BHUTAN, THE LAND OF SERENITY

Karma, the owner cum driver cum guide of the one-man tourist agency Brilliant Bhutan Travels was waiting with three white scarves. There was going to be a welcoming ceremony. He led us to his Hyundai Creta and took out three shining shawls like the ones worn by congress men in India (minus the coloured borders). He bowed down to his waist-level and handed over the silk wraps one by one with great reverence.

We did ask him the stupid question,

What to do with this? How do we reciprocate?

Keep it as a souvenir, he said.

What’s your surname, Karma?

He said he didn’t have any. Surprising, a man with no surname! Come to think of it, stand-alone names are quite possible in Bhutan as there is no caste system there. Karma was to drive us to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan located fifty-six km away. The road from Paro airport to Thimphu was wide, well-built and amazingly clean.

This is one fringe-benefit of the Modi visit, Karma said. All the roads in his route are given a face-lift.

Karma was being modest. Later on, I found that all roads of Bhutan were similar. Potholes are conspicuous by their complete absence and Irish drain provided to each road irrespective of its size!

Paro River flowing by the highway, it was a splendid sight outside. Excepting a few cars, there was not much traffic either. Anybody would have stepped on the accelerator to the maximum (in India). However, Karma maintained his speed always at less than fifty. Interestingly, he was not blowing the horn even for once! Karma was not alone. No driver in Bhutan honks it.

What’s more, there were no traffic signals anywhere!

And no hoardings or advertisement material anywhere in sight!

Life in this country should be a perpetual meditation, I mused. Tranquillity was coming unto me.

Karma stopped his car at near to an iron bridge. There was a hillock on the other side with three structures built on it. The two at higher altitude were temples and the one at the landing of the bridge was a stupa. The bridge was decorated with innumerable flags with mantras inscribed on them. Blue, White, Red, Green and Yellow flags and each colour represents one of the five elements. The Buddhists believe that the vibes of the mantras radiate through the wind and people are protected from evil forces! There was a giant prayer-wheel and several smaller ones with mantras installed at the stupa for the same purpose. Rotate them by hand, and you get purified accordingly. Besides, there are several precious stones, relics and gold buried underneath to please the local deities so that no misfortune befalls on the land and its people.

Legend says that the people of Ha and Paro were afflicted by leprosy in the 15th century AD and they invited the carpenter/blacksmith turned saint Thangthong Gelopo of Tibet. He accepted the invitation and came to Bhutan and meditated at the abovementioned place named Tamchog. Meditation continued for seven days and nights! Soon after, he built the iron-bridge which is not rusted to date! One was not sure whether to admire his engineering skills or yogic prowess for the marvel. Meanwhile, Gelopo met a young lady and started living together. A son was born to them. The engineer-saint built several stupas across the land and the deadly disease was contained! The son built the temple which had residential quarters for Gelopo’s descendants and they still live there. There is an interesting tilt to this story that people of the area started leading decadent lives as time went by and the results showed! Floods and landslides ravaged the land and anybody would assume that the wrong-doers corrected their ways. Simply it didn’t happen. Instead, they prevailed on the Gelopo clan to turn the face of the deity in a direction diametrically opposite. A small temple was built atop the hill and the deity was installed there with its face facing the rock!

We resumed our journey and stopped for a while at the confluence of rivers – Paro and Thimphu. They met at the base of three hills. Such places are very sacred for the Bhutanese though the number three is a bit ominous! As expected there were stupas built on the bank, four of them - Nepalese, Bhutanese, Tibetan and Mongolian in that order. Following the river further down for three hundred km would take you to the mighty Brahmaputra.

We moved on and reached Thimphu at high noon. Indians get an advantage of half an hour on reaching Bhutan due to its geographical positioning. We checked into our hotel and the first thing I asked for, you guessed it wrong, was an English language Bhutanese newspaper. Alas! There were no edition on Sundays and I had to contend with the most popular tabloid Kuensel of the previous day. Interestingly, the tagline of the tabloid proudly declares “THAT THE PEOPLE SHALL BE INFORMED”. I browsed it to get a feel of the country and sure enough, there was a major story regarding the Modi visit a fortnight back. It speaks highly of the Indian PM signing MoU in areas as diverse as space research and the energy sector. Bhutanese were also pleased with him launching the RuPay card and doubling the Nehru-Wangchuk scholarship to Rs.20 million. However, his sojourn lasted for just twenty-four hours this time in strict contrast with PM Nehru spending full six days there in 1958. It was the first time that the head of a modern government had attempted to visit Bhutan. The paper even quoted a part of his speech which said,

“It is therefore essential that I make it clear to you that the only wish is that you should remain an independent country choosing your own way of life and keeping the path of progress according to your will. At the same time, we too should live with mutual goodwill. We are members of the same Himalayan families and should live as friendly neighbours helping each other.”

What’s more, there was a black & white photograph of Nehru riding nervously on a yak closely guarded by Bhutanese dignitaries in traditional Gho (Bhutanese national dress for men).

The cover story of KUENSEL was about the spreading of Dengue fever in Phuentsholing (a border town). A total of 3015 cases were tested positive, a record! So far, the outbreak has claimed four lives. Dr.Thinley Pelzang said that the rise in the cases was because the people are still very complacent. A mass cleaning campaign would be conducted on Saturday with the expected participation of 2000 students alongwith officials and general public.

On page 18 of the twenty paged tabloid, there was a news item which immediately transported me back to India. The bold heading screamed,

Three former lecturers deny sexual assault charges

Compared to Indian standards the news was just a damp squib.

We took KUENSEL as our second souvenir from Bhutan and proceeded to the restaurant for lunch.

                                                                                                                                                               (contd.)

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