A journey into bhutan

• Bhutan


  • Mountains all around, climbing up to peaks, rolling into valleys
  • Landscape is a convulsion of crests and gorges and wind-sharpened pinnacles
  • Air is thin, dry and very cold
• Bhutan's capital Thimphu has a population of 20,000
• Thimphu


  • Doesn't have traffic lights
  • Blue-suited policemen direct traffic using hand gestures
  • Buildings have pitched roofs, trefoil windows, heavy beams painted with lotus flowers, jewels and clouds
  • Shops sell onions, rice, milk powder, dried fish, plastic buckets, metal plates, quilts, stale cookies from India
• There are some signs of outside world influence in Thimphu, like teenagers in acid-washed jeans, Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits on the radio, a Rambo poster in a bar
• The author initially feels

  Overwhelmed, isolated, and not very excited about Bhutan
• The author's feelings


  Start to change as she spends time with the enthusiastic Canadian teachers Lorna and Sasha
• The author hopes to pick up some of Lorna and Sasha's enthusiasm about Bhutan
• h on the Bataan Broadcasting Service a Rambo poster in a bar over all these signs of cultural infiltration are few but they are startling against the Bhutanese nests of everything else so it's interesting that she finds it even smaller considering the way she feels at this point I wonder if she it almost feels a bit claustrophobic for her or does it seem even smaller because it seems so simple and there are so many limits and that sheet goes to talk about for instance she follows with it doesn't even have traffic lights so this short sentence I would argue offers a tone of disappointment especially the word even and the adjective occasional helps paint this image of this sleepy town and everything's really traditional and everything's the same now that can be really beautiful to have everything the same but I don't know if I get that from her especially when you look at the list of products there's an odd assortment but it does suggest a really simple lifestyle of the of the things that you might need day to day and there is a sign of her own judgment and dislike for the things that are on offer with her description of the cookies being stale and the the biscuits being hideous the modernism's quite funny I find because it's actually decades behind and I think that helps highlight the difference between Bhutan and where she would be from in Canada that what they consider modern is still actually really really old-fashioned we're talking decades behind so does that help exaggerate the distance between where she's from and Bhutan not only geographically but almost in time as well they just seem to be so far behind the times in comparison
• the town itself looks very old with cracked sidewalks and faded paint work but Gordon told us that it didn't exist 30 odd years ago before the 60s when the third King decided to make at the capital it was nothing but rice paddies a few farmhouses and a I'm not sure how to pronounce this a dong dong one of the fortresses that are scattered throughout the country Dimpy was actually new thin pea will look like New York to you when you come back after a year in the East he said so there seems to be this surprising juxtaposition where things already seem to be worn out cracked sidewalks faded paint work but it's that's only 30 years old well 30 years new you might and so it just seems that to hurt a little worn out already but there is a huge contrast between where it's come from 30 years ago it was rice paddies and a few farmhouses so it's come a long long way in those 30 years and the word the adverb actually indicates her surprise that actually this is a new place even though it seems so worn out already
• at the end of the main road is Toshiko dong the seat of the royal government of Bhutan a grand whitewashed red roofed golden tip fortress built in the traditional way without blueprints or nails beyond Hamlet's are connected by footpaths and terraced fields barren now climbed steadily from the river and merge into forest thin poo will never look like New York to me I think so those details I think just help justify that it is so different real traditional details as well the Red Roof golden tip fortress the Hamlet's as well it's quite an archaic word we don't have Hamlet's really anymore well in the modern world
• the Bhutanese are a very handsome people the best-built race of men I ever saw wrote a misery George Bogle on his way to DES bet in 1774 and I find I agree of medium height and sturdily built they have beautiful aristocratic faces with dark almond shaped eyes high cheekbones and gentle smiles both men and women wear their black hair short the women wear a kira a brightly striped ankle-length dress and the men ago a knee-length robe that resembles a kimono except that the top part is exceptionally voluminous the bhutanese of Nepal a Nepal a sari Nepali original origin tend to be taller with sharper features and darker complexions they too where the NGO and Kira people look at us curiously but they do not seem surprised at our presence although we see fewer the foreigners in Teheran we know they are here Gordon said something this morning about them whose small but friendly expat community
• when we stop and ask for directions austere hotel the young man behind the counter walks with us to the street pointing out the way explaining politely in impeccable English I search for the right word to describe the people for the quality that impresses me most most dignity unselfconsciousness good humour grace but can find no single word to hold all of my impressions
• in the eighth century the Indian Saint I'm not sure how you pronounce that Padma Sam bhava brought Buddhism to the area where it absorbed many elements of baan the indigenous Harmonist religion the new religion took hold but was not a unifying force the Aerie remained a collection of isolated values each ruled by its own king when the tibetan lama lama i or is it i am a-- now wang nam yo arrived in 1616 he set about unifying the valleys under one central authority and gave the country the name drop your meaning land of the thunder dragon early an ace for Bhutan are just as beautiful the Tibetans knew the country is the southern land of medicinal herbs in the South sandalwood country districts within baton were even more felicitously named rainbow district of desires lotus Grove of the gods blooming valley of luxuriant fruits the land of longing and silver pines baton the name by which the country came to be known to the outside world is thought to be derived from butant√£ meaning the end of Tibet or from the Sanskrit Bhutan meaning Highlands
• while the rest of Asia was really being overrun by Europeans during colonial time that didn't happen to Bataan and actually there's just very few Westerners who managed to find their way there and so that is the source there's something that's really impressive to zepa as well I haven't really highlighted anything here but you could mentioned that maybe there's an element here that she's looking at this from a Western perspective she does say things like where is it Eden who had gone to sort out a small problem of the Bhutanese raids and the British territory there's an element of ganja sort of--it's that the old colonial way of thinking where they you know the white man has to go over and sort things there and tell tell the Asian person how to do it themselves that sense of patronizing element that's so linked with them colonial powers so you could argue that's the case and the fact that I don't know anything about this treaty that was that he was forced to sign but she is showing her personal opinion by saying it was an outrageous treaty that he had to sign so there's a sense there where she's she is seeing this from a Western point of view and that might be unfair she does however show that she is really impressed with them the fact that they maintained their independence in comparison to many Asian countries that didn't however a game is there a patronizing tone I'm full of admiration for this small country that has managed to look after itself so well something quite patronizing about that almost like you know you find a a child that's too hot to look after themselves for an hour and you go I can't believe you looked after yourself you're doing so well I'm so impressed something a little bit patronizing but it that doesn't sit well for me but at least does show us a difference in perception from the author