Sorry Dasho Nishioka- A Book Review

Dasho Nishioka (1933-1992)

The story of Dasho Nishioka and his life in Bhutan is no short of a fairy tale; I still can't fathom how a sophisticated metropolitan had possibly left behind his comfortable Japanese life and decided to work in Bhutan in 1964? 

The book, Dasho Keiji Nishioka- A Japanese who lived for Bhutan by Tshering Cigay and Dorji Penjore deserves the recognition of being the first to recount the life of a great being who by all means deserved to be remembered. However, it should be forgiven for not being a comprehensive biography, one that is worthy of celebrating an extraordinary life and works of Dasho Nishioka.  

A foreigner who is awarded Bura Marp by His Majesty the King, given a grand state funeral, awarded Druk Thugsey Medal posthumously, built a chorten in his memory and has a flower named after him, if he is not worth several volumes of books then something is missing.

Dasho Nishioka Chorten in Paro

His numerous accolades are not what defines Dasho Nishioka, the true value of the man is in knowing why has he been recognized so grandly. His death from a tooth infection in 1992 at the prime age of 59 could have been avoided if he was anywhere outside Bhutan. He paid the ultimate price for his dedication to this country. When lamenting the loss of a great being, his daughter, Yoko says her father had nothing much to live for, having achieved so much in his short life. His was truly a short and fat life. 

I have heard of a certain Japan Sayab who revolutionized agriculture in Bhutan but it was only in this book that I connected all the dots and began to form a whole picture that I could appreciate. He came to Bhutan in 1964 when life in Bhutan was physically daunting; only Thimphu and Paro were connected by road and it wasn't until the 1980s that we had electricity. But despite the formidable odds the Japanese volunteer chose to stay beyond his two years assignment and gave 28 years of his life to Bhutan, until his death. He spent five years of his life in Bhutan in Zhemgang, the Dzongkhag that took weeks to reach on foot back then and that still is considered a difficult place in 2020. 

Dasho Nishioka's Home in Panbang

A prosperous life awaited him in Japan but he laboured in Bonday Farm to change agriculture in Bhutan. The book gives us an overview of his experiments and initiatives to mechanize farming, improve seeds, enhance yield, create access to market, improve storage, initiate processing, packaging and exporting, build the capacity of the farmers, leverage on the organic brand from Bhutan. What? déjà vu! 

If I hadn't read this book I would be disillusioned into thinking that we have come a long way but half a century later we are still talking about the same issues in agriculture. My conversations with Dr. Lam Dorji on his 'farm to market' project and with Farmer Sangay on Farming 4.0 will never be the same. I want them to read the book and have a soulful conversation with them on how we failed Dasho Nishioka. 

This year the pandemic forced us to wake up to the hard reality that we are still not capable of producing our own food, not even rice. The book tells us that Dasho Nishioka succeeded in enhancing the rice yield three times by improving the seeds. How much have we enhanced it since? It's a shameful revelation of our hypocrisy that we haven't been faithful to the mission that Nishioka started. We left it to him. 

On page 59, a picture of Bonday Farm from the 1980s is juxtaposed with another one taken from the same spot in 2010, almost 30 years apart, and in sharp contrast to the common expectation that the Farm would have flourished into a mega farm, one could see the farm was doing better in the 80s than 30 years later. 

The book relates how even back in the days Dasho Nishioka had to bargain with insincere and lazy Bhutanese to work hard on their own farms by means of reward and punishment. Imagine the frustration of a hardworking Japanese when faced with our suffocating complacency. Had we inherited a little bit of Nishioka essence we won't be having the debate on food security today. We will be exporting premium organic food to the world.

But Sorry Dasho Nishioka, we failed you. Should you come back somehow and see how far we have reached since you left you will be heartbroken.

This book should be read like an initiation prayer by every Bhutanese who joins the agriculture sector so that they recognize and appreciate the history of modern agriculture in Bhutan, and about the foreigner who put his everything in it; to let them question why we are still where we began and to inspire them to work toward a real change with the dedication that would have won the approval of Dasho Nishioka.

The book that was published in 2011 deserves a second edition with more contents on the legend's private life in Bhutan to make it a complete biography. The book needs better design and change in the paper type (non-glossy) to make it reader-friendly while printing the pictures on glossy paper. 

Publishing PaSsu Diary; Blog to Book

My favorite Oscar Wilde said ‘memory is the diary that we all carry about with us’. Another wise man said ‘God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.’

It’s already June in my life and spring flowers should keep blooming in my head till December but given my punctured memory I don’t think I can remember the color of the rose I picked this morning. I often meet familiar people on the street, shake hands, pretend to know them and wonder how I knew them after they are gone. They talk about a fond family incident I am clueless about.

As if I knew this was coming I never really trusted my memory, perhaps I never had a good one I could trust. I scribbled everything all around and one day in June 2006, in Ms. Loh’s class, I began this blog PaSsu Diary. It was just another classwork. I never thought it would go on with me for ten years and become my memory keeper.

Talking about so many years I am wondering how the hell a decade passed with nothing so significant to call as my achievement. Did I sleepwalk across years? I’m still struggling with the first car loan I ever took and every month it’s the same old tale of endless compromises.

But then I look at my blog archive and there are over 620 fragments of stories telling me that I have lived in little moments for little things. There are over a million hits telling me that the little things mattered. O’ I shall have roses in December after all.

I think I owe my blog something for its 10^th anniversary and this is where the idea of publishing my blog into a book comes. But I swear I am having hard time picking the best 100 articles for the book. If you have been reading my blog I am sure you would have liked some articles. Please let me know your favourite PaSsu Diary article(s) and help me narrow down my choices. I hope it has at least 100 articles worth publishing into a book. 

Draft Book Cover

Note: I am aware of my terrible grammar and typos. I trust my editor Nawang Phuntsho to deal with that. The cover is just the first draft. Our designer Che Dorji will have to work on it and I may have to sit with Chimi R Namgyal for another art work.

The First Bhutanese Writers’ Retreat

We called it a retreat because it was too modest to be called a festival. This was something we have been looking forward to since the time we founded Writers Association of Bhutan (WAB) in 2009. This time around we entrusted two of our prominent members in Phuntsholing to lead us. Kinley Wangchuk and Namgay Tshering took less than two months to make the first ever Bhutanese Writers’ Retreat happen. It was a distant dream for the longest time, and now it seems like we have finally found our way. Thanks to the leadership of the two men.

Aue Supe with Super Presentation 

The event took place on 23rd Jan 2016 in a quiet conference hall of Centennial Hotel in the middle of busy Phuntsholing town. The attendance at the event was as modest as our event but quite a few people believed in us to travel from Thimphu to take part in the event while some seemed to wait till we are big enough to deserve their time. We might never make it there but if we ever do we shall remember the people who were with us during our small beginnings, who did more than just watching us struggle. It’s been years now and I know if some of our established writers showed a little faith and came together we could have already come up with something substantial to proudly call our own.

Super Cop in Deep Muse 

In 2003 I completed my first book of short stories and invested all my pocket money into printing the manuscript. First I didn’t know where to go and second the places I went to didn’t even read my stories, and at last they threw away my manuscript. Thirteen years have passed and I haven’t published that book yet. This need not happen to any aspiring writer now. There are people at WAB who will read the manuscript and if the stories are good then we have a team to edit the story, layout the book, design the cover, find financial support for printing if necessary, and produce a book that is of international standard. This already happened with at least six new authors. With each new book we have learned better ways to do things.

The Modest Population

And the Retreat is to celebrate and showcase our team efforts because everyone at WAB is a part timer and every new author is a new team member. So at the retreat we come together to share experiences, to promote books, to have workshops on writing, editing, publishing, and book designing. It’s basically to beat the path to publication flatter.

My Friend and Co Founder Nawang on Alternative Publishing 

Following list of activities from the event will tell you what the retreat was all about:

1. Mindfulness – Namgay Tshering
2. Book Promotion and Sale: Kadrinche-beyond words, Cronical of a Love Foretold, Darkest June, La Ama, Barnyard Murder, and Restless Relic
3. On the road to publication- Experience sharing by Kinley wangchuk and Karma Tenzin Yongba
4. Poetic Inspiration- Tshering C Dorji
5. Simplicity in Writing- Kunga Tenzin Dorji (Supe)
6. Writers and Blogging- PaSsu
7. Editor’s Story- Needup Zangpo
8. Elements of Detective stories – Karma Tenzin Yongba
9. Crowd Publishing- Alternative Publishing- Nawang P Phuntsho
10. Book signing by Authors; Karma Tenzin Yongba and Kinley Wangchuk

The day was overloaded but every session seemed to bring another dead cell in me back to live. That evening I threw myself on my bed in complete exhaustion but I couldn’t help smiling in satisfaction.  I have never been more motivated to dust my old manuscript and dream of publishing again.

Among the many conferences, retreats, and forums I have attended on my own expenses so far this one put an additional smile on my face because I was given a free accommodation in a nice hotel, not to mention the magnificent venue and meals since our arrival on 22^nd Jan evening till our departure on 24^th Jan afternoon. Therefore I would like to thank the duo Namgay Tshering, and Kinley Wangchuk for paving the difficult path and would like to join them and their supporters in thanking the event sponsors on behalf of WAB:

• Proprietor of Dophu Transport, Karma Dophu Thinley
• Proprietor of Namgay Woods, Dasho KS Dhendup
• CEO of Bhutan Polythnen Company
• CEO of Rabdhuen Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Sonam Wangchuk and Yanka of Phuntsho Norphel Trading
• Proprietor of Centennial Hotel

The Darkest June

The cover of The Darkest June with the picture of Wangdue Dzong on fire was enough to fascinate me. I wondered how could anybody build a story around June 2012 Wangdue Dzong fire but again it was Dasho Karma Tenzin Yongba, who could be trusted to do something strangely bold. Having served in the police force all his life crime story was his love story. His first novel The Restless Relic and collection of short stories Barnyard Murders were testimony to his mastery in the genre.  

Wangdue Dzong is a subject so close to my heart because I have begun my career in the shadow of that majestic Dzong and have seen it every day for six years until one day I saw it being razed down to the ground. I wrote about it in iWitness. I have written many more stories on the Dzong during my seven years in Bajothang. Therefore I have a special interest in anything that's about Wangdue Dzong.

As seen from where I stood on June 24, 2012

The official story stated that the fire was caused by an electric short circuit. The short circuit excuses helped solve many fire disaster cases, and Wangdue Dzong's was no exception. Beyond the official story, we looked no further because we took it as a sign of a fateful time that had come. Nothing could have stopped. No human was held responsible.

Book Cover from BOOKNESE

In The Darkest June Author Karma Tenzin has woven a thrilling conspiracy around the June 2012 Fire. Two parallel stories begin in 1964, one in France and the other in Trongsa, and end in Wangdue in June 2012 with the fire. Professor JD has visited Wangdue Dzong two years before Jambay sees it on his maiden journey en route Trongsa to Thimphu. He sees a dream of Wangdue Dzong engulfed in an inferno. The bad dream that he has that night under the tree in Wangdue haunts him for the rest of his life. 

Professor JD is found dead in his apartment only days before his journey back to Bhutan. He was going to return the diamond he discovered in the rock sample he stole from Wangdue Dzong two years ago to the government of Bhutan. His death puts the case to a long slumber until his granddaughter tries to connect the dots and finds the key to the locker where her grandfather has kept the papers and the diamond. 

Through Jambay's journey in Bhutan, the author subtly takes us on a nostalgic ride into our past; beginning of towns and roads in the country. Jambay meets a nice Tibetan couple who gives him shelter in his initial days in Thimphu but his affair with the young wife makes him leave Thimphu. In Phuntsholing he makes a humble beginning with a warm Sherpa family and goes on to become one of the top businessmen. 

He marries into the same Sherpa family with their niece. Later his daughter helps him in his travel business. That's when the two worlds meet. Though Professor JD's granddaughter takes her share and drops her interest in the rock, his partners pursue their search for the origin of the rock in Wangdue. They book their many tours through Jambay's company. His unsuspecting daughter leads the final tour in June 2012.

In 29 short chapters the book gives you doses of love, lust, family tale, wealth, crime,... and within a few hours, you would be on the last page wondering if Wangdue Dzong fire was really caused by a short circuit. It gives wings to your own imaginations. You would find yourself playing with even more complex conspiracy theories as if to justify the loss of a great national monument.

I have carefully avoided the details of the story to reserve the true charm and I must tell you not to judge the book by its substandard cover design. The book truly deserves a better cover and title font. And before I forget, please be warned that it's a work of fiction. 

The book is available on BOOKNESE

Gift for Reading Year in Yangthang

"You must read about everything around you- not just subjects that interest you. You must learn about current events, history, science, culture and people around the world- the pursuit of knowledge must be lifelong,"- His Majesty on the launch of National Reading Year 2015

World would envy the nation that commits to observe a whole year as National Reading Year, and for it to be graced by his majesty himself is truly something. About ten thousand students and teachers who gathered at the grand opening received book gifts from his majesty and not to mention the book was about life of Buddha. This gives us all the inspiration and reason to read.

I personally believe that at the end there are only two types of people; the ones who read and others who don't- all the other differences are therefore connected to this division. You can spot the difference in first few minutes of meeting, not just in the beauty of their language but also in the greatness of their soul. I realised it late in life because of where I came from and where I grew up. I wished I had so much inspiration and opportunity when I was in primary school. Today when I feel something missing in my being I know it's a certain book I missed in life.

However, this need not happen to the children who are growing up in my village, and therefore I approached READ Bhutan for the  construction of a library for children in my village, which is what READ Bhutan does across the country, especially in the rural parts. The amazing Nonprofit Organization made a few visits to my village and upon understanding the gravity of my request they instantly accepted to help. They have so far build 6 centres across Bhutan.

Village Committee 

They needed the assurance from the people of the village, and they also must find the way to bring people together in building the structure, and also in running it sustainably after the completion, which they call Sustaining enterprise. The agreement was signed and construction committee was formed. In April 2015 the library will be ready and over 60 children in the village will be using the facility. The library will have a computer lab, Play Room with audio visual devices, Woman Section with training equipments, and Conference Room on top of thousands of books.

READ Bhutan Team inspecting the work progress with he new Country Director

As the nation prepares for the National Reading Year I am smiling at the perfect coincidence- launching of village library in the same year by the organisation that advocates reading in Bhutan. It was never planned this way but the fact that it has turned out this way makes it the best gift for the children of my village from READ Bhutan.

It gives me so much satisfaction and pride in being the bridge between READ Bhutan and my village, and the village elders blessed me with their kindest words when I went home with READ Bhutan team to inspect on the work progress. If you feel like doing the same in your village, you know how to go about!

Yangthang Seen through the Library Window