Dzongkha readers now have three newspapers to choose from. The third newspaper was launched by the Secretary of the Dzongkha Development Commission, Dasho Sherab Gyeltshen on Sunday.
The Druk Gyalyong Sharshok, a weekly, will be available every Sunday.
An editor from the newspaper said the paper will help increase readership and help promote the national language.
Bhutan may not have to import coffee for long. We may soon be able to grow and produce our own coffee. It is possible. In fact, it is already being done in Hangey village in Samtse.
A few years ago, a few farmers here started cultivating coffee on trial basis. The trail was a success. The area, they have found, is favourable for coffee cultivation. Now a business firm is already planning on starting a plantation.
Deo Dikshit, the consultant, said “we grew different varieties of Arabica. It is the best coffee in the world.”
The firm will grow coffee in Hangay Kalamati and Sasboty in Sibsu on 300 acres of land leased from the government. It will soon be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture to start commercial production on a public private partnership.
“We are hoping to start by May or June, as soon as we complete all the formalities.”
It takes about four years for the coffee plants to start bearing fruit. The firm also plans to set up a production factory and export the coffee abroad.
“We hope to export to Europe, North America, Japan, Singapore and other coffee consuming countries and create a brand name for Bhutan,” said Deo Dikshit.
The firm has employed 16 farmers to work on the nursery. It plans to employ more once work on the plantation begins.
In a way, we have succeeded in ‘customising’ the religion to suit our own existence. When Buddhism actually requires us to remain aloof from worldly desires, we tend to use (or misuse) it to reach to those desires. We have become selfish to the extent that we are not even willing to accept what divine providence has to say about us through the numbers on the dice. We roll and reroll it, until the number that lands on the top of it is interpreted in our favour.
As Buddhists, it is challenging to clear one’s way out of the contradiction involving contentment and selflessness on the one hand, and the fervour with which we observe the rites and rituals with a rather strong material objective on the other. Our religious beliefs may be sacrosanct, but challenges such as these do haunt and fluster the ever inquisitive Buddhist minds, who try to make Buddhism relevant in their lives.
Buddhism and GNH appear like peas in a pod, at least in the way we have come to develop our understanding, expectation and the practice of it. Of course, associating the great vehicle of compassion with a development philosophy would be inapt, as the latter pales in comparison to the former by many measures. It nonetheless provides an opportunity to show how GNH too could have been possibly corrupted by the same people, who have corrupted Buddhism.
We are adamant in simplifying the great philosophy into something as narrow as individual happiness, and see it as a pair of hands that feeds and clothes every individual. Such association of the powerful concept with individual happiness only goes to show how it has become corrupt.
How could Bhutan ensure individual happiness, when rich nations like the US and Japan could not? We would be only chasing rainbows in trying to deliver happiness to every individual. It will never be achieved no matter how hard we try, for there is no limit to people’s desire for happiness. When it is in our culture to maintain the lifestyle of the rich, while our bank account might be suffering, how do we sustain such happiness? We have advocates of happiness for the masses, who slam GNH as being “ineffective”. But what is missing in their action is the will to nip something in the bud that will get them to their first base - corruption. There is so much in the rhetoric, but almost nothing in what can actually help achieve what they are advocating and championing. Perhaps the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
There is no denying that GNH represents a basic covenant between a nation and its people. But to say that that is the be-all and end-all in our grand scheme of things is debasing the powerful concept. We have to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth, if we believe the Buddha nature in us is still not corrupt. There are those, who chafe under the popular version of the GNH philosophy, wringing their hands to see that the concept be given the due respect and regard it deserves by the Bhutanese themselves first for what it is. We ought to understand that GNH is a common vision for our planet and its well-being. We ought to understand that it is about how we figure in the invisible cost of development in our calculations. We ought to understand that it is about assigning value to everything that is around us. That is why it is quite uncommon to be hit by a pang of realisation that perhaps we might have completely missed the wood for the trees.
But it is not that we do not know about it. We simply do not want to know about it. Sadly, there is a broad public apathy about what GNH is capable of. We want Gyalwong Gakid Pelzom to be dancing right in the middle of our living room. We are in pursuit of our own individual happiness. We have failed to recognise that GNH has come to symbolise the indefatigable spirit of a selfless King in pursuit of a fundamental change in the way we approach advancement into the future. And he needs our support to give it shape. But we are like ships that pass in the night when it comes to working together on GNH and providing him that support. Consequently, we still do not have a basic agreement on what constitutes GNH for us as Bhutanese. It might seem like a red rag to a bull, but it stands to reason that a people that have only their individual happiness in mind will never appreciate the greatness of the profound concept. That way, we are all perhaps complicit in debasing a great vision.
We simply write off GNH as an abstract philosophy and a utopian quest. Buddhism too is an abstract philosophy, and it does not even have an index to measure how enlightened one is. Yet, it has worked and accepted the world over, for and by those, who understood what it truly is, and who have not succumbed to self-serving impulses. How we give GNH the right kind of support depends on how we understand it and appreciate its potential. We cannot afford to have a seven-year itch, for GNH is our conviction. And it has to be the best. But we cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Everybody needs to pitch in with their best. For now, the real concern is that GNH is being corrupted faster than Buddhism. While it took about 2,500 years for the latter to get corrupted, the former took just 40 years. At this rate, we seem to be fighting a rearguard action against the forces from within our backyard. This, coupled with our relentless pursuit of trying to “extract” happiness out of GNH, we will have only ourselves later to blame for stifling the great philosophy to a mere shadow of what the thinker has originally envisioned, and have it sacrificed on the altar of individual happiness.
Source: Kuenselonline
Fifty two Universities from India, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and the United States of America are participating in the fair, offering a wide range of courses.
Organised by the Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with A Fair Exhibition Media, an Indian company, the fair is attracting a large number of students and parents looking for universities and colleges to enroll in. Most of the visitors are from Thimphu and the neighbouring districts but many have come from as far as Trashigang or Trashiyangtse.
Karsang Ugyen had come all the way from Trashiyangtse, travelling by bus for three days to the capital, to attend the fair. He secured 59 percent in the class XII examinations. There is no way he will qualify for admission in a government college. His only option is to pursue further studies at his own expense. That means looking for a college in India or elsewhere.
Ugyen did not come alone. He came with a group of friends, all looking for an affordable college.
The fair is a good opportunity for them. They don’t have to travel to outside Bhutan to look for a college at huge expense. And more importantly, they can saunter from stall to stall to choose and select from a great variety of courses and colleges in various countries.
The fair ends tomorrow.
Source: BBS
The Guluphulus
For father, it was an evening ritual to wander through the dormitory, before the lights were turned out. There, he encountered students squatting on their beds, unconscious of the commotion around them. He described this as experiencing prayer. “They descend inside themselves, beneath the level of sense beneath the level of mind to the fundamental level of being.”
Father called this immobile meditation, where experience of reality is given importance and the practice to encounter oneness and uniqueness takes precedence over the intellectual approach (father thought this was a fallacy). Unlike his approach to god, he found his students approach more realistic. He said that they did not try to grasp infinite reality with their finite minds or through fixed concepts. He said it was impossible to do so, as no word or image can express an unlimited reality.
Moved by his student’s ability to calm their minds, he slowly began to follow their examples. “I can now squat peacefully for 45 minutes every morning, trying to experience the reality of god in my life,” father said. “The Bhutanese guluphulus (rascals) have taught me how to pray.”
According to father, the religion of Bhutan is more Lamaism Buddhism, and he believes it to have come from India via Tibet, infiltrated with a large dose of Tibetan tantrism, Chinese beliefs and doctrines.
Father was impressed with how the Bhutanese were close to reality. For example, he said it was common practice to make simple daily offerings. “The offering of the day with all its troubles, problems good and bad, one of the children will take the sangphur - little metal cup or vase - in which some leaves or sticks are burning and waft the smoke in front of their altar, and around the room. It is a daily Bhutanese morning offering of the day, good and bad difficulties and problems, to Sangye, Lord Buddha, asking for his help and guidance.”
Soon father’s approach to prayer became what he called, Bhutanese and Trinitarian. “I try to experience the reality of being father in being “I am”- an opportunity to be - a chance to suffer, work, and pray to make a little world a more loving place.
YabYum - Duality and Union
The Jesuit Dragon said that Lamaism propagated the practice of duality and union and, using a common sight as an example, explained the concept and experience of union that an individual can experience in this life. “Every temple contains statues and pictures; every home has its own statue of YabYum - Mother and Father squatting in the marriage act - similar to the Song of Songs in the Bible.”
Father said that this is how Bhutanese represent the union, the oneness of individual with the Supreme Being, one in mind and body, in affection and in love.
God - Who is he or her?
One of the fundamental differences between Buddhism and Christianity is the concept of God. The former faith accepts that all sentient beings have the seed of Buddha and can become one; while Christians believe in the concept of the Supreme Being. Buddhists are open to the idea of creation and happy to debate about it; while in the western world, god is seen as the creator.
Father said that the god he believes in is the Supreme Being and is omnipotent, omniscient and has ways and means that we know nothing about. However, like any Christian, Father believes that God is the creator and saviour. “God is at work in all religions. God has created all men. He wants to save all men.”
For a Buddhist, the reality of Supreme Being is too big to be included in a name or image. Father admitted this and said that the people of Bhutan represented this concept, in art as a small temple on top of a mountain with rays of light coming from the lhakhang or the monastery. Father agrees that no concepts can enclose the limitless. “No word or idea can express the unknowable. No mind can grasp the ungraspable.”
The Jesuit states that the Christian idea of experience is not appreciated. He believed that mirroring the Supreme Being is possible, and says that experience and love implies to all life and are fundamentally one. “All life is sacred because it mirrors something in an inferior way of the reality of the Supreme Being. There is no “I”; it does not mirror God. But God has mirrored the “I” and if it does not exist, that would imply a certain equality of being, a dualism of being that is not advaita, not two. A true Buddhist strives to strip his ego and eventually annihilate it, destroying the I.
“I can see God the Father, Son and Spirit actually, really at work in Lamaism. My work and life have been enriched by my contact with Lamaism.” Father reminds himself that, by living, working and praying with the Bhutanese, he could experience his god’s omniscience.
Father Mackey lived 32 years in Bhutan. During this time, the Roman Catholic never converted any of his students. Instead, he drew inspiration from the guluphulus and quietly reveals it in his book that never saw the light of day. The Canadian Jesuit acknowledged the spiritual depth of the Bhutanese, and admitted that it influenced his life and changed his perception of the concept of god and helped him become a better person; a good Christian, Catholic, Jesuit and priest, and prays that he could be a bridge between these two faiths and enrich them.
Source: Kuenselonline
The farmer gathers 45kg of dung in a tin, which is churned with water, and poured into the airtight digester pit. The gas from the pit comes up through a pipe with several valves that connects to a stove in the kitchen. The gas will last the entire day.
Having received a month-long hands-on training for trainers on biogas technology through the UNDP GEF small grants programme, Gauri Shankar now assists other members of the Hangay farmers group to build biogas plants.
Since November, they have completed 16 of the 25 plants funded by UNDP GEF small grants programme.
Farmers said earlier they had to travel to Samtse, about 50km from Sipsu, to refill their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, spending about Nu 800, including travel expenses. “Not anymore now,” Gauri Shankar said.
The 91 households of Hangay village are prone to wild elephants destroying their crop, which is why most farmers largely depend on livestock. Each household owns between two to 20 cattle each.
Another farmer Devi Maya, who recently installed biogas plant at her home, said rearing livestock was advantageous. “Apart from dairy products, there’s a lot more my cattle give me,” she said, excited.
Other farmers, who are not a part of the group, have also shown interest, said Gauri Shankar, who is also the group’s treasurer. “But they’ll have to bear their own expenses, if they want to build one and we shall assist them.”
Construction of a biogas plant is expected to cost between Nu 40,000 to 45,000 depending on the location; and includes the cost of the cement pit, stove, pipes and valves. A properly constructed and well-maintained biogas plant is said to last at least 20 years.
In fixed dome biogas plants, two underground pits are built – a digester pit with a dome shaped cover and the slurry reservoir, built above the digester. As the reservoir emits gas, it collects in the dome and displaces some of the slurry into the reservoir. As gas is used, the slurry flows back into the digester to replace it.
Biogas plants use bacteria to break down wet organic matter, like animal dung, human waste and food waste that produces biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, and also a semi-solid residue.
Biogas can also be used for lighting.
Source: Kuenselonline
The construction of the Information Technology Park, the Thimphu Tech Park, is on track. According to officials working for the project, about 50 percent of the construction works have been completed. The IT Park is expected to be operational by September this year.
Yesterday, a delegation from the World Bank led by the vice president for South Asia, Isabel Guerrero, visited the site to review the progress.
The park is being developed on five acres of land in Wangchutaba, a few kilometers south of the capital Thimphu.
Manju Haththotuwa, the advisor, said “it will generate jobs, help bring in foreign direct investments, and make Bhutan an IT based society.”
It is expected to create 700 direct and 2,800 indirect jobs in the next five years.
It is being developed by Thimphu Techpark private limited, a joint venture of Druk Holding and Investment, and Assetz, a property development firm which is based in India and Singapore at a cost of over 10 million US dollars.
Source: BBS
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| His Majesty is welcomed to Dhaka, Bangladesh, with a Guard of Honour yesterday. His Majesty is on a four-day state visit. |
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The Japanese ambassador to Bhutan presented his credentials to His Majesty the King at the Tashichhodzong this morning.
Ambassador Akitaka Saiki was serving as the Director General for Asia and Oceania in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before he was appointed as ambassador to Bhutan.
Later, His Majesty the King hosted a lunch for Ambassador Akitaka Saiki and his delegation and Japanese working in the capital.
His Majesty the King expressed his condolence for the recent tragic earthquake in Japan and the resultant tsunami in which thousands of people perished. Thousands are still missing and a countless number have been rendered homeless.
The Japanese ambassador conveyed his sincere thanks to His Majesty the King, the royal government, and the people of Bhutan for their support, solidarity, and good wishes. He said the Japanese people are deeply touched by the concern and the affection of the Bhutanese people, from His Majesty to the King to the cabinet ministers and common people.
“I would like to convey my sincere thanks to Bhutan for the tremendous help and support. I would like to thank for their condolence, the sympathy and the kind messages from the Bhutanese people. The messages are reaching the hearts of the Japanese people and the government,” he said.
He said despite the tragedy, the Japanese government’s commitment towards Bhutan will remain unchanged. He said their assistance in various areas will continue. “The assistance will continue but because of the disaster some delay has to be accepted. A commitment is a commitment,” he said.
Source: BBS
In a move that will help government strengthen and develop its institutions and rural infrastructure, among others, the finance ministry received Nu 1.3B from the World Bank yesterday.
The fund is more of a concessional loan than commercial borrowing.
Finance minister Wangdi Norbu said the concessional loan is not related to any specific project, but can be used for different types of expenditure, like the building of schools, hospitals and other capital assets.
“However, the amount cannot be utilised in meeting recurrent expenditure,” he said, adding that government’s establishment cost will have to be met from internal revenue.
Of the total, Nu 1,086M will be channeled towards the development policy credit, which will strengthen government institutions to promote efficiency and effectiveness through sound fiscal and public financial management.
The rest of the amount will be used for additional financing of the decentralised rural development project, targeted at strengthening local government administration through capacity building at a local level.
Bhutan's World Bank representative, Mark LaPrairie said the rural development project was also aimed at providing increased access to market, farm roads and in increasing agriculture productivity of cash crops.
“It will also focus on rural infrastructure development, support improved technologies and in institutional strengthening of the renewable natural resources sectors,” he said.
The original amount, negotiated some time in March 2005, was at USD 7M.
During World Bank's managing director Dr Ngozi Okonjo-lweala’s visit last year, Bhutan was assured of receiving concessionary loans until 2014, despite the per capita income disqualifying the country from receiving the assistance.
Lyonpo Wangdi Norbu said such type of concessionary loans will soon become less common, as the country gradually sees a domestic growth and develops, in terms of the per capita income.
Meanwhile, the signing of the financing agreement was postponed, following the High Court ruling on constitutional validity of receiving loans, that was considered a money bill and demanded its approval through the parliament.
But the Supreme Court had clarified that the government could raise loans and make grants in accordance to the Public Finance Act.
The agreement signing between the finance minister Wangdi Norbu and World Bank’s vice president Isabel Guerrero yesterday also marked the opening of the bank’s new office in Thimphu.
Officials said it will facilitate the bank to work closely with different branches of the government.
World Bank remains one of Bhutan’s major development partners starting 1983. Since then, it has financed over 13 loan projects amounting to USD 150.127M and 20 grant projects amounting to USD 62.970M.
Preempting disastrous quakes, it prepared relentlessly for years, like no other nations across the world, building seismic resistant structures, as global citizens watched in awe.
The March 11, 2011 earthquake, experts have said, was a result of movement along two major plate boundaries that caused a tremour almost a thousand times more powerful than what Bhutanese in the east experienced about two years ago.
Bhutan too has been warned of being situated on a fault line on the Himalayan range, where a major earthquake, much like the one Japan recently experienced, awaits to occur.
Although the government is educating people on disaster management and demanding strict building rules, geologists say it is high time Bhutan set up its own seismic stations to prepare itself for a disaster that is unpredictable but expected.
Geologist and expert on earthquake engineering Dr Karma Kuenza said, with seismic stations, the nation would know exactly which parts of Bhutan were prone to earthquakes. “If we need to know how Bhutan is behaving to earthquakes, we need to know our local zones,” he said. “We have no information of the sort today.”
Despite support from the government on the need for such stations, lack of budget, as always, stands in the way to implementing the plan.
Building the stations, he said, alone would cost Nu 67M.
“Work is underway and we’ve partnered with some universities and professors in Japan and Germany,” he said. “It should take a few more years for the stations to start running.” Once established, all portable stations placed across the country would be connected to a central system at the headquarters.
“They’ll be automatic, meaning when a major earthquake strikes, they’ll tell you in real time, the magnitude and location, and also record information on any other small earthquakes,” he said.
The 1950 Assam earthquake, Dr Karma Kuenza said, was about 80km away from the nearest Indo-Bhutan border.
“It was about 200km from Trashichhodzong, yet it destroyed a part of the dzong,” he said. “The effect of earthquakes, above magnitude eight, can be felt within a radius of 200km.”
In the last 100 years, about 18 large earthquakes occurred in the Himalayan region. The large earthquakes that were felt in Bhutan include the 1713 Arunachal Pradesh earthquake (M7.0), the 1897 Great Shillong earthquake (M8.3), the 1905 Kangra earthquake (M8.0), the 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake (M8.1), the 1947 Assam earthquake (M7.8) and the 1950 Assam earthquake (M8.7).
Bhutan, he said, is divided into two zones by a fault. A fault is a place where earthquakes occur and both Japan and Bhutan are on fault lines.
“We’ve a major fault in Bhutan and so should expect earthquake mostly in the southern belt, because that’s where the earthquake faults are,” he said.
This fault runs more than 2,000km from east to west of Himalayas.
A study by a geologist from the university of Colorado has predicted that the region, where Bhutan is, should expect an earthquake of magnitude of 8, 8.2 or 9.
Dr Karma Kuenza explained that earthquakes occur when the stress built from the continuous movement of plates become too much that they break.
The study said that the Himalayan region is between the Tibetan plate, which is fixed and the Indian plate, which is moving and pushing, 2 cm every year. In 100 years, it would have moved by two metres and in 200 years, four metres.
“And if its four metres of strength accumulation, it will break and the impact of that would give an earthquake of 8 magnitude,” Dr Karma Kuenza said. “But, for the last more than 200 years, even with the four metres of strain, there has been no earthquake in the Himalayan range. And based on the movement and the prediction, we’re actually in a very crucial earthquake prone area.”
Bhutan doesn’t have data to divide itself into zones, safe or prone to earthquakes but based on India, eastern Bhutan falls on zone five and western Bhutan falls on zone four. This means it’s in a zone, where the biggest tremors of an earthquake can be felt.
“That’s why all structures built in Bhutan are built for a big earthquake, with bigger bars and columns and only five storied tall, which are more expensive,” Dr Karma Kuenza said. “And the last earthquake was a national wake up call.”
Like the 1923 quake in Japan, which initiated a massive effort to predict earthquakes and tsunamis. Scientists at Japanese universities received millions to support projects on earthquakes.
Bhutan has at least started.
Source: Kuenselonline
In another effort at preserving Bhutanese culture, an exhibition on traditional masks was inaugurated on March 11, at the national museum, located at Ta dzong in Paro.
The director of the national museum, Khenpo Phuntshok Tashi, explained during the inauguration ceremony why such an exhibition had been created. He said that mask dances are an important aspect of Bhutanese culture and so the masks used in the dances had to be preserved. He said that it is important for Bhutanese citizens to know the various kinds of masks that exist, the differences between them, how they are manufactured, and who make them.
Khenpo Phuntshok Tashi added that the significance of the masks did not have to be limited to only Bhutanese. He said that the exhibition would also allow the significance of the masks to be shared with foreign visitors as well.
He pointed out that if the significance of the masks were not shared today, then it could become a reality that the masks are only used and viewed as entertainment, eventually to go extinct.
Chief guest at the function, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, also shared a similar perspective. He said that tsechus had to be continued and for that to happen, the significance of the masks had to be shared and preserved.
Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk pointed out that, despite Bhutan not remaining in self-imposed isolation and achieving a relatively giant leap out of medievalism, Bhutanese culture had still remained intact from the time of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel. He pointed out that, as Bhutan is a small country, it was important to have an identity, especially with globalisation taking place.
A total of 161 traditional masks used in 21 religious dances or cham are now in display at the museum.
For instance, masks used in religious dances such as, among others, the guru tshengye, bardo cham, Peling gingsum ging and tsholing, and drametse ngacham are displayed.
Source: Kuenselonline
The chairperson of the airline’s board, Kesang Wangdi, told Kuensel that Drukair would “respond to the call of the government”. He pointed out that the government had selected both Drukair and Tashi group of companies’ Tashi Air, and that the national airline would be “letting down” the government if it did not enter operations.
In a surprise for both Drukair and Tashi, the government chose in December the two companies to operate domestically. According to the request for proposals (RFP) floated in July last year, only one company was supposed to have been selected.
Tashi had approached the government, expressing its concerns on the financial viability of such a move, earlier this month. With an untested domestic market, survivability of two operators was worrying the company.
This prompted the government to hold meetings with representatives of both companies. Following the meetings, the communications minister Nandalal Rai said that the government would not reverse its decision to see two operators in the domestic market. A Tashi representative chose not to comment until a further date.
“The board has considered all options,” said Kesang Wangdi, in response to whether similar viability concerns were shared by Drukair. “Viability is a concern for both airlines, it applies to Drukair as well,” he said. But he pointed out that tourist numbers are expected to increase. He added that the board saw the existence of two operators as “cooperation” rather than competition.
Drukair CEO, Tandin Jamso, also said that the domestic market is “uncertain” for the airline. He pointed out that, if competition is a factor, even the international sector could be of concern. “In the peak season we’re doing all right, but in the lean season, occupancy is below 50 percent.”
The CEO said that the airline is expecting to commence domestic operations by April. The national airline will be operating a twin-propeller ATR 42 aircraft for domestic and short haul international flights. “Drukair respects the RFP and will be guided by the RFP,” he said.
Source: Kuenselonline
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