Dance of warriors in absence of local government

It is customary for Tshogpas, the community representatives of Drametse to play a part as warriors of the clan during their local festival. But with the dissolution of local government and ongoing primary ground election, finding the warriors for the festival which happens in every twelve month is in question. During the festival the nonelected village messengers (Chipon) are in all time engaged preparing feast for hundreds from long-age, and to pick and choose the acting militia from the farms will be easier said than done. It was then the civil servants under the headship of officiating Geog Administrative Officer decided to partake in it. From the time we made our minds to serve during the festival, we received good number of well wishers fully supporting our move.

After the training of what to do and what not, we dressed ourselves in the battle gears and marched into the chapel for blessing from the king of spirit warriors, Pekar Gyalpo, the peer of the realm. Having ourselves seated in a row, our duty was to roar load and clear before the effigy of the evils as and when the second commanding chief raises the victory flag. We the warriors then have joined the parade of monks and mask dancers so as to send-off the effigy to where they belong. After having the effigy burnt and roasted by the born fire, a couple of junior warriors followed the chief in dancing on the victory song. The most entertaining part was when the other warrior colleagues poked fun of the victory dancer who in crowd addresses of how great he was in his skills of battling. But such mocking act to one another during victory dance has to be avoided inside the courtyard as a respect to the monastic decorum. The victory dance was then followed by the dance of warriors where we chanted the victory song by raising our swords high in the heavens. It was out of the ordinary to learn that hundreds of farmers came to witness the festival solely to watch the performance of geog in-service persons and we were glad to see satisfaction in their eyes. It was tiring task but yes we enjoyed ourselves as warriors and we wait to serve again provided that we get the opportunity.

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A Come Back to Home after 23 Years; Farewell article to Dzongkhag Forestry

Dzongkhag Forestry Sector was born 23 years after the nationalization of forest in Bhutan and lived for another 23 years making ease to put decentralized forestry activities into practice most particularly in upholding the sustainable and participatory forest management. The sector made a giant step in 1997 by launching the country’s first community forest in Mongar under the guidance of Social Forestry & Extension Division (SFED), and thereafter about 600 communities received their right to manage the forest. 

Fig: Farewell Speech by Dasho Dzongdag to Dzongkhag Forestry

Had there not been Dzongkhag Forestry Sector then it would be easier said than done to shift from traditional tree orientated system to the current practice of balanced tree conservation and sustainable usage. The Sector supported not only the community forest but also gave equal weightage to improve the health of State Reserve Forest (SRF) by planting forest crops, bioengineering the critical landslide prone zones, protecting the water sources and many more. In so doing the private individuals also received helping hand from the Sector to own woods in their unproductive private lands and thereby adding more trees to the state.

Fig: Sharing of Gifts during farewell party 

Now the parent organization has made a homecoming call by merging the Dzongkhag Forestry Sector and Divisional Forest Office into one. It would be a shock to the communities to see forestry officials working under one umbrella but nothing to be worried for they shall continue to receive technical supports and forestry services as before. However the concern is not on about going back home to work but with regard to the working infrastructures. For time being the field staffs may function from the RNR-Extension Centre but one day or the other they deserve to be under a good shelter of their own. So, we are hopeful that the Department may have made arrangements to build the needed infrastructures. With this, I wish my workmates to serve with loyalty to protect our nation’s green property and also delivery the services to the people as before. Goodbye to Dzongkhag Forestry Sector.

Fig: First Day at Divisional office, Joint meeting at Mongar

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Facebook Like Button

Hundreds of likes wouldn’t be out of the blue if my Facebook post reads that I’m arranging alumni get-together or my wife is with young. One cannot put a stop to hit the like button after having seen eye-catching snapshot not caring whether you know the one who uploaded it or not. I accept as true that Mark Zuckerberg added such feature in his website so that the users can use it as a throwaway gestures for having liked the content.

But in this era of cyber culture, many of us have forgotten that there is inbuilt thinking machine in us which takes no second to make a judgment of what we see. What I mean is that many of us just hit like on no matter what the post is without actually analyzing whether it is appropriate to like it or not. For example, if someone notifies via Facebook that a big cheese passed away then in no minute the post will gain fat likes. Revisit the post and then put your mind in work, what do the likes mean? Does it stand for our happiness over the death of him/her? Yes, from hundred likes, there might be someone who is pleased to find out that the one he/she hates has taken the last breathe, but what about our likes? Or are we acknowledging the one who posted it for the timely information? Again, don’t you find it funny to see hundreds of like with no comment when someone writes, “I’m new to the place and have no friends so can anyone join me to get rid of my loneliness?” It’s akin to saying that we are sending you hundreds of likes, so enjoy the company. A recent post with scores of like on donation box robbery by a monk in Punakha serves a mere example of such foolishness. Are we happy that the monk is successful in robbery, or the temple was robbed, or the monk was caught? What are we trying to convey? I’m confused! Are you not? Haha my article is with more questions than answers mosh. It not necessarily means that all users are same; there are some who spare time to drop comments and some who read but do not partake in giving weightage to the post.

FIG: 2 Million likes for death of Paul Walker 

Few months back I being an administrator invited suggestion from the members on about whether to deactivate the group since it is dormant and served no purpose. It was bolt from the blue that I saw only likes and no single comment, only later a couple of members shared their view not to deactivate it. Are the rest pleased to read that the group will be permanently rub out from Facebook so that they could not stop themselves in giving thumbs-up to the post? I was confused whether to listen to those two members or to go with majority win basis since likes in the post spoke more words than the comments. For a moment or two I judge that many hits like to your post to let you know that they read it; it’s like saying that you will be not neglected for what on earth you post. But what’s the use when you press like to read that he/she is feeling pissed off, feels heartbreaking, under the weather, etc. Therefore, I request all the Facebookers to use the like button meaningfully, in no way playing with the emotion of others or otherwise what will happen to the cyber if brains of people who can shape the cyber depend on it to think for them. Think wisely, use wisely, happy Facebooking.

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Meat Free Monday

Monday or the day of moon is milestone in the datebook of different religion. The Jews read Torah, their foundational text in the morning of Monday while Hindus go for fasting to please Lord Shiva. It is said that the Orthodox Church observes it as an angel’s day. The Theravada Buddhist celebrates Monday as a day of dispelling fear. It was said that Buddha’s relatives were disputing on the water rights which when he returned from heaven on the day of moon persuaded them to compromise. So, keeping in mind on about the overlapping of such religious events on Monday and moreover being it the first day of week, we need to do something different than our normal routine. To begin the week with meat free meals would be interesting indeed.

History reads that during World War I, the US government received a word of honor signed by 13.0 million civilians in support of ‘Meatless Monday’ and ‘Wheat less Wednesday’ with a common target to aid the war by lessening the consumption of rations. This movement was revived in 2003 as public health awareness and is supported by 36 nations. In Bhutan, Meatless Monday is known as ‘Jangsem Monday’ which literally is a Bodhicitta day. In 2009, Meat Free Monday campaign was launched to address damaging impact of eating meat to the global climate change. As of now there are more than 0.8 million registered supporters from different walks of life.(To, be continued)

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World Naked Gardening Day 2016

“When you are out there with a gentle breeze on you, every last hair on your body feels it. You feel completely connected with natural world in way you just can’t in clothes,” the WNGD website reads.

This article of mine is on paper not with the meaning to uphold the nude event or to pass judgment on it but to share the happenings which some may not have seen or heard. World naked day is an annual worldwide nonpolitical event which happens after every twelve months on the first Saturday of May. It was founded as a project of Body Freedom Collaborative (BFC) on September, 2005 but later on the event timing was edited to May as to take temperature into account for the unclothed gardeners.

The day is in design to work with, rather than against the nature. More over it supports going nude in squares for guerrilla gardening but one can as well join the day by gardening nude in private property if they feel uncomfortable in public soils. One of the naturists wrote that the day is not about revealing body to others but to accept one’s body and live with nature on your own. Claire on her 200^th videotaping anniversary which also overlaps with the 10th world naked gardening day says that she wore nothing than a smile on her face. 

The book of Genesis or the creation myth reads that in the times gone by, a nude couple Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. Their desire for the fruit resulted in cursing them to go back into the dust of their origin, and also opened the eyes to their own nakedness. They from then were no more the nature’s offspring and began to cover themselves with leaves and loincloths. So, the founders of the gardening day may have thought that they or we shall only be linked to nature if not against what and how god made us; have down pat that no man was born with the garments. But in countries like Bhutan, such program of going naked for gardening shall be tagged as taboo. But if we carefully reflect for a second time, where is the forbidden mores when its comes to our naked festivals (read here) or what about the great Indian Kumbh Mela. 

There are critiques saying that myth of Adam and Eve is a depiction to rise of moral society rather than of fall from desire and deception. So akin to what critiques say, to support nude program could also mean that one is going back to ones origin of ape, and that is how degenerating or the dark age begins. If asked to think of nature, your third eye will take you into the peaks, see the pouring brooks, feel the breezing winds, and hear the chirping birds but the entire mental picture gets ruined when a mother ape is forced by her grownup offspring to do what we term as nature’s act. So, its not always wise to follow whatever the patterns nature weave.

Nevertheless, no matter what it may be, best wishes for the upcoming 12^th annual world naked gardening (7th May, 2016) to the entire naturist for their efforts, after all it’s the inner contentment one seeks at the closing stages of every deeds. 

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Earth hour; Will you join Bhutan?

P.C: UNDP Bhutan, 2014

It is very good to see many of the Facebook profile pictures being changed to shore up ‘earth hour event’. But more important is to tag on to the collective action to address global climate change rather than just beautifying your profile pictures with trendy logo and catchphrase designed by World Wildlife Fund (WWF). A number of Facebook users may have assumed that it’s a scam as like those sharing pornographic videos and price winning messages, but no its not. ‘Earth hour’ is a global light off event organized by WWF to unify individuals from poles apart in protecting our planet. This global episode shall be put into action on 30^th March, 2019 from 8:30 PM (local time). It is however not a blackout event for the reason that not all the lights will go off but only those non-essential lights shall be put off on voluntary basis. In so doing, we are helping to lessen the impacts of climate change since electricity and heat production gives out 25% of the total green house gas (IPCC, 2014).

The earth hour event is more relevant to Bhutan. Our country became spotlight for intercontinental press with Tendrel Plantation of 108, 0000 seedlings in welcoming the crown prince and the speech by Prime Minister on about Bhutan being not only carbon neutral but also carbon negative. Moreover, having already ratified United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bhutan is moving forward for the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & Forest Degradation, and Conservation, Sustainable Management of Forest & Enhancement of Forest carbon Stocks). So, when government is going REDD+ for GREEN Bhutan, why not we the citizen with this pride agree to the light off event to fight against global climate change.

Video courtesy: earthhour.org

SO BHUTAN, I AM JOINING THE GLOBE IN PUTTING OFF THE NON-ESSENTIAL LIGHTS TOMORROW FROM 8:30 PM TO 9:30 PM, ARE YOU? LIKE, COMMENT, VOTE & SHARE FOR GLOBAL CAUSE

Will You Join Earth Hour on 19/03/16?

Yes, for full time (8;30 PM to 9:30 PM)

Yes, but just for few minutes

No, I don't care

Do Quizzes

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