure. The ‘Doing away with preliminary examination’ falls under the 100 day pledges. This should be fulfilled within first 100 days as they pledged. Our nationwide general election was conducted on July, 13, 2013. The preliminary examination for graduates was conducted on 11^th August, 2013, after few weeks of new government came to the power. The new government could not do anything else owing to the shortage of the time.

No matter what, but government says that they will do away next year. They worked jointly with Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) regarding eliminating preliminary examination. In Kuensel issue of November 13^th, 2013, it was listed in “Partially fulfilled” pledges. “Lyonchhen said the last preliminary examination was held soon after the government took office, which was why it was unable to fulfill the pledge of doing away with it. He said they were, however, working it with the commission.” Kuensel reported.

When pledge of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ was unable fulfilled last year, they will fulfill this time? This is a question that all the graduates were having in mind before November, 2013. “The ball is in RCSC’s court, but this is something we’ll discuss with RCSC,” Lyonchen was quoted in November issue Kuensel. “We believe this serves no purpose; but we’re willing to ensure that RCSC has access to enough funds to do proper examination for all the graduates; but if we can’t reach an agreement, then we might have to change certain laws also.”

There were issues that Main Examination need huge amount of money. To reduce expenditure, RCSC conducts Preliminary Examination, is it true? To do away with preliminary examination for graduates, there is need of more funds to conduct main examination? The need of funds is baseless, but rather the Civil Service Act of Bhutan (CSAB), 2010 and Bhutan Civil Service rules and regulations (BCSRR), 2012 should be amended. When preliminary examination is depicted in the laws, there is no way to change it by few people; there is no authority for the cabinet to remove it from the list. This should undergo various processes in the parliament to amend the laws.

The opposition, Druk Phuensum Tshogpa’s (DPT’s), North Thimphu MP cited an example that doing away with preliminary examination, he said “RCSC schedule and election schedule were in existence, and using the justification that the exam was conducted right after the government came to the power was baseless.” The pledges were one of the main controversies in the society after the news of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ was listed in ‘partially fulfilled’ pledges by government in Medias.

The government has fulfilled some pledges within 100 days and some are still waiting to be fulfilled. Some pledges need more than years to get it fulfilled. However, pledges are important factors of winning the election, so we wish our government will soon fulfill it. The people in rural areas are waiting other full-tenure pledges to see in their villages almost immediately.

Currently, the parliament is in the process. During question-answer session of the parliament on Tuesday, 10^th June, Pangbang MP questioned government about what is status of the pledge of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’. In answer to that, Labour and Human Resource Minister firmly states that they have respect for the institution and they talked about it. Now government is asking RCSC to conduct different exams for different university graduates. Hope this will come true as the light path to all the graduates. We are waiting for this to come true.

It is only two months to conduct preliminary examinations, if the schedule for the examination is on same date, i.e. 11^th August. Now there is no time to stay stagnant or sluggish, as this change should be made before Commission prepares for the prelims. Did RCSC agree to conduct different exams for different subjects? If so, for example, what kind of exam papers will Bachelor’s of Arts graduates have to appear? Now it is high time for all the graduates be informed for better performance in the exam. We are hoping for the notification to see soon airing in BBS or other print Medias.

Graduates after Preliminary Exam in worried mood

Our expectations:

We have collective expectations from the government to ‘Do away with preliminary examination’. All the graduates waited for long time to hear or see the news of ‘No preliminary examination for university graduates’ which does not come true. It shows that one of the very important pledges made by government is not fulfilled yet. Whenever, I walk street along with my friends,  and being one of the unemployed university graduates in the town, I could see that people around watching Tuesday and Friday question-answer session intending to know how far government’s pledge of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ is fulfilled. It was devastating news for us but still we the graduates have faith in our government as they find a solution to conduct different exams for different university graduates.

We are alarmed by the news when labour Minister answered the question put forward by Pangbang MP. The news flourished all over the country and even to the ears of soon going to graduates in India and other parts of the world through friends and families via different means of Medias.

Why Government can't do away with prelims?

As I mentioned in above lines quoting North Thimphu MP, the RCSC is autonomous constitutional body which have supreme power within themselves to enforce the power. Though, they are funded by government but play a role as autonomous body. The RCSC is headed by Chairman and Commissioners directly appointed by the His Majesty the King. They function as autonomous agent under the direct leadership of His Majesty the King.

RCSC has their Act named Civil Service Act of Bhutan (CSAB), 2010 and Bhutan Civil Service Rules and Regulations (BCSRR), 2012, which were passed by parliament which has clause of preliminary examination for university graduates. There is the CHAPTER 7: BHUTAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES is restricting government to do away with preliminary examination. There are many clauses that restrict too. Read the following clauses from BCSRR-2012, for the government’s failure or main restriction to do away with preliminary examination:

7.3. Examination

7.3.1. The BCSE shall consist of the following two stages of examination:

7.3.1.1. Stage I: Preliminary Examination (PE); and

7.3.1.2. Stage II: Main Examination (ME).

7.3.2. Preliminary Examination (PE)

7.3.2.1. The objective of PE shall be to short-list candidates for the             ME and ensure minimum standard required of a candidate.

7.3.2.2. A candidate shall be permitted to appear PE up to a maximum of three attempts only.

7.3.2.3. PE Papers shall be common to all categories of graduates.

7.3.2.4. PE shall be objective type questions to test English and Dzongkha communication skills, logic and analytical, problem solving and data interpretation abilities of the candidates.

7.3.2.5. Only those candidates who achieve the minimum cut off marks as decided by the RCSC, shall be eligible to sit for the ME; and

7.3.2.6. Marks obtained in the PE shall not be carried forward to the ME and shall be valid only for that particular year/examination.

I am aware of the Civil Service Act of Bhutan (CSAB), 2010 and Bhutan Civil Service rules and regulations (BCSRR), 2012 and I read it thoroughly, but I am sure that some of graduates are still vague. It is for surety that government would be not able to go against the CSAB and BCSRR. Still today, the government didn’t make it clear for the public whether it is done away or not or will have chance to appear different questions for different graduates as per the subjects we studied. Before getting late, the government should announce for the interest of all the graduates, who all are waiting for numerous months.

The preliminary examination for graduates was first conducted in 2010 after the amendment of the Civil Service Act of Bhutan. The thousands of university graduates appeared and more than half who appeared were eliminated. Now it has been forth times the preliminary exam was conducted by RCSC in objective to short-list candidates for the Main Examination and ensure minimum standard required of a candidate.

When government says they will discuss with RCSC to change the format of the questions according to the subjects that students studied. The Labour and Human Resource Minister say in the parliament that prelims will have different questions for different graduates. Will these words be fulfilled as they said? In the BCSRR clause -7.3.2.3 it is mentioned that “Preliminary Examination Papers shall be common to all categories of graduates.” If the government wants to change the format of the questions, this clause should be eliminated from BCSRR. So, therefore, I personally feel the words government aired would be baseless. There are many things to be changed in BCSRR clauses to eliminate preliminary examination for the graduates. This is not an easy task to eliminate preliminary examination when CSAB and BCSRR are active.

There are many categories of graduates viz. degree, diploma, certificates, etc. In degree there are many types of degrees such as Bachelor’s of Education, General Degrees (Bachelor’s of Arts, Business Administration, Commerce, etc.), Technical Degrees (Engineering, Laws, Medicine, etc.) and many more. When General, Technical and any other related degree graduates are scrutinize for two stages, the Preliminary Examinations and Main Examinations. But why Bachelor’s of Education and Diploma and certificates have different recruitment policy? Be it general, technical, B.Ed., diplomas, certificates, and others are under same umbrella, the BCSRR. When recruitment policy in RCSC is different, I personally feel the CSAB and BCSRR should be amended to make recruitment policy same for all. The government’s policy of “Equity and Justice” would be fulfilled.

Ara -the traditional alcohol of Bhutan

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

WATER -the source of Happiness

Beautiful Waterfall in Bhutan

“Water covers two-thirds of the surface of the Earth, but Fresh water is 0.002% on Earth”

Bhutan - our motherland is located in the heart of eastern Himalayas. Our country shares its international boundaries with China in the North and India in the East, West and South. We all know that our 38,983 square kilometer land is naturally divided into mountainous terrain and some very lesser amount of plains in the south. Despite being rich in culture and traditions, our country is rich with more than 70.46 percent of forest covered land, surrounded by lands from all the sides of the country. Our country is sometimes called as rich cultural and traditions and birth place of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which states environment as one of the four pillars. The Environment includes water bodies of the world. So, water is very important parts of the country.

Our motherland, the land of thunder dragon being landlocked and mountainous topography, and moreover, some 70.46 percent of the land is covered with forested areas, water sources in the country is available throughout the country. This is how ‘we’ Bhutanese people enjoy the tremendous peace and happiness in everyone’s life on the earth. The rivers flow from high altitudes to the low altitudes throughout the year. The stream, springs, rivers, tributaries, and lakes are the main sources of water supply in the country. Wherever we stay and move, we are surrounded by waters. We could get fresh and clean water everywhere. This is the natural gifts for the people of Bhutan.

Punakha Dzong Suddrounded by rivers

The rivers flow from the top of the mountains to the plains in the south through various hills and gorges. The rivers are originated from the glaciers, streams, and springs and sometimes out of melting of the snow and glaciers on the mountains, and many more. The spring and stream water that comes out from the soil naturally have high potential of mineral contents and its said to be good for health. There are uncountable mineral waters, hot springs and other water sources in the country.

Today, the country like ours is under developing stage. The developmental activities such as construction of roads, schools, houses, hydroelectric projects, industries, etc. are in the process. Such construction works are carried on in forested areas and also in farmlands. The thousand acres of land are used for above purposes. The trees in that particular area are cut down without hesitation. This may lead to decrease forest covered area drastically. When the numbers of trees are reduced, the stream and spring water sources would dry up. Industries are situating in the country, the industrial wastes such as harm gases are emit in the air, harmful liquids in the water, and in open area. These would have negative impacts on environment which force to water pollution, in which water sources are being lessened. The drinkable waters are becoming undrinkable today.

In the scenarios of the world’s water bodies, only 3 percent of the water on the earth surface is fresh and drinkable. The 97 percent of the water on earth’s surface is salty. The salty water is not good for our health. The 3 percent of the fresh water is shared amongst the billions of world’s population. Coming to Bhutan, the waters in our country is useable. Some spring water contains enough amounts of minerals that are good for human health. We, the Bhutanese people does not have water shortage problem as of now. But things are changing with development activities are underway. Water shortage will soon hit the cities and towns. Out of many small towns in the country will soon face water problem. Our capital city, now facing water shortage problems and even other towns in the country; this is negative effect of the climate change.

Scarcity of Water

For example, Thimphu is our capital city; before few decades, the buildings in the city were sparsely erected. The lesser people were lived there. The fresh and clean water was supplied in every household for 24 hours a day. Today, the houses are already crowded; population is increasing every now and then. Due to crowded and congested area, more construction works carried in the area, the water sources already dried up, which was connected to Thimphu city. Now the scenario has changed. The water supplied for 24 hours a day has changed to few hours a day. This is happens due to the climate change over recent years or the past.

The situation of the country of being available fresh and clean water sources is in the process altering. Every dzongkhag have towns, where thousands of people settled together for various purposes. The water supply has become scarcer than before. There are many rivers flowing in the valleys which have become unusable, because the waste drains from the houses are drained out in the rivers. If this is the case, how we can conserve water for our younger generations? Will our young generations get same fresh and clean water?

Until now, water in our country has been sources of happiness for all the individuals. Compare our country with our neighbor friend, India. I met a young boy who was on the way to Thimphu from Tamil Nadu. He was excited to be back in the country, he shares his story as and when I asked him. Here it goes; “In early September, I travelled to Vellore, India for further treatment. I stayed there for few weeks. It was sophisticated to stay there, because of unavailability of fresh and clean water for drinking purposes, forget about taking bath and all. We had to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes. To take bath and wash clothes, we had use tap water that’s muddy and dirty. These were the water problems or scarcity of water in India. Back to Bhutan, as soon as I reached Phuentsholing, I could experience or see fresh and clean water. This is difference between our country and our neighbor country”.

Due to climate change taking place in the country and in world as a whole, the water is getting scarcer and scarcer yearly. This problem is rising because, the people in the world today use greenhouse to plant crops and vegetables. The greenhouse has positive impacts but also has negative impacts, which lead to the climate change that directly affect our water sources. Industrialization is one of the reasons for water becoming scarcer. For the industries to be set up, large amount of land is needed. The land is being cleared up and construction starts on thereafter. Though, growths of industries are good for the country from economy point of view, it help grow country’s economy, but it undoubtedly affects the sources of the water. Human-activities such as use of vehicles, shifting cultivation, forest fires, etc. also harm environment and lead to scarcer of the water.

With this our water sources that I mentioned in above paragraphs would dry up. The sources would be lessened. Streams and springs water will one day go nowhere. Our country’s situation would be poor in water sources.

Water Mill

In the recent past, in our country, the forest fires damaged thousand acres of forest in eastern Bhutan which also gutted more than thirty five houses to the ground. If such continues in our country, the forested areas will be lessened and this will lead to lessen the water sources. When water sources become lesser, it will have adverse effect on the citizen of the country at large. The people living in huge group have to fetch water from various sources. The fetching water from various sources will cost huge amount of money which bring down economy of the family and country at large.

Therefore, I urge myself and my fellow country mate men and women, boys and girls, teachers and students, business men and women, high level personalities and dignitaries, and many more to be very cautious to fight against climate to keep our water sources available for the younger generations to come sooner than later. We all should work hand in hand to conserve environment from where our waters are originated. The few factors, which affect the water sources, are deforestation, global warming, soil erosion, forest fires, etc. which we should combat it jointly.

“A drop of water is worth more than a sack of gold to a thirsty man”