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Ura Village Documentation- Part II

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Part II- Store Rooms, Windows and Cold Picture from Divya The first house we documented was about fifty years old and it still stood new on its thick enormous walls. The owner said that her house overcame earthquakes or any other disasters without a crack. Her amusing trust on her own house was undeniable as the house spoke for itself too. Its massive walls could stand hundreds of angry men punching on it hundreds of times though it was just mud and stone. It was three-storied and the wide ground floor where they used to keep cattle in olden days now were left empty. Although, some of the corners hosted families of mice and spiders.  The stone masonry walls plastered with mud extended up to the first floor where this house had three different store rooms. Only if modern buildings in Thimphu had this luxury, one wouldn’t have to pay five thousand ngultrum for just a bedroom and a kitchen.  A stair case of nine steps laddered up to the top most floor where s...
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Ura Village Documentation- Part I

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 Part I-Remembering Dawa the stray dog Picture Courtesy: Sonam Dorji A story of a stray dog in Bhutan by Kuenzang Choden narrates his journey to Bumthang, east from Thimphu, which is now twelve hours of bus ride accompanied by backache and dusty air due to the road extension work. In that story, Dawa, the dog travels to Bumthang upon hearing of a place where he can cure his mange. His gift of understanding human language directs him to his destination where he explores places on the way. Such was the experience of my travel to Bumthang last week. Travelling with eighteen other friends who were new to Bumthang made me feel new in the place I grew up. I realized there was so much I didn’t know, so much of amazing things I missed even though I lived there. So for one week, I was a tourist in my own home. It started right from our departure from the college. I could feel the air in the bus growing thicker with excitement as it accelerated up the gentle slope towards Sorc...
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What is Time?

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Just a picture taken two months ago A few years ago, I wrote this article about how confused and how many questions I had before going to college. I was going to start a completely new adventure in my life, travelling more than five hundred kilometers from home, in a sub-tropical climate only to challenge my body that has endured extreme cold but not heat. I was then eighteen, curious and firing with excitement, ready to bring myself out to the world with the teenage motivation. I’d have imagined my college in ten thousand ways and often hoping it not to be less than stairs that opened with passwords and cozy common rooms for study, or a library with deep secrets. I must’ve idealized my college too much but I couldn’t blame because even after reaching the college and seeing what it exactly looked like, or worked, I would secretly hope for something fascinating to happen, at some point. It’s been four years now, and this is my fifth year. And if you ask me, I’m still trying ...
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Kitiphu, an eye to Bumthang

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Kitiphu, at a distance If I were a vulture, I couldn’t possibly have known how high this beautiful mountain touched the sky. Kitiphu is one of the most wonderful ridges I have ever been to. Having Tharpaling monastery, once the seat of Kuenkhen longchen Rabjam, at its feet, this holy mountain stands up to about 7,500 meters above the sea level. I’ve been living in Bumthang ever since I was born but I could make it to Kitiphu only a few weeks ago. Thank god that a reason and a strong determination came up to string some lungdar(prayer flags) on that mountain. The main reason why people go to Kitiphu is to put up prayer flags considering the fact that we gain luck if we do so. I’ve also been told that during the second king’s reign, this mountain used to be a bypass between the then two capitals, Bumthang and Kuenga Rabten(Trongsa). I wonder how people could have been able to walk for days, sleep under trees and cook beside the paths. the mountain ranges we could see from Kitip...
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The Thing about Merit

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There is no such thing as being self-made. I refuse to believe that human beings and anyone for that matter, have any natural capacity to be self-made. Michael Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit — What’s Become of the Common Good, ”- is a hard read but had quite an impact on my deeply rooted opinions on, life, basically. The thought of wanting to solve all these misconceptions plagues me to a point where I don’t even put an effort to think. At the risk of sounding like I’ve figured it all out after one book, I put together 2 things I’d like to believe I learned. 1. The irony about self-made people: The concept of ‘self-made’ or self-sufficiency had the heaviest impact on me. What a life-changing experience it was to learn that the more one considers oneself self-made, the harder it is to instill gratitude and humility. And this matters because it is rare to care about the common good without these sentiments. Most of us enjoy the pride we take in the independence we set for ourselves. The ...
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