bhutanliterature.blogspot.com

“ Does your meme go for kora ?” grinned one of my colleagues as I arrived in my office. “Yes, everyday, why?” I enquired though not very interested. “ Don’t ask me why,” he retorted. “My meme has found a new abi for himself. I thought he always went for kora everyday but he was busy doing kora on top of new abi .” I laughed at his remarks. “ Don’t laugh. Just check what your meme is upto. He may be busy too?” he cautioned. Then he remarked with remorse, “ I have extra dead body to cremate now. One dead body collecting another,” and left the room. I smiled after him. Every night after the dinner, I usually spent some time talking with my meme in his bedroom. That night I teased him. I told him that I heard he was trying to impress one old lady. He looked offended. He wanted to know who had told me about it. I lied to him that someone who goes for kora regularly had seen him going around with an old lady. “I think he must have see...

Wamrong is one of the three Dungkhags (sub district) in eastern Bhutan covering two gewogs (blocks) of many hamlets, villages and people. Until recent past, it had three gewogs under its jurisdiction. However, when the political delimitation was carried out in 2007, it lost Nanong to Pema Gatshel Dzongkhag (District). Wamrong, as a main village still exist some 25 kilometers from the Wamrong Dungkhag. How Wamrong came into existence is a story worth being written down before it is forgotten. Its history may evaporate along with the land itself. Today, Wamrong remains just a lunch stop for travelers to Trashigang and Gudama ( Samdrup Jongkhar). Due to excessive deforestations and loose soil, massive landslides occurred few years ago and washed away many land leaving people uncertain of the future. Bhutan Government, understanding the magnitude of the problem, resettled many farmers by giving some land to cultivate in Southern Bhutan. Those who continue to live i...

All Bhutanese have a reason to look at the future with hope especially after being shepherded to democracy.We have now entered into a new era. We are at the threshold of building a prosperous nation which is also spiritually contended despite many challenges ahead of us. We are a brand new democratic country which has just broken the egg shell and come out after being contended inside the shell for so long. However, while looking at the future, we are also looking at changing some of the old thinking in the wake of democracy and be renewed by the spirit of democracy and evolve to make it all inclusive by taking all sections of society especially the youths. Most youths today are so uncertain in their attitude toward their own lives. It is because they all are on the edge where one age merges into another. They cannot live on in the age their parents lived some two or three decades ago to which all the parents and their grand parents are accustomed to and at the same ti...

When Karma knocks the door of the hut he lives, it is already past midnight. It is late but he has brought some meals for his mother and siblings. His two younger sisters and baby brother looks excited. He hands his mother the two black plastic bags and goes to play with his siblings. His mother returns with food taken from the plastics and hands them over to the children. As the children take the plates, they run their eyes over the content of the food. There were rice, some fried dry beef, fried cheese and some big pieces of pork. As they eat, Karma’s mother looks at him. He immediately takes out some wet currency notes from his pocket and hands it over to her. She counts. It is one hundred and five ngultrum. “ You just got this much?” she squirms. “There were lot of big boys today,” he says as if to apologize. His mother doesn’t say anything . She folds the money and inserts it in between the belt and her big belly and returns to the kit...

…soon after he took charges from Colonel Campbell, Colonel Jenkins overran the fertile land of Ambari and Falakata over a pretext that Bhutanese were committing outrages and alleged aggression over their land. Ashley Eden’s mission had also come to a bitter end with Bhutanese sides charging the British of permanently annexing the Ambari and Falakata and also for refusing to pay the annual compensation related to the Assam Duars. British had also threatened that Bengal Duars would be annexed. Bhutanese felt that such an act was unfair and unjustifiable since Ashley Eden had signed a treaty. However, the British claimed that the treaty was invalid since it was signed under threat and the mission had only signed it in order to save their own lives. The war was inevitable. The British wanted to enforce their demands by coercing Bhutan. They felt insulted and compelled. They decided to annex Bengal Duars, Dalimkot, Passakha and Dewangiri (the present day Deothang). The war was proclaimed ...

I am Tshering C Dorji, author of the books "Shadow Around the Lamp," "Living the Bhutanese Ways", " Warrior God and the Mermaid" and "Timeless Diary." This blog “www.bhutanliterature.blogspot.com” is aimed at providing some insights to those small things which we tend to overlook very often during our daily mundane life. It will also supplement the books, stories, poems and articles that I write everyday. This blog should be used as a pair of glasses to look at the things as they are. I hope it provides a colorful and kaleidoscopic facet of Bhutanese lives…….