The Clouds of Human Activities Might Have Polluted the Dzong's Congenial Atmosphere

The evening of 24^th June, 2012 would enter as one of the darkest evenings in Bhutan’s history. Dark clouds might have drifted across the minds of people when the news of the Wangdiphodrang Dzong battling fire and ultimately being razed to ground reached their ears. The news had been the real stone in the hearts of Shar Dargay people as the dzong had been their guardian of culture and tradition apart from all the administrative and other civil works they had to undergo in the dzong.

     The deadly news was telecasted live that evening, but here owing to the lack of modern amenities, we could not watch the battle our magnificent dzong was braving. We heard the news via phone calls and audio radio.

     The moment I heard that tragic news I thought that the fire might have incurred massive loss of everything, everything noble and rare. Forget about monetary and property loss the nation has to bear. Think of this- how much did the fire had reduced our nation’s spiritual and cultural wealth housed in that dzong into ashes? Will we be able to restore the same allure of the dzong and its profundity of cultural and spiritual values? For the evidence of being one of the  oldest  dzong of more than 400 years old built by great Zhabdrung, naturally the dzong holds special seat of cultural and spiritual values. Now all those sacred and rare wealth had vanished into air as sots and only ashes remained.

     As always His majesty the present king and His Majesty the forth Druk Gyalpo, some ministers and some other senior officials visited the site. To our great relief, the main nangten (relic) was rescued and handed over to the Draktshang. The acting Prime Minister Yeshey Zimba aired a speech on BBSC explaining the incident and consoling the people. Somewhere in his speech, his Excellency shared that the disaster like this would alert the government and the people to take preventive measures to safeguard the other dzongs dotting the country’landsndscape.

    Yes to our consolation, the dzong would be rebuilt and it has to be so as to restore the vanished wealth of spiritual and cultural values. The people need to reclaim the smiles of having majestic dzong as their mother of culture and tradition.

     In my mind the disaster such as this is happening all because of dehumanizing human activities. As the development takes heavy toll across the nation, all our sacred spiritual sites are polluted and thus the spiritual blessings vanish.

      Wangdiphodrang Dzong was perched on an elephant like hill with a panoramic view of Punatshangchu. Of late human activities are mushrooming in the vicinity of the dzong. The mega Punatshangchu Project inspiried vast concrete jungles taking roots in the valley of Shar and Lobesa. With concrete jungle come all sort of dehumanizing human activities. The ear-splitting explosives, honking automobiles, the cloud of dusts, people’s eroding values might have turned deaf ear to the call of the dzong’s congenial atmosphere. The dzongs these days are no longer free of human-made cries and stimulus.

     Thus the deadly fire might have emerged just to set alarm in the minds of people to limit the human furry around the place which deserves highest quality peace and tranquility or the sacredness of the dzong could no longer tolerate the limitless pollution it had been braving.  

      We have to relay go to reconsider the facts of the dzongs privacy from human activities before everything is late. Let the dzongs be free of human pollution. Let the be as sacred as before and be a fountain of our cultural and spiritual values especially in this era of change and development.

A Journey That Was

IN LIFE IT IS QUITE STRANGE FOR US TO WITNESS the unexpected things rolling out right in front of us. It is very difficult to drive into the depth of what the life has designed for us. We never are sure of what might happen in future despite our indomitable will of optimism.

     And it is same with the sort of journey we take in our life. We never could for sure tell how our journey would go by especially if we have to depend on others for the long journey. We cannot foretell in what sort of vehicle we would board and who do we accompany during the course of our journey.

     One morning early at around 7 am I was near the Gelephu Check Post to catch a vehicle moving to Panbang. The trucks, buses and small cars were lined up waiting for the Indian SSB armies to escort them. Some drivers and passengers are out into the tea stall savoring momos, puris and fried rice, and sipping tea while the police on duty were registering the vehicles moving out of the town. I strolled up and down the lined vehicles looking for the one heading to Panbang. I even requested the police to check whether there was any vehicle moving to Panbang. To my dismay, out of about scores of vehicles lined up, there wasn’t any moving to the place of my destination. I was disappointed initially but consoled myself considering the state of the place Panbang was.

     Soon it was 8 am and an army blew the whistle and the engines of the vehicles grated and in line the vehicles surged forward leaving behind some patches of cloudy smokes through their silencer pipes.

     As I was about to turn back to the town with the hope to journey the next day, the police on duty suggested me to hold on and wait for some hours that there might be few vehicles after the escort time. This gave me some ray of hope and I took my luggage near the check post office and waited there. Before that our former ADEO Choeda currently transferred as Principal of Buli MSS informed that the Dungkhag Accountant was there in the town. I was little hopeful that I would be able to catch one vehicle and would successfully reach Panbang.

     With the flash of cars and labourers crisscrossing the border in front of my eyes I waited patiently with my rear resting on a log kept for the people to rest. About 45 minutes past and still no vehicles arrived that I was beginning to lose patience. Just then a motor bike arrived and the biker came towards the counter to do entry of his bike. When I stood behind him to check where he would be heading, he registered his bike stating that it was moving to Panbang. I thought of grabbing the opportunity right there but it was not quite comfortable for me to be on his bike. He had his backpack on his back and some stuffs hung on a side of his bike. I wasn’t alone either. I had a backpack and a small luggage bag. He was willing to offer me a lift despite the condition of the bike and stuffs it had to carry. I informed him about the accountant and he called him but the former wasn’t sure of his journey.

     Thinking for a while he suggested me to go till Chakpaiguri and comforted me that from there I would catch a vehicle coming from Phuntsholing. Picking up my stuffs I agreed and greatly regarded his kindness. Upon introduction he was a RNR staff at Panbang Dungkhag and knows some of my colleagues in Kagtong. Through the bumpy road backed by potholes we journeyed. He was very frank that he shared everything about himself. He was up for the registration to opt for further studies. I wished him luck in his endeavour. The journey was refreshing and breathtaking while plying through the well paved road and journey through the unpaved road was just contrary worsened with the clouds of dust when we had to follow the heavy vehicles.

     In the moment of chatting and sharing, we reached Chakpaiguri where almost all Bhutanses vehicles stop for lunch. We parked the bike in shade and waited for some time to let the vehicles coming from Phuntsholing to ply in. we had our lunch in the Hotel Himalaya. My new friend ordered special curry of spiced eel. In addition there were various savories of salads and dhal and vegetables. We savoured to the fullest of our delight.

     In the meantime while we were out resting and chatting, we encountered a driver known to my friend introduced us to his malik who was heading here at Panbang. The driver requested a lift on our behalf and the contactor was happy to have one as his friend. 

     From Chakpaiguri I had a comfortable drive in Japanese Prado. The contactor was up for his visit to his contact of construction at Panbang.

 Upon enquiry about each other, he asked, ‘are you from Paro?’

 “Yes from Jabana”

“your accent talks all.”

”Most of the time I travel alone. Today I’m happy to have you as my friend”

“Me too especially for the comfortable ride.”

     The journey went on with sharing about each other in the midst of fast speeding trucks and cars.

     Away from the furry pulse of Barbeta town, we stopped at Bansbari checkpost for registration and fees. As I stepped out of the car I was mesmerized with rows of marigold and dahlia in great line in the garden in front of the checkpost. I turned back to the car and took the camera to capture the beautiful pictures. The partial rays of sun filtering through the dust laden clouds glowed the flowers. They were awesome.

    From there the journey was filled with the talks about the animals available in the Manas Park. “We often encounter elephants, buffalos, languors, and some deer apart from some birds darting through,” the contactor shared the animals he had sighted with location and time, “the best time to travel is in the morning and evening if we wish to see more animals”

     The mild sun was on and the road went through the jungle arched with tall tees. The tall grasses were cut and burnt that we could get some clear pictures of the roadsides. The orange flower bearing trees were highlights amidst the leave less tall trees. Further there were also some purple flowers blossoming on the some trees alongside the road.

     Reaching Mathanguri, the majestic Manas Chuu was clear and there was a boat lying rest at the bank of the river. Few people were sailing in a boat while elephants were resting in the bushes few miles away from the river bank.

    Indian tourists cramped in the cars were returning to their home. Some tourists were getting full of their excursion with clear view of everything from the car rooftops.

    Finally the Panbang greeted me with its new shape. The town structure has changed with a road deliberately making its way down to the river just below some main shops here. New buildings were built and new people arrived in. I bid bye to the contractor with loads of thanks.

After all every journey is worth cherishing despite its hurdles.

My June 2 Diary

2/ 6 /12 10:57 am

The social forestry day

The planting day

To revive the lost vibrancy of the nature

The children are performing the cultural items to mark the day. Early in the morning they had done a tree plantation in and around the school surrounding. Prior to the plantation, they went in search of tree saplings. Then they went to their respective houses for plantation. The places were wet and dewy inspired by the last nights and this morning’s rain. With perfect smiles worn on their faces, the children were enjoying their plantations.  And the smile would multiply when their plants turn up into beautiful tree.

    In the morning assembly, the TOD brought out a well researched and resourceful speech on tree plantation throwing some light on the state of our nature and biodiversity in the past and present coupled with the impact of the present action on the state of future forest cover worldwide. In his speech, sir Tshering informed the gathering that the government is deeply concerned about the forest coverage realizing the impact the forest has on the lives of every individual. Sir Tshering also traced on how people in the ancient times lived in harmony with the nature. Further he laced his speech with some light on the dehumanizing human behaviour as a key factor in diminishing the forest cover worldwide. “A tree takes around 30 years to grow fully and on contrary, the people take not even 30 minutes to fell the tree with power chained saw.” He added.

       During the assembly, there was a heavy shower of rain coming from the south. We heard it showering on the leaves of the trees and slowly the mist climbed down towards us. Yes it came and stopped after a minute or two. The shower didn’t deter our assembly. Then the children got to listen to Lopen Kezang regarding the significance and auspiciousness of the lord Buddha’s par nirvana which falls on the coming Monday.

     In my own little way to mark the day apart from my share in the activities the children had, I’m extremely happy to come up with the following two poems:

Plant a tree

And it will pay you back

It will shelter you

It will give you air, cool and clean

When your Air Conditioning(AC) or fan fails on hot, torrid and sticky days

The birds will come and gather on the boughs

And sing you a melodious lullaby

The fall of the leaves and the change of the colours

The flowers in the spring and the fruits in the autumn

Are the added delight

The beauty and bounty

Your plant you plant today will

Repay you and enchant you

The other one:

Plant a tree and save a snow on the mountains

In snow everything is there

A river for the mega-hydro projects

Fresh water for your food

You name it

Everything resides in that creamy white

Everything evens your cosmetics that glows you and raises your self-esteem.

The Moment

The wind is blowing
and leaves are rustling
the dust rising
and sweet wrappers flying by