The Fifth of February is Now More Than Just a Date

On 6^th February, when the grand announcement of the birth of Gyalsey warmed the cold mountain air my mother called me to tell me that I had forgotten to wish my little sister on her birthday yet again. It wasn’t the first time I forgot her birthday and it always broke my heart. But this time I promised her that I shall never forget her birthday anymore because Fifth of February is never going to be just another date on the calendar. The Fifth of February is now an auspicious occasion for all times to come. I felt so proud that my sister now shared birthday with His Royal Highness, the Gyalsey.

The Fifth of February will go down in history as the day the luckiest Crown Prince in the history of the country was born. Since the beginning of monarchy in the Bhutan this day has never happened where the crown prince was born in the presence of his King Grandfather. His Majesty and Her Majesty have therefore given the best 60^th birthday gift to the Great Fourth and to their people. This makes us the luckiest people in the history to be living in this glorious time and witnessing what’s nothing short of perfection.

We have already witnessed two of the greatest events in the history; the crowning glory of His Majesty the King and the Royal Wedding, both of which were extraordinarily significant because of the presence of His Majesty the Fourth King. The happiness that the nation experienced in these moments was crafted, piece by piece, over a long period of time by the king who knew the source of perfect happiness.

Three Generations of Kings in the First official Photograph of HRH Gyalsey

Today, on the auspicious day of losar we were given the gift of the first glimpse of our Gyalsey through the official photograph. The picture was so absorbing that I kept looking at it for a long time. It showed our glorious past and the beautiful present looking at the promising future. The right hand of the Great Fourth wrapped affectionately around Gyaltsen's shoulder and the left across His Majesty's lap holding the newborn- Oh it's made in heaven! It's a picture that can make your forget everything and be happy. And in this overwhelming moment the only words that keep coming to my mind is Thank You.

The Picture of a Lifetime

My mother received the honour of offering tshogchang to His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen and the Prime Minister during the tokha in Yangthang Tshakha. My mother would not have dreamt about a day even faintly close to this, to see their majesties up close, talk about her life and children, and pose for a photograph, with His Majesty's hand on her shoulder. 

This is a photo I will cherish for the rest of my time, the best moment in my mother's hard life.

My Mother with His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen and the Prime Minister (Source: Ashi Jetsun Pema's official Fan Page)

Father King's Gift of Happiness to Bhutan

On December 14th, 2006, when His Majesty the Fourth King handed over his duties as king to his son, His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the ministers and senior government officials who were attending the ceremony shed their tears silently, common people across the country were shocked and felt helpless, unable to comprehend. I thought it was a bad dream. For us, the Fourth King was the personification of God himself and I had a wish to live and die under his rule. It was the hardest to accept that the King we loved all our lives was resigning at the age of 51, changing the course of history and tradition.

But what we didn't realize was his vision of happiness for his people. And today, after two major events in the history of the nation- the coronation of the His Majesty the King of Bhutan and the Royal Wedding, when I look back it brings tears to my eyes as I understand how great a gift our Fourth King has given us on that fateful day in 2006.

First Time in the History of Humanity

Never in the history of our country, or any other country, a father king crowned his son. It was always after the passing away of the father that son gets crowned. For the first time in the history the raven crown was worn on the head of king who was perfectly happy during the crowning ceremony. And that glory reflected in lives of every Bhutanese. That was the Gift from the Fouth King that we didn't understand back in 2006.

The Royal Kiss in Changlingmethang

Never in the history of our country a queen was crowned in the presence of her father in-law. Ashi Jetsun Pema Wangchuk was the first queen who received Dhar Negnar from the dotting father King. The Royal Wedding became so special just because there was the father king to bless them and this is the blessing to the people of Bhutan that we didn't understand back in 2006.

And every morning we wake up to the love and grace of the charming young King without having to miss our former King just because we know he is still there watching us, and that is the daily happiness we enjoy and it's the gift from the Fourth King that we didn't understand back in 2006.

Now, there will be another moment in our own time when our Crown Prince will be born, who will be the first crown prince to receive the blessings and wisdom of his Grandfather. That shall bring immense joy to us all.

Thank you Your Majesty, now we know why you did what you did in 2006. You are truly the God of happiness.

Bhutan's Queen Crowned Today

How much ever I write today, it is bound to fall far short of what actually happened.Queen of Bhutan is crowned and people far beyond our country have seen the crowning glory. Just for the record, I want to post this so that someday my daughter will grow up to read this and know that she was present at the ceremony.
I watched the whole ceremony live on BBS with my family and just when the King and Queen walked out into the crowd to meet the people, we dressed up and rushed to the Latshothang to see them. I nearly lost my camera at the security gate, but I convinced them that I am a responsible photographer and that I have taken it just to shoot my wife and daughter. After two shots of my family the battery died out, that's how responsible I was.
It was so exciting to see the newly wed King and Queen, Fourth King and Ashis, Princes, Princesses, Sogyal Rinpochee, popular political figures like Loenchen, OL Tshering Tobgay, Sonam Kuenga, Sangay Khandu (We shook hands) and many many more. Something special about Bhutan is that we consider these people as celebrities and not actors and singers.

The Royal Couple posing for Media. BBS Photo.

There are two events I will never forget in my life; First, The crowning of His Majesty the King, Jigme Khesar Namgay Wangchuk by his father, Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singey Wangchuk and Second the crowning of Ashi Jetsun Pema by His Majesty.

And Dear Daughter, you were a little sick and cried a lot but you were there with us in Punakha during the Royal Wedding (October 13, 2011).

My visit to Lingkana Palace

In Bhutan you don't have to be special to visit the Royal Palace, meet your King, and converse with Him. His Majesty makes it his personal interest to invite different groups of people to his palace and talk heart to heart with them over tea, which often he prepares himself.

With Royal Couple in their Palace

On the eve of royal wedding I am proud to share about my visit to the palace and meeting His Majesty and Ashi Jetsun Pema. His Majesty wished to sit down with people from different media groups and thus there were people from newspapers, radio, TV, film industry, Media Foundation and me- well I was to represent the bloggers. Blogging is picking up in Bhutan and now it is claiming its space alongside the mainstream media in the country.
During the conversation His Majesty shared with us about how he wants his wedding to be- humble and truly Bhutanese. He wants no chairs, no plates, no cold drinks, no beer, no wines, no international cuisines. He beamed as he described the display of local delicacies from 20 dzongkhags and palangs of local beverages. From the way he described his wedding plan it sounded to me like a wedding of an ordinary Bhutanese, and it made me so proud to be a Bhutanese.
His Majesty talked to us on various subjects ranging from his choice of music to books he read, from ancient Indian kings to first recorded Bhutanese song, from Ashi and him fighting for TV remote and laptop (they only have one TV and one laptop) to discovery of Third King's storeroom in Tashichhoedzong. When he shared the letter third king wrote to his Majesty the fourth king, who was then studying in London, I couldn't hold my tears.
His majesty and Ashi talked to each of us by calling our names and asking about things we do. Ashi Jetsun showed interest in my blog and asked for the blog address. She said, " I should read your blog.", which sounded to me like " The Oscar for the best Best Blog goes to PaSsu!!"
Throughout the audience I couldn't help watching his majesty's expression of love to ashi through his words, his smile, his touch and playfulness. Nothing in the world seemed to me so perfect than the choice our king made, and nothing in the world felt so powerful than the love I saw between the royal couple. His Majesty fondly told us that ashi takes good care of him despite being ten years younger to him and I thought that's the best service a queen could render to her country.
Tonight I pray to all gods in heaven with all my heart to bless our king and queen all the happiness in the world. And May the divine Royal love reflect in lives of every Bhutanese couple for all the times to come.

P:S: My visit to Lingkana Palace was about a month ago, I am sharing it on the eve of Royal Wedding.

Oil on Canvas for my King and Queen

As I watched my friend Hemlal giving finishing touch to the portrait of their majesties the king and queen for their wedding celebration, I wondered how I should express those million feelings that are singing in my heart. I could see people around me writing beautiful poems and composing sweet musics, there are already so many lines written on Facebook walls and blogs, how could I write something so differently satisfying? Eventually, after months of pondering I realized however I write I am only going to dilute my strong feelings.
Then during one of my visits to Hemlal's makeshift studio I suddenly remembered my childhood passion for painting. But since he has done the portrait so well I had to think of another way; something through which I could bring out the character of the compassionate king and the divine romance of the wedding.
I recollected all the kings I know from history and none really qualified my criteria- some weren't kind, some were brutal, some fully consumed by greed and others by lust, the few kind kings I remembered weren't either wise or handsome. There was no one worldly king I could think of who could be used as a legendary reflection of our beloved king.

Penciling my feelings.

The only king I know who so much characterizes our king was but an imaginary king from Disney Renaissance; an image of the perfect king envisioned by Walt Disney Feature Animation- yes the Lion King. The king I loved for ages. There among the many pictures of Lion King I saw one which emits the radiance of pure love and eternal comfort, which is exactly what I wish for our king. Thus I picked it up and started sharing the room with Hemlal.

The Finished canvas. 

Oil and Canvas for Royal Wedding

There are million things happening at a time in Bhutan for the celebration of Royal Wedding and I am involved in half a million of them- at least I like to be. I am chasing deadline after deadline, personal to official, and moving out of my comfort zone in making the occasion something I can cherish forever as my personal achievement.
I am being approached by two groups of students to help them record their song, direct their MTV, Edit the Video and send it to BMF for the Book of Congratulations. They won't believe when I say I can't and therefore I am into it. I promised them that even if their MTV doesn't make it for the book it will go to Youtube. Then there are poets who want me to edit their poems, type it and send. On the other hand I am collecting pictures from students for the Bhutan Observer collage creation.
I am advising our school carpenter on the engineering of a giant structure he is building for the royal wedding dance, helping Dzongkhag in writing felicitation message to be published in Newspapers, assisting school administration in coming up with ideas to celebrate in our own school... I have copies of all the letters addressed to school for the celebration and I am celebrating it already.

Far in the corner of storeroom, my colleague Hemlal Pokhrel is doing his magic on Canvas. He is the artistic branch of our school and for the last few days he has set up his studio in the desolate room. He is doing a larger then life portrait of the royal couple to be used as the central piece during the celebration in Punakha. I visit him often in his studio to appreciate his work and push him ahead.

Hemlal going larger than life

I haven't yet thought of what I and my family would do to celebrate the auspicious wedding...

Royal Wedding Announcement

Today, everybody in Bhutan is talking about the Royal Wedding announcement done this morning by His Majesty himself. Come October and we are going to see Ashi Jetsun Pema, whom his majesty described as a humble and caring girl, stand along our king and wave at us.


His majesty shared this great news with us last week during his visit to our school, and this morning's announcement made it all seem so real. While the news brought tsunami of happiness across the nation, I am sure millions of girl's hearts across the world must have been broken this morning!


The urge to see our future queen began right away, and I Googled for her pictures, but I am returned with pictures of His holiness the Dalai Lama's sister. I considered it a very good omen!


And finally, His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck's page on Facebook release the spellbinding picture of the divine pair. They are made for each other, without a doubt!

K5 with Ashi Jetsun Pema!