Where the Hills Have More Prayer Flags than Trees

The Buddhist funeral ritual of offering 108 prayer flags has the potential of wiping off acres of forest every year. To get a perspective of the threat it poses, look at the hills stretch overlooking Lanjophakha to Taba, there are more prayer flags than trees. It’s so haunting to look into that direction and realize that it will continue to expand further. It's now buddhism against environment, which is not supposed to be. What have we done? 

The Prayer Flag Hill

 I have raised this issue before and even made a few tangible suggestions to make it sustainable. In one article, I suggested the need for every Bhutanese to plant 108 trees as a citizenry mandate so that we could equate that with the trees we would cut down for the ritual when we die.

 In another article, I floated a social business idea to startup prayer flag hiring company to help bereaved families deal with arduous process of hoisting prayer flag at an affordable cost by reusing old pole or finding alternative such as bamboo, plastic or steel poles. 

To do more on this, I have been part of a micro project where we promoted treated bamboo pole as an alternative flagpole. We couldn’t even make a dent because we realized that there is a huge resistance. 

 The big question we must address is, why 108 poles? It’s fundamentally flawed to count the poles when the ritual is about the prayers printed on the flag that will flutter in the wind. Shouldn’t we be counting the number of lines of prayers we are offering in the wind? 

 To make it worse, there is funny logic that states that bamboo and steel poles that are hollow inside cannot be used for offering prayer flags. Who is deciding this for us? Is it a wrong number? Otherwise, wouldn’t an offering that has done lesser harm be a more profound offering? 

Bamboo Flagpoles in Southern Bhutan

 I am not an extreme conservationist, I rather believe in sustainable harvesting of trees. I believe in felling a matured tree to build shelter and produce furniture. But I am opposed to the idea of felling young trees just to stretch a layer of prayer flags on it. Every tree is a golden goose and felling them for a mere pole is like killing the goose. It’s an unworthy sacrifice of a valuable natural resource. 

 There are more reasonable ways to make the offering; 

1. reuse old flagpoles that are lying all around uselessly. Make all the existing flagpoles public property that anyone can reuse once that prayers are faded. 
2. use ropes to stretch prayer flags between two poles or around one big pole. There are some fine examples. Make them popular.
3. explore recycle plastic poles. I think my friend Karma Yonten can do this. He has shown the possibility with his eco-green poles.
4. use steel poles. It’s far more economical because you can resell them. 
5. and I am wondering if it’s possible to cut out flagpoles from a big matured timber using some machine. (Business idea?)

Reusable Ru-dhar pole

 But as long as permits to fell young tree for flagpoles are freely available, why suffer a change? We are too lazy to explore better ways. We are happy with the old world, and there are old minds advising us to resist. People gossip about you not doing enough gewa if you don’t do it the old way. 

 Therefore, there should be a systemic effort to putting an end to this mindless culture of massacring young trees for nothing worthwhile: 

1. Department of Forestry, Forest Resources Management Division must stop issuing permit for flagpoles. We must put a ban on felling young trees for flagpole or any other purpose. 
2. Department of Culture and Zhung Dratshang must create awareness on how the offering is about the prayer on the flag that flutter in the wind rather than the pole. Pole can be anything or nothing. Prayers matter.

Let's state the truth that it's so sinful to cut a young tree for hoisting a prayer flag.

Wang in Phuntsholing, Blessing in Jaigaon

Merchants in Jaigaon have developed a special liking for Buddhism ever since the Wang in Phuntsholing began a few years ago. They say they feel liberated at the very news of Wang in Phuntsholing. They agree that buddhism is the greatest religion because it's the only religion that could bring so many people to Phuntsholing even when country is suffering of rupee shortage.

Photo by Nawang

The pirated CD bhai near Bhutan Gate says that Bhutanese devotee are very dedicated to their religion, they have not only come from different corners of the country but every evening they come on religious walk across the border and return with bags of blessings. He says that pronography CD sells very well.

The pani puri sellers also acknowledge that their health improved drastically ever since the Wang began because they get to do nonstop physical exercise. Their claim is evident from the huge biceps and the whitish fingers. They say that they don't even get time to wash their hands after peeing.

Beggar community however complains to the authority that they need breathing and sitting space. The Bhutanese crowd in Jaigaon during the Wang pose threat to the health of hygiene of the beggars on the street. The authority persuaded them to withdraw their complaint letter with the condition that they will write to Wang organisers to ask the devotees to pay the beggars in rupee.

Bhutanese taxi drivers are in the process of writing a proposal letter to RSTA to allow them to carry at least 20 passengers so that they could compete with the Indian counterparts. But RSTA rejected their proposal. The road safety authority states that only Indian drivers have the religious rights to send Bhutanese devotees to heaven.

Bhutanese Businessmen in Phuntsholing who are not benefiting so much from huge accumulation of people agree that their business is not very good as expected because people choose to visit the Indian side even to buy the things that are sold in Bhutan because the air is warmer on the other side of the border and also everybody knows that Buddha is born in India.

Banks in Phuntsholing have kept several ATMs on standby. They are happy that the machines are put to maximum use. They also have plans to load rupee in the ATMs for the convenience of Bhutanese devotees who otherwise have to stand in long queue at the ATMs in Jaigaon and Birpara to withdraw rupees.

Merchant association of Jaigaon in their press release stated in bold that they are truly blessed by the Wang and they taken the vow do whatever is possible within their means to support the Wang in Phuntsholing. It's also rumored that they are going to sponsor the next Wang to accumulate good karma and to spend their excess Nugltrum.

Bhutan's economic minister expressed his appreciation in Times of India, where he mentioned that Bhutan is a land of Happiness and commended the organisers for taking the goodwill of spreading happiness in Jaigaon beyond mere rupee issue. In reply to that Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh said nothing, he usually says nothing.

P:S: I hope you didn't take it seriously.

Extremism and Buddhism, Sex and Liberation

Extremism and Buddhism are two words not even meant to be written on the same page but over time the two were crossing paths or perhaps the inconvenient truths that always existed are finally surfacing in the awakened society. There are a certain ideology in Buddhism that are truly extremist in nature and I know many would deny it like a blogger friend, Karma wrote in his radical piece "Confessions of a Trulku’s Mistress: Lies and Whispers"

Lust

Trulkus are born lucky or made lucky, I don't even care. They are after money, unexpected yet ok, they know they are humans after all. They want women, men are men see, but why trulkus always have to be men? That's something to wonder but it's not what I am going to stress on.

Recently I was listening to a friend who is highly religious. She is young and beautiful and you won't expect her to be someone who has already made countless trips to all the holy sites in India and Nepal. I have high regards for her deep faith in religion but I pity her greed for blessings. She has lavished so much in her lamas and monasteries that she is barely surviving now, and ironically she thinks that she has sinned in her past life.

As I listened to her narration of biography of each trulku she worships, she talked about a certain Rinpoche that I couldn't digest. She proudly told me that the Rinpoche must sleep with 108 girls and liberate them from their sins. I almost screamed, "In which book is it written?" 

She explained that she heard it. 

I told her, "Your Rinpoche must be the reincarnation of a breeding bull then."

She left.

I know she is religiously innocent. She was made to believe that. And perhaps she was intending to be liberated some day. Religion is such a bait that even the smartest of people can be hooked. Sex is good for health but how can sex liberate one from sin? Have you heard about such extreme application of Buddhism? Buddhism is about mind, when did sex become a chapter? How can rapist deliver liberation? Who is playing Drukpa Kunley? 

If such trulkus got away with this so far they are lucky, because they only met with blind faith, if they think they can screw the world and screw the very essence of Buddhism itself they will have to face the fate of Asaram Bapu of India. They can be charged for Deception, Rape, molestation, wrongful confinement and defamation of religion. 

You shouldn't Copy me!

P:S: This is written with due respect to the great Buddhist masters who protect and uphold the teaching of Buddha with heart and soul.