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.

National Dresses –less concerned in the Schools

Bhutanese National Dress (Ladies attires)

Bhutan, the Land of Thunder Dragon is our motherland. It is landlocked and small nation located between two giants –China in the north and India in the south in Asian region is rich in cultures and traditions that are exceptionally unique from rest of the world. Our country gained name and fame all over the world owing to its extraordinary cultures and traditions that are preserved for last numerous centuries. To preserve and promote our cultures and traditions, it is concern and fundamental duties for all the Bhutanese individuals. Moreover, the schools in the country are vital place to preserve and promote it, keep it alive and enhance importance of the National dresses. The teachers in the schools impart comprehensive knowledge on how good and unique our culture is, but still something is missing in the schools all over the country. What is that missing part in the schools?

The school plays an important role to create awareness in the public regarding our true cultures, traditions, etiquettes, manners, personal conducts, etc. Though, teachers taught good things to their school children since inception of modern education system and schooling system in the country. In the recent past, the schools are said to be best place to learn good things. Today, the school administrations and the teachers in the schools say preserving and promoting our traditional songs -Zhungdra and Boedra for our upcoming younger generations are significant one. Indeed, preserving and promoting our traditional songs is good task, but they sometimes forget to preserve and promote our national dresses. The national dresses are equally important for us. Owing to unique national dresses, our country is recognized and become reputed in the world. The school children in the country are wearing suite –Pant and Shirt during school hours. They are allowed to attend the classes wearing suites. Forget about attending classes, but also attends morning assembly wearing suites. It is good for our country? The school administration and the teachers should not allow students to wear dresses like pant and shirt in the schools. The schools should set ‘preservation and promotion of our national dresses -gho and kira’ as priority in the schools.

The schools are bounded by Education Act and Rules and Regulations of Education Ministry. The schools should follow it strictly to keep rule of law active. The schools in Thimphu, Paro, Chukha and other districts, already introduced suites (Pant and Shirt) during school hours. Why do schools introduce suites? Why do they implement it? Is Ministry of Education too lenient or fail to execute rules and regulations? Or the schools are taking advantage of ministry? These questions are generated within the people like me and others. I have been always observing such changes within very few years. It is my concern for the country and its cultures and traditions that are well preserved and passed down to us by our great, great grandparents. When our ancestors could preserve it and passed on to us, why do we can’t? This shows that, the younger generations like us, are not willing to accept our cultures and traditions that are preserved for many centuries. It is our fundamental duties to preserve and promote it and also educate our upcoming younger generations regarding our authentic cultures and traditions.

Young school students in suites

When schools are considered as place to learn new things, which will be helpful and good for our young generation’s future, it is feasible to implement suites in the schools? I, personally feel it’s not good at all. Ministry should glance from pinnacle to the ground, what is happening and what had already happened. The schools should be instructed or ordered or notified stating that the schools are ‘Not allowed to use suites and other related non-Bhutanese attires’. The values of our national dresses are going beyond our reach. For example, have a glance to Our Beloved His Majesty the Kings and Queens. They always wear our beautifully designed Bhutanese attires. Why do they wear? This is because our dresses are unique and also comfortable to wear it. I noticed the people in the streets are in pants, half-pants, skirts with T-Shirts, and other foreign designed shirts, except few wearing Gho and Kira. This is saddest part as being Bhutan born future citizen. I am saddened because the people ignoring our exceptionally unique national dresses which are comfortable to wear; presentable and well designed. Today, it’s in the verge of vanishing and will vanish if we do not value it.

Some says that schools use suites only during weekends when they engage in cleaning in the school campus. Now think our parents or farmers in the villages, they are using Gho and Kira while they were working in the fields. They felt comfortable in our national dresses. The cleaning school campus is done only once a week. Before few years, when I was in the school, I did the same. I had to clean school campus, but I could do it in our school dresses. I never had time to change because I was day scholar. When the students in the past could do social work in school dresses, why can’t today? This shows that the teachers and the students are least interested in our national dresses. What comes from their mouth and what they put in practical is contradictory.

Every pros and cons should be judged from every perspective. Good things should not let it vanish, rather try to bring up; preserve it and promote it. The dresses can be seen by every visitor who visits the country. If students are found in suites, they will get bad impressions regarding dresses. The visitors visiting our country are eager to see our national dresses and the other Bhutanese attires. They invest huge amount of money to come to our country. They read books regarding our cultures and traditions, but when they reach in the country, what they read is reverse, what do they felt for our country? These things should have kept in mind before introducing suites in the schools.

Foreigner in complete Bhutanese attires

Foreigner in Bhutanese attires

The tourists from around the world visit our country to see our national dresses. They pay attentions to our dresses. Some visitors wear our dresses paying huge amount of money, but why not we. So, when the people of different tribes pay attention to our national dress, there is no concrete reason for the schools introducing suites and the students wearing suites. The issue wasn’t raised by anyone in the past, except Dzongkhag Tshoogdu in Tsirang implemented compulsory national dress in Damphu town which failed. Before decades, in Thimphu, the strict rule was implemented and finally it failed too. There is Ministry of Home and Culture Affairs and Department of Culture in the country. The roles and responsibilities of MoHCA and DoC are left behind when it comes to national dresses. MoHCA is doing good job in renovating dzongs, temples, and other religious sites because it is our culture and traditions passed by our ancestors to us. Think that, Dzongs and temples are constructed by the people of ancient times (our great, great grandparents). The people who constructed dzongs and temples that time were not naked. They wore Gho and Kira. So, the meaning here is that, our Gho and Kira or Bhutanese attires are existed since inception of the live on the earth.

Young Bhutanese in western dresses

The Gross National Happiness (GNH) was born in our country and has four main pillars. One of the pillars of the GNH is Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Traditions. The pillars are set to keep our cultures and traditions alive as long as we live and pass to our younger generations. The GNH is developmental philosophy that was initiated by His Majesty the Fourth Dragon King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck aiming to create awareness for the future generations and our developmental activities to carry out along with GNH and its pillars. Coming to the point, when the schools and the students allowed wearing suites during school hours, I am sure, that particular school(s) is/are going against the pillars of the GNH.

The people can talk about GNH but can’t follow it. The country’s developmental activities are carried based on GNH and its pillars and domains. With this, in our country, we can see many developmental activities are taking place based on GHN. However, it is stressful being Bhutanese when our national dresses are in the verge of vanishing.

Bhutanese youth in pants and shirts

Our cultures and traditions are our main pillar of the country. So, therefore, preserve it, promote it and enhance information on its importance. This is our true culture and tradition.