Bone Healing Menchu in Paro

For thousands of years, mankind has been looking for the Fountain of Youth, we don’t know if some people found it and kept it a secret or maybe it’s not even there. But our forefathers in Paro have found another sort of fountain that is known to have bone healing power. It's called Bjagoed Menchu located several kilometres from Paro Bonday toward Chelela.

Legend has it that a vulture (Bjagoed in Dzongkha) with a broken wing had landed near the small spring and it was seen dipping its injured wing in the spring water from time to time. After a few days, it’s said that the bird was completely healed and flew away like it never was injured. The story spread far and wide about the healing power in that water, and people with fractured bones visited the spring to take a hot-stone bath. Thus, it came to be known as Bjagoed Menchu.

The legendary spring, fenced and preserved

Bird borns are scientifically known to be very strong and hard to break but once broken they are hard to heal unlike human bones, therefore the legend seems to have a solid scientific foundation.  

Traditionally, people brought fracture patients to the Menchu and spend days to weeks in privately set up camps. They brought their tents and utensils, collected firewood, heated stone themselves and bathe for hours. The only things they need not bring were water and the tub. 

Over the years, with the increase in the number of visitors, the sacred site was badly affected; people threw garbage all over, use the pristine forest as the toilet and fell trees for firewood and tent poles. The community around there raised the alarm and sort urgent intervention from the local leaders.

Bathhouses on the left, Canteen in the centre and hostel on the right.

With the support of the GEF small grants programme, the place has been modified into a community business with a sustainable model around it. There are eight bathhouses with a wooden tub each, and the corresponding guesthouse for each bathhouse, common toilet, and canteen. 

Hostel/Guesthouses were filled with people with various fractures

It was her third day when I visited and she shared that her leg was feeling much lighter. Seeing so many people on clutches around I asked if they were healing well, to which she said that even some paralysis patients who came in wheelchairs went back walking unassisted. 

Outdoor sitting space for patients and families 

The facility is outsourced to a local who has hired a few staff to provide services like heating the stone, feeding the tubs with hot stone, cleaning the tubs in the evening, maintaining the toilet facility, managing the waste and running the canteen. It’s a rural spa.

Bathhouse with modern tech to assist the initial heating of the water. Stone heating oven on the right.

I was there to see my cousin who has injured her leg again. The same leg had sustained permanent damage from the accident some fifteen years ago. This was her second visit and was staying for a week with her daughter helping her around. 

Of course the Canteen

They say that the Menchu is good not just for healing fractures but all sort of bone-related issues. So if you are planning to go or take your parents there, the following are some logistic info I gather:

For stay-in visitors, one bath house with a guest house cost Nu.1200 a day. As many as five members of a family can share the room and the bathhouse for one price. You can use the bathhouse from 8 AM to 5 PM in the evening. After 5 PM the service is open to day visitors who don’t stay overnight.

For day visitors, who don't stay over, one bath house for three hours is Nu.800. And you are encouraged to come after 5 PM when stay-in visitors resign to their hostel.

Hostel rooms have plug points for you to bring your cooking appliances. You can order food from the canteen. Chilled beer is served as well.

For booking and inquires call Kuenchap 17922229

Ordinary Bhutanese and Five Star Hotel Myths

I don't know if it's a normal thing to be scared of visiting five star hotels. My usual confidence fades away at the thought of walking into a high end hotel unless I am with friends. I assume many ordinary people get the same feeling even when they can actually financially afford to- at least a meal. There is a mindset that those hotels as places meant only for rich tourists.

Actually I have had the privilege of dinning in almost every big hotel in Paro and Thimphu, of course as official invitee, but all these experiences have made no difference on my mindset. When my former student Gopi, who is now the marketing and communications officer with Le Meridian Riverfront in Paro, invited my family for a dinner, I panicked.

I couldn’t tell him about my strange condition. I couldn’t tell him that the big hotels make me feel small and that the radiance of interiors dim my confidence, that the politeness of the waiters makes me nervous and that I find everything so intimidating.

I rather kept pushing it for another time, and he being a professional who is groomed at a Starwood hotel kept asking when it would be the right time for me to come. Finally after much debate with my inferiority complex I braved to reveal it to my wife and daughter, and that’s when I reduced my options to nothing. Now it was them who pushed me.

Gopi was waiting for my family of five at the gate and we were ushered in to the lobby. I was familiar with that beautiful space, because I have been here twice in the past. But Gopi was prepared to surprise us, he led us to a corner and made us choose cocktails, and mocktails for the kids. That was new to us. I never thought there would be some many different types of cocktails.

Gopi then indicated that we move to the main thing; we were invited to a meal in their Pan Asian specialty restaurant called “Bamboo Chic”. That was another corner that I didn’t have the privilege to explore during my past visits, so I was waiting to be surprised. But you could imagine how uncomfortable I was feeling and how gingerly I was moving, just to make sure that I don’t land up doing anything stupid.

Bamboo Chic was a world in itself, so much part of the hotel yet so independent in its operation. It was as if the restaurant was waiting for us for the evening, the chefs in the open kitchen welcomed us and the waiters ushered us to the table. I was melting yet acting worthy of the invitation. Fortunately, the waitress waiting on us was a friend and that made us feel so relaxed. I was dying to tell her how uncomfortable I was feeling but as the conversation began things settled gradually.

I wasn’t expecting bathub and momo on the Pan Asian menu at least, yet expecting something familiar. But why would anyone come thus far for anything usual. So the manager of the F&B helped us in choosing, and he really knew how to do it for the family; he made sure that everyone asked for different cuisines so that we could all have the most out of our visit.

In the life of mine I have never feasted on such great variety of food and for the first time I saw food as a form of art. The way each cuisine was presented made me hesitate to put my fork and destroy the beauty of it. Following the art of food, was the science of taste; my ordinary tastebuds have never been exposed to such range of sensations. I wish I could explain those feelings that were beyond my usual sweet, salty, sour and hot tastes. Every plate had a story to tell- the literature of food. Now I know why there are food bloggers!

With such heartwarming hospitality showered on my humble family I thought I owed them an honest feedback, or rather a confession. So I shamelessly told them how their big brand scared the heart out of me, how their hotel appeared so inaccessible to locals and how otherwise we so much wish to visit.
I felt so relived having gotten that of my chest but I didn’t expect my confession would go on to shatter the glass-wall I have build between my self-worth and big hotels.

The manager with so much sincerity in his voice confided to us that he and his team can claim it as their achievement if they could make their hotel popular among the local people, make it a favourite getaway place for Bhutanese families. He justified that their success with international guests was not theirs to claim, it was because of their brand and the network across the world. He was so convincing that I suddenly felt so differently about the big hotels- the myth was busted. He went on to bust more myths as he talked about affordability- explaining how any average Bhutanese could customise their menu and have a great experience with the same amount we spend at local café!

Today, I can confidently walk into any hotel and feel wanted there.

Toilet at Drakarpo

In April I visited Drakarpo to choose a loo-cation, I mean location for a toilet. So many people reported to Bhutan Toilet Org about the need for a toilet there and therefore I went there to understand the need to come up with an appropriate design. It was my first visit and I was mesmerised by the whole idea of the pilgrimage on the beautiful alpine hill. I decided to build the same toilet I had designed, in my head, for Chelela Pass.

In my last blog Drakarpo Kora in Paro, I tried to express my love-at-first-sight experience at Drakparo and it was widely read and shared. The article was picked up by a travel magazine as well. Among the many readers, a man from Haa paid special attention to the last one sentence I wrote about the toilet and dropped a short message enquiring about the cost of constructing the toilet. since I had the rough costing done already for Chelela Pass I wrote back to him.

The next thing he asked was our account number where he transferred Nu.50,345, which is exactly half the cost of the project. Because it was two unit toilet he wanted to sponsor one unit. If he had asked me to write a proposal it would have taken forever but he was a practical man. He wanted the toilet and not a proposal.

Putting the pieces of jigsaw together 

I didn't have to wait for the other half of the cost because I already had the solid commitment from my friend Kuenga Lhendup to support me with timber. It was from an old home he had demolished and therefore the most seasoned timber we could ever ask for. To make the design more authentic we needed wooden shingles but who would have thought we could get the old shingles from historic Gangtey Palace. Dasho Tobgye Sonam Dorji didn't even think twice before offering to give us 250 shingles. Now the key element to the design was 'bakal' (still didn't get the English name for it) that my friend Kezang Lhamo Dorji had stocked up for me. In fact, she took care of all the administrative matters that I didn't have the slightest clue about.

Five of us at Bhutan Toilet Org office spent exactly 12 days to bring everything together and convert the design on the paper into real toilet near our office. Looking at the final result people would wonder how in the world five people took twelve days for a small toilet like that but we must admit that we were a bunch of amateurs and therefore our 12 days were actually longer because we stayed up late into the nights and forfeited our weekends. We are improving though.

Besides, we had to hire single-cabin Bolero pickups over a dozen times to collect materials from all over and to finally deliver the toilet to Drakarpo. We have a page full of names and numbers of drivers that someday I am going to develop a mobile phone app out of the data.

BTO Finance Officer/ Zowpoen Dorji with Toilet Base

Last Wednesday when the toilet was completed, I took my wife on a date and visited Drakarpo to demarcate the spot for digging the trench with approval from the stakeholders there. Then we sent the GPRS of the spot to our Paro Ambassador and by Thursday evening his team had begun digging. Saturday morning, before we arrived they were done with 6 feet deep trench before and were waiting for us.

Paro Ambassador Druksel with the Toilet Base

There were twenty of us that day including two children. It was just enough people to complete the job in over four hours. It was a miracle that it didn't rain a bit on the day, otherwise, there was no way the pickup could climb the slippery road. From the road point it was only a few minutes walk down to the toilet site but with heavy pieces of materials to carry it was quite a task. In between, we lost a single piece of a baton and it was a challenge to complete the jigsaw without that piece.

By 5 pm we were looking at the toilet with admiration and taking selfies with it. It was as if the toilet has mushroomed out of the ground organically. And then we had our lunch and beer. By then everyone was like a bear.

Interior with Sawdust box

This toilet was our pet project; we have paid attention to every detail of the design- the natural exterior finish, traditional architectural elements like bho phana and door latches, decked potty and sawdust box inside with playboard finish... it's a prototype we thought of for all the pristine locations where water is a problem. The next place we want to make the home for this design is the Chelela Pass and if it impresses our Prime Minister then we want to have it across the national highway.

All of us minus the children who were having fun elsewhere! 

Out pet at the sunset!

Drakarpo Kora in Paro

The Drakarpo Kora in Paro has become one of the most happening Buddhist pilgrimage in these few years. I have heard of hundreds of people taking what is considered the toughest spiritual journey one could possibly venture on. It's the circumambulation of the intriguing rocky hill that is considered sacred. What makes it the extreme endurance test is the number of times you have to walk around the hill- 108! It takes four long days to accomplish the journey on healthy legs. There is also a lighter version of doing 13 round if you don't have four days to spare. I just did one round that day and it took me about 25 minutes on my fresh legs.

Drakarpo

When I was there I have seen people of different ages inching along the hill in peaceful silence- they were all perhaps seeking different things through the same journey. There was no rush whatsoever, and each one has kept their own pile of pebbles to keep count of the number of rounds they made. From the hundreds of piles of pebbles I could make out how many people had already done the arduous journey. Some have built little stupas from the 108 pebbles using red mud as holder. There were also other who marked their count on the ground or rock face using scratch marks.

Piles of Pebble counter

A signboard at the starting point reads:

"This place is considered very holy and sacred. The 8th Century revered saint, Guru Padmasambhava accompanied by his consort Dakini Yeshey Tshogay and Many other Yogis and great masters down the ages have blessed and sanctified this particular place.
If you carefully observe the rocks along the path as you walk along the mountain, you can see foot and hand prints and many other auspicious sings and symbols believed to have manifested by themselves through some supernatural forces. It is also believed that if one circumambulate the mountain 108 times, even sins so great as killing one's own parents can merit redemption."

 

It's quite a proclamation to say that circumambulating the mountain 108 times could merit redemption of sins so great as killing one's own parents but doing it could very much bring about the highest level of satisfaction no matter what type of believer you are;

If you are a hardcore religious person then this journey is for you because it promises you the highest level of reward- accumulation of greatest merits and redemption of your worst sins. It's your stairway to heaven. Every round shall make you feel closer to the heaven.

If you are a spiritual person seeking inner peace then this journey is for you because four days of quiet time on the beautiful alpine hill with spellbinding view of Paro valley will give you all the time and ambience to reflect on your life and make peace with yourself. With life getting busier by the day we must make such deliberate choices to be with ourselves.

If you are not a believer of that sort and you consider yourself a practical person who knows that life is what we make of it, still this journey is for you because when was the last time you tested your endurance? It's such beautiful a way to give priority to your physical health. You have no idea how every stretch of you muscle will be put to task, and you will bathe in your own sweat. It's the mountain gym you will love. After four days you would have added fews years more to your life and you will realise how truly life is what you make of it.

Uphill

Downhill

I particularly love the idea of walking around that beautiful hill 108 times because I like challenges, I am thinking of doing it in three days. My mother completed it in four days, so i have to prove that I am her son. I will time every round and beat my own time and set record. In doing it I want to have conversation with myself and try to find inner peace. I also want break my habits of lazing around and improve blood flow in my heart. I am going to do this very soon. I need to look for a good team to camp up there with me.

Map of the Journey I traced 

The entire path is well paved with stone slabs. I remember my friend Karma Tenzin doing it as a social project with his students when he in Yeozerling School. There is water scarcity and once I was told that a bucket of water was sold for Nu.200. Bhutan Trust Fund has funded a project to bring water there. There is no toilet facility. One private toilet that was there was locked and I am told that it's inaccessible. It's intriguing to find people who won't even share their toilet. But don't worry I was there particularly to look for a spot to build a toilet. We hope to do it very soon.

If you have any questions, leave it in the comment section. I will answer you promptly.

Civil Society Organizations- Fragments of The King's Dream

The following article was written for The Bhutanese's special issues dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of His Majesty's reign. It was published on 9-12-2016. A week later on the 109th National Day in Trongsa 23 CSOs were awarded National Order of Merit (Gold). 

Read the same article below.

At the World Toilet Summit 2016 in Malaysia members of toilet associations of different countries took to stage and shared great stories about their works but one tragic twist in all their stories was the lack of support from the leadership of their countries. They were yet to convince their leaders on the significance of what they were doing. They were fighting to get their leaders’ attention to their cause.

I was to speak in the afternoon of the second day of the summit. By then people had heard enough toilet stories to have any more appetite. Attending the summit for the first time that was the best slot I could get. But I have enjoyed so much attention in two days just by being in gho. Even before I went to stage hundreds of people took pictures of me or with me. They called me Mr. Bhutan Toilet.

When I finally went to stage that lethargic afternoon I could see that I had all eyes because of my dress. I soon projected the photograph of His Majesty and me on the giant screens across the hall and told them stories of how I have the blessing of my king on what I do. When I told them that His Majesty the King gave me the title ‘Chablop’- The Toilet Teacher, I heard the loudest round of applause in that hall. That made me the only country representative at the summit who, with a little guilt of having to contradict with the rest in the house, spoke proudly about having the support of the King of his country.

When elsewhere in the world Civil Society Organizations fight for benefactions from their countries’ leadership here in Bhutan our leadership inspires people to take up social works. In 2015, during the Royal Bhutan Flower Exhibition in Paro His Majesty said, “Where we live must be clean, safe, organized and beautiful, for national pride, national integrity, and for our bright future. This too is Nation building.”

I was then experimenting with Bhutan Toilet Org as an online campaign but that royal message seemed to me like a personal command. I immediately began working on making toilets across the country ‘clean, safe, organized and beautiful’ and that was the beginning of this long journey I have started.

Who wouldn’t desire for an audience with His Majesty the King, but when His Majesty summoned me during Paro Tshechu I was least expecting it. I knew I didn’t deserve it yet. What I didn’t know was I was summoned to be blessed, to be inspired and to be guided for the long journey ahead of me.

I still have vivid memory of that auspicious moment. Dasho Zimpon made me wait on the bridge. I was the only person kept on the bridge and the next person I would see was His Majesty. I could see thousands of people on both ends of the bridge waiting to get a glimpse of His Majesty. I was frozen. I didn’t move an inch even though no one was watching.

Then came the moment, I couldn’t look up directly but I could make out from the radiance that His Majesty had come. I bowed down to pay my respect and froze back to stillness. His Majesty right away congratulated me on my team’s work during the Tshechu and told me to walk alongside him across the bridge.

I had crossed that bridge thousand times in my life but even in my most beautiful dream I haven’t seen myself walking with His Majesty the King and talking about the work I am so passionate about. I shared Bhutan Toilet Org’s Roadmap and the challenges faced in maintaining public toilets. His Majesty talked about the importance of behavioural change in making our efforts sustainable. The bridge seemed so short that day, at the other end of the bridge His Majesty stopped and shared stories of toilet issues in our country and how thing are in other countries. He blessed me with his guidance and assurance of royal support henceforth. Everything seemed so possible suddenly.

To make this priceless moment live with me forever His Majesty granted a Kupar with me with the permission to share it on social media. It was as if he knew I would need this to remain motivated each day and to influence people around me.

I couldn’t quite convince my mother to appreciate my new work after I left teaching until I sent her my picture with His Majesty. It worked magic with her. She finally began to accept and appreciate my work.

Few months later I received Royal Command to participate in the Royal Bhutan Flower Exhibition. It was only during the last Flower Exhibition that I was inspired work with toilets and now I was going to setup toilets at the event, it was too good to be true. It was granting the biggest platform to showcase ourselves and we took it up with challenge and with great pride.

During the closing ceremony of the exhibition His Majesty made special mention of Clean Bhutan, and Bhutan Toilet Org and it was then that I was granted the title ‘Chablop’. It suddenly made me feel like I was doing a prestigious job. Thereon, it made us glorify the act of cleaning toilets; it felt like an art. We never had a problem looking for volunteers to help us.

Just last month, during the Royal Highland Festival in Laya, I had the fortune of meeting His Majesty again and this time it was right next to the toilets we set up. The first question came as a compliment to our team, “How do you manage to keep the toilet odorless?” We were surprised that His Majesty knew about our knockdown toilets that were travelling places during events. For the King to know about every little effort you make was the highest reward we could ever dream of.

Later at the end of festival, during Civil Society Organizations’ audience with His Majesty I knew how he has been instrumental in the formation of every organization and how they were guided by his vision. It was like we were gifted fragments of his dream with his blessings.

Dechen: A Girl Who Was Lost and Never Found

Dechen still wonders why her father didn’t come looking for her. She wonders if he knew she was actually lost before he died. She remembers having an elder brother who she wishes to meet once.

This true story begins with the death of Dechen’s mother. They were living in Dechencholing where her father was a gardener. After her mother died her father left little Dechen at a neighbor’s and left for Punakha with his new wife. She learned later that she was given away as babysitter. When her father didn’t return for a long time she ran away from her new home and started her journey towards Punakha to find her father, on foot.

Picture and story shared with permission 

Seeing a nine-year-old little girl walking alone on the highway above Simtokha a car stopped. She told the person that her father was in Punakha and she was going there to look for him. The car gave her a ride till Khuruthang. Upon reaching there she didn’t know where to look for her father. She had thought Punakha would be a small place. Having knocked all the doors in Khuruthang town she finally reached a house where a lady took her in.

The lady asked her to live there and work for her until she could find her father. She agreed but when she couldn’t find her father after many days she decided to head back to Thimphu. When she reached Thimphu she went to her maternal uncle’s place in Changzamtog. Her uncle had long moved away. The new tenant occupying the apartment took her in and persuaded her to live with them. With nowhere else to go she stayed with them hoping her father would come looking for her.

Her new guardian soon took her to their village in Paro Shaba and made her babysit there. She grew up from a little girl into a young woman in the new place and became part of the family and the place. Though she wasn’t sent to school or treated equally at home she was happy to have found a place to sleep and feed. She would walk her master’s child to school and work in the field. Often she would take their vegetable produce and sell them by the roadside along with other farmers. 

After six years in Paro, in 2010 she finally met a woman, among the mothers who came to drop their children to school, who knew her parents. It was from her that Dechen learned her father had passed away recently. The woman helped her find the number of her uncle living in Thimphu. And from her phone she made a call. Her uncle asked her to come to Thimphu.

She went home that day and shared the good news with her master’s family only to upset them. She expected them to pay her for all the services and let her go but it turned out that they didn’t want her to leave. Her master’s daughter had gone to Australia and they needed her hand in raising their grandchild.

During her conversations with her uncle over the phone she told him about the situation, so he asked someone in Paro to help her get out of there and pay for her travel till Thimphu. Early one morning, before anyone was awake she ran away from home and went to her uncle’s connection and escaped to Thimphu.

She found her uncle in Thimphu and met many of her relatives whom she never knew existed. But her brother was not among them. Nobody knew where her brother was. Her relatives were nice to her and she was on high demand because she was good at household chores and most importantly at babysitting.

After a while she felt the need to work and earn for herself because she knew no one was going to pay her at the end. So she joined as a laborer at construction of Le Mariden hotel in Thimphu. That’s when her relationship with her relatives soured because she couldn’t be as useful to them now. At her worksite she met a man with whom she finally married and found a place to call her own.

But life had more misery in store for her; she gave birth to a premature baby and lost it shortly. Her husband who now had a steady job took extraordinary leave to pursue degree in India. And to make ends meet Dechen came looking for a hotel job in my sister in-law’s small restaurant. That’s how I knew all about her. She was still recovering from her C- section surgery when she joined. It’s been two years since she joined the restaurant. Her husband returned with a degree but lost his old job.

Last year during Thimphu Tshechu her husband had taken a loan of Nu.43,000 from a friend on a ridiculous interest rate of 10% per month to run a stall. Their stall had run into loss and ever since the loan shark has been harassing them. They have already paid over Nu.30,000 in interest alone and their friend has been raining calls on them. Once they were locked inside their own house when they refused to open the door... 

Dechen once asked me ‘Achu, people say if we suffer we will prosper, but why is my suffering never ending?” I couldn’t answer her. I’m still trying to overcome haunting images formed in my head. It’s almost a horror story and she is brave enough to have survived.

I have so many questions; why did her father leave her? Why he never came looking r=for her? Did he once think of her? Where could her brother be? Why didn’t those families help her find her father? How could all these happen in Bhutan? Why is life so unfair to her? How could Dechen be so happy despite all these?

And through this blog I would like to seek everyone’s help in finding her lost brother. His name is Sonam Tshering and he must be in his mid twenties now. He may be illiterate. Let us make at least one thing fair for her. If you wish to help her more, get in touch with me. I can share other details or even let you meet her personally. 

The Moment with His Majesty the King

It was the last day of Paro Tshechu and my team was celebrating our four days of success, having delivered our mission of providing clean toilets to thousands of people and literally putting an end to open defecation in the place of worship. 

We were paid a surprise visit by His excellency the Prime Minister and the honourable chairperson of National Council among others. They didn't go to VIP toilet but our public toilets were kept so well that we could impress all our esteem guest and our Prime Minster. 

Thank god His Excellency visit before we faced the water problem. There was about an hour of water shortage and within that short time our toilets were overwhelmed by problems. When I heard the arrival of His Majesty to the Tshechu ground I was anxiously running after people to get the problem fixed. I was sweating and panting. I bothered every official I knew in the area and finally we caught hold of the plumber, Ap Jochu, the only person who knew how to fix it. I nearly kissed him. 

By the time I caught my breath back I was told His Majesty was leaving. I didn't even get a decent chance to look at my king. From the extreme corner we were located at I saw waves of people struggling to get closer view of His Majesty as he left. I could have joined the crowd and pushed myself forward to get a glimpse too but we were running low of Toilet Paper supply. So I had to run to a shop nearby to purchase toilet paper rolls. On the way, from above the wall I saw His Majesty briefly on the last turn on the road down to the valley. 

I reached the other toilet to check if they needed toilet paper. Just then I got a call. It was Dasho Zimpon. He told me that I was summoned by His Majesty. I couldn't believe this was happening. I ran to the location Dasho called me to and down the valley we followed the entourage. I was flying in the air. We got ahead of the royal entourage and Dasho made me wait on the bridge. I was the only person kept on the bridge and the next person I would see was His Majesty. I could see thousands of people on both ends of the bridge waiting to get a glimpse of His Majesty. I was frozen, I didn't move an inch even though no one was watching. 

Then came the moment, I couldn't look up directly but I could make out from the radiance that His Majesty had come. I bowed down to pay my respect and froze back to stillness. His Majesty congratulated me on my teams' work during the Tshechu and told me to walk alongside him across the bridge. 

The Moment that will live with me forever

I had crossed that bridge thousand times in my life but even in my most beautiful dream I haven't seen myself walking with His Majesty the King and talking about the work I am so passionate about. I could share Bhutan Toilet Org's Roadmap and the challenges faced in maintaining public toilets. His Majesty talked about the importance of behavioural change in making our efforts sustainable. And at the other end of the bridge His Majesty spent some more time blessing my dream with his guidance and assurance of royal support henceforth. Everything seemed so possible suddenly and I couldn't wait to tell my team. 

To make this priceless moment live with me forever His Majesty granted a Kupar with me with the permission to share it here. I shall look at this photograph and stay motivated for the rest of my life. And this picture shall remind me each day that I can't take rest on my dream anymore.

My Asset, Motivation and Reminder 

For making this priceless moment possible I would like to thank His Excellency the Prime Minister, my toilet team, my volunteers across the country and all those people who believed in me and supported Bhutan Toilet Org.

Mother's Sweet Revenge?

I saw an elderly woman completely drunk and making scene near Paro Dzong on the first day of Tshechu. Everybody was avoiding her. She was flat on the ground crying and cursing, occasionally begging to be taken to hospital or home. She was wearing a complete set of Tshechu clothing, except it’s all covered in dust. Like Cinderella she has left one of her shoes some distance away from her.

My son Jigme and I went close to her and asked if she really needed to go to hospital. A nearby shopkeeper cautioned us through her window, 

“Sir, stay away. Just let her be. She is drunk.”

I didn’t feel comfortable leaving a woman of my mother’s age in that condition even though she was wasted. I picked her shoe and like prince charming tried it on her foot. It was a perfect fit. Lol.

Tshechu is full of Show

“Ama, you must have come to watch Tshechu, why are you becoming the Tshechu yourself? People are watching you perform here.”
She tried to crawl but fell back heavily on her back. We brought some cardboard pieces and gave her a thin layer of mattress and pillow.
“You don’t seem to need hospital, you need to go home and sleep. Where do you live?”
She pointed in random directions. I knew she was totally disoriented. She stopped throwing tantrum and began paying attention to me. We bought her water knowing very well how it would feel.
“Ama, if you must drink you should wait till the evening, reach home and enjoy your drink. Here in Tshechu you have made a joker of yourself. And where are your friends? Even they have gone into hiding.”
She would laugh and cry at the same time and cursed her friends for leaving her. Not surprisingly she was in agreement with my suggestions, like all seasoned drinkers.

Then it struck me that she might own a mobile phone. So I asked if she had one, which I could use to get her people pick her up. She dug into her hemcho for the longest time and took out a cold drink and handed it over to me.
“Don’t drink this. It’s mine.”
“Give me your mobile phone.”
She went into her hemcho again and came out with her purse, then few changes but not her phone. So I helped her search for it. Bingo, it was just there.

I went into her call log and dialled the most recent number. It was someone in Punakha. Then the next, it didn’t answer. Then I checked her contact list and surprisingly there were names saved. So I read out each name and asked her whom to call. She suggested a lady.
“Sir, I’m in the town. I have to be here for a while.”
“Can you tell me whom I should call to get immediate help?”
“Try her son and nephew. They are both in the Tshechu.” The lady gave me their names. I checked back in her contact list and found the son’s number.
“Hello, you mother is here near a shop beside the Dzong. She seems too drunk. Can you come and take her home.”
“Sir, I will send her nephew immediately.”
I put back her phone, purse, changes and most importantly her cold drink into the safety of her hemcho. While waiting for her nephew I casually remarked,

“Ama, you have to understand how your children would feel seeing you like this and embarrassing them in the crowd…”

“Dasho, my children are not like you. They too must understand how I feel after all these years of raising them… they have done their share of embarrassing me!”

I didn’t have anything to say after that. It seems embarrassment was mutual. Her son and nephew came and took her home. They were thanking me but I told them to be more thankful to their mother.

I am hoping the shopkeeper lady who cautioned me to stay away must have learnt how to help. I am also hoping my son would have learned something because I have learned something.

On the last day I saw the woman again. Not drunk.

Public Toilet Lovers in Bhutan

This November 19, on the World Toilet Day, Bhutan Toilet Organization will be celebrating its first anniversary. So far in our first year of existence we have enjoyed huge support from concerned citizens and we have been able to make people talk about toilets, if nothing. We have done an online campaign Let's Make Toilet a Better Place and on the ground we have transformed the public toilet in Paro into one exemplary toilet in the country, where different groups of people came together to address the issue.

On our journey we also met some people who were experts on the issue and who also knew that it's impossible to change toilets in Bhutan, but we are very naive and would like to believe that we can change. We want to form the largest network of responsible citizens to assist government and local authorities build and maintain toilets.

So are we have about 160 members from across the country and abroad, forming a network of toilet lovers. And our first big assignment is to make every public toilet in the country clean and open to public by 19th November. So far in our assessment we found out that the public toilets across the country share similar fate; they are broken, blocked, and neglected. Therefore, our members are already briefed and they are working on their unique plan to address the issues. On 19th November we will share stories of how our members have transformed public toilets in their regions.

We are not just looking at one time cleaning campaign, our members will work with communities and local authorities to find a sustainable solution to maintaining the toilets after our event. We will continue to monitor the toilets hereafter and provide feedback to the authorities.

This year World Toilet Organization asked us to join their global event called The Urgent Run and we have registered this event with them, because transforming our public toilets is an urgency in Bhutan. We also received approval from the Health Ministry and appreciation from the Health Minister himself. But without any financial support so far our members will have to improvise and fund the event through their own local initiatives.



Following are few pictures of Public Toilets in our Country:

Bumthang

Trongsa

Mongar

If you wish to Join us as a member, Register below: