Smilling Cabbies have pathetic problems at home

This is Lungten Zampa (the Prophesied Bridge) where Lam Phajo Drugom Zhipo and Khando Sonam Pelki met. Today this bridge is most significant in the heart of capital city. Thousands of commuters use this bridge every day to travel across the country as the “Bus Terminal” that plies to every nook and corner of the country stands. The “Taxi Stand” is also located next to bus terminal where hundreds and thousands of people who take long journey congregate there and finally plies to any of the places.  

One interesting thing that we could notice there is the cabbies looking eagerly, walking here and there, shouting at people moving on bridge stating ‘Paro, Punakha, Wangdue, and other places’. Though it is interesting to me but sometimes it seems funny to hear such from old, middle and young aged Cabbies. 

As and when I reach the spot, one of the Cabbies hold my bag and asked me, “Where are you going, Paro?” It was eccentric for me but for them it’s their earning to make living. I answered, “Yes, I am going to Paro”. He took my bag and then loaded in his ‘Santro Cab’. There two men were waiting for other passengers. I was asked to sit there and wait for just five minutes politely. 

I agreed with his words and waited for last passenger to come, but it has been more than 10 minutes. Though, I don’t mind waiting even more, yet other passengers were just cursing cabbie for letting them wait for quite long. It was hot sunny. It had been more than 20 minutes waiting in hot sun. But my two friends were waiting for more than half an hour. No matter what, I just wait in the cab. 

Finally, Cabbie walks with great smiles where I was waiting. He carries a big bag. Following him a man was walking tirelessly. However, cabbie managed car full of passenger. We travelled to Paro gossiping about how hard cabbies to get passenger. He apologize us for keep waiting in hot sun. 

Back home, Cabbie says his family thinks that driving cab is easiest job, but isn’t. “I have been driving Cab for last 19 years after I resigned from civil service. I drive cab intending to make living and supporting my school going children,” shared Cabbie adding that he was working hard every day and almost half of the night. I then asked him how many children he has. His answer was quite uneasy. “I have 4 children, out of which 3 were daughter and a son. I have to support them with all sorts of facilities and fashionable clothes, forget about food and shelter. They never think of how hard I am to earn,” he said. 

His told us that his eldest daughter is studying in India on private funding; second eldest is son who is pursuing higher studies in private school in Paro. His two younger daughters are in classes 10 and 8 respectively. His wife earns nothing as she is chronic patient. 

However, on reaching Paro, he happily collects Nu. 200 from each of us which are rate every cabbies charge. He is cool and frank or straightforward. Nothing is easy to lead happy life. There are hundreds and thousands of Cabbies in the country who all work to earn something and make their living back at home. 

We could see how happy Cabbies are, but they have problems at home and even personal problems. However, they lead life not exactly extraordinary, but normal or ordinary.

A mix of tradition with modernity

Our culture is profoundly unique and beautiful. This is purely based on the tradition that inherited from our forefathers. The same tradition should be inbred to our young generations in the same manner. The houses are the most appreciated indicating the paramount importance of tradition while constructing houses.

The September 4, Kuensel issue had an exciting headline for one of the articles that was titled, ‘Towards purely Bhutanese buildings’. It states that MoWHS is drafting guideline. This is good to hear, as until now people did not follow the guideline that was drafted a decade ago. Will people follow the new guideline? I am not sure.

Thimphu is the capital city. Thousands of people from all parts of the country reside here. Next to Thimphu is Paro where we have International Airport.

Thousands of tourists visit the country every year. Now the fact is, the houses built in these two towns are fully modern and traditional aspect is almost missing. Nearly, 70 percent of the houses are modern and only 15 percent is traditional and 15 percent a mix of tradition and modern architecture. This is how our tradition losing its value.

For instance, in Thimphu houses exhibiting modern architectural designs are covered with glass, no traditional designs are incorporated but isn’t any action taken against it. There is a need for guidelines to be implemented strictly than keeping lenient. This would help preserve our tradition and pass on to our young ones.

Some houses along the Norzin Lam and Changlam are fully traditional in their appearance. With modernization, it is good to be equipped with modern facilities, which are acceptable in the society. These houses are preserved for a good cause. People who own these houses earns lesser than modern building owners.

In concrete buildings, the architectural design can be traditional like RMA office building as shown in article. If government agencies and other organizations or Private homes were built incorporating traditional methods, they look good and help preserve our traditional architecture. However, I am sure that the new guideline would work well and people would implement it wisely.

Go to Trashi Yangtse, 90 percent of the houses are in traditional structures. The houses look like altar (Choesham). This is why Trashi Yangtse town is said to be one of the beautiful towns in the country. However, in future there are chances of altering it with modernity.

Therefore, ‘Traditional Bhutanese architecture guideline’ is need for good cause.

Happy Birthday to H.E. Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche

Long live His Holiness

Birth Anniversary of Kyabjee Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche

འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཉིནབྱེད་ཐུགས་ལ་ཤར། །ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས། །

མཁས་བཙུན་བཟང་པོའི་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་འཛིན། །ཞབས་བརྟན་བཞེད་དོན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག །

Happy Birthday, Rinpoche

On the auspicious occasion of the 49^th Birth Anniversary of Kyabjee Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche, I wish His Holiness the very Happy Birthday. We the followers bestowed with Rinpoche’s empowerment, always enjoy the happy and prosperous life. May Rinpoche live long life and bless us with your intimate and unselfish intelligence to attain nirvana. We wish Kyabje Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

H.E. Kyabje Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche

Prayer flags

Prayer Flags near Taktshang Monastery, Paro

On top the hills, down in the valleys, in and around the villages, along the roads and footpaths, around the temples and chortens, across the rivers, the prayer flags are mounted. There are many different types of prayer flags which have different significances according to its efficacy.

Prayer flags in Tongzhang gewog, Trashi Yangtse

From religious point of view, the prayer flags are imperative for all of us to install for the purification of current sins and mischief and clear the path of after-death life. There are many different philosophies for mounting prayer flags such as to facilitate the dead person, to purify our sins and intensify our fortune, etc. There are also many traditions to mount it. The people usually cut down trees or bamboos and add Reldi and Khorlo and mount on it; some hang on the rope and tie it tightly on both the sides over the valleys and on top of the hills.

Near Taktshang

Night view of Prayer flags in Tongzhang, Trashi Yangtse

Prayer flags are hoisted along the farm road, Tongzhang

Near Taktshang Monastery

The picture is how prayer flags are mounting in my village. This is traditional ways of mounting it but now it is in the verge of extermination. If young blood like us does not have bottomless attachment to our culture and traditions, it will one day exterminate and can see articles written in books.