10 November 2023
Billionaire Cinderella
02 November 2023
Quinoa Recipes for Bhutanese
Certainly! Here are five delicious and nutritious quinoa recipes:
1. **Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas and Mediterranean Vegetables:**
- Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, chickpeas, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, red onion, feta cheese, olives, fresh parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
- Instructions: Toss cooked quinoa with chickpeas and a variety of chopped vegetables. Add crumbled feta cheese, olives, and a dressing made from olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley.
2. **Stuffed Bell Peppers with Quinoa and Black Beans:**
- Ingredients: Bell peppers, cooked quinoa, black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, cheese (optional), cilantro, salt, and pepper.
- Instructions: Cut the tops off bell peppers and remove seeds. In a bowl, mix cooked quinoa, black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and optional cheese. Stuff the mixture into the peppers and bake until peppers are tender.
3. **Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Quinoa:**
- Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, shrimp, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper.
- Instructions: Sauté shrimp in olive oil and minced garlic until cooked. Toss with cooked quinoa, fresh lemon juice, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.
4. **Vegetable and Chickpea Curry with Quinoa:**
- Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, chickpeas, mixed vegetables (e.g., carrots, peas, cauliflower), coconut milk, curry paste, garlic, ginger, onion, lime juice, cilantro, salt, and pepper.
- Instructions: Sauté onion, garlic, and ginger in a pot. Add mixed vegetables, chickpeas, coconut milk, and curry paste. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Serve over cooked quinoa and garnish with lime juice and cilantro.
5. **Quinoa and Black Bean Burgers:**
- Ingredients: Cooked quinoa, black beans, breadcrumbs, egg, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, and your choice of toppings (e.g., lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese, etc.).
- Instructions: Mash black beans and mix with cooked quinoa, breadcrumbs, egg, finely chopped onion, minced garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Form into patties and cook on a stovetop or grill. Serve on a bun with your favorite toppings.
Remember, you can always customize these recipes to suit your taste preferences and dietary restrictions. Enjoy your quinoa dishes!
31 December 2022
Top 10 Brand Bhutan Promotors Beyond Borders
The year 2022 has been a tremendous year of transformation and risk-taking for Bhutan. We have finally done many things that we have only thought about or didn't even think about to this day. It's too early to get any sense of where it would take us but what matters is that we have done it. I am optimistic that it will be worth it.
Of the many things that we braved to change, even though they seemed to be working fine (because just fine isn't enough anymore), is the transformation in the tourism sector. The sudden rise in the SDF from $65 to $200 shocked the sector, but that's where the idea of an exclusive destination gets real. We just have to wait and see if this was a masterstroke. I have reasons to believe it is. But we have to put in some effort to promote Brand Bhutan as an exclusive destination across the world and not just on paper. We must make the world curious as much as we have to make ourselves ready.
I made a list of the top ten Bhutanese citizens who have managed to create curiosity in parts of the world and made people ask, "Where is Bhutan?"
Department of Tourism could use these people as ambassadors in the regions they are popular or at least recognize them in some form because if we are to put a cost on their contributions to the promotion of the brand Bhutan- it's going to be priceless.
Pawo Choyning Dorji, Filmmaker |
Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Motivational Speaker |
Sangay Tsheltrim, Bodybuilder, Actor |
Pinda, Gamer |
Chencho Gyeltshen, Football Player |
Phub Zam, Singer |
Ryhaan Giri, Singer |
Ugyen Choden, Actor |
30 December 2022
Reviving School Museum in Bajothang
One of the last things I did before leaving Bajothang was starting a school museum club and physically creating a school museum. But that was in 2014, and after I left, my idea almost died. In the first few years, I would call my old friends to inquire about the status of my museum; each time called, I got more disappointed until I stopped calling.
2014: My Students and I on the trip to Matalungchu |
2014: Look what we found. |
The Oven Maker |
After he called, I walked down memory lane on my blog to the time my 22 students and I joined forces to start a new club. I remember starting the club to convert the old building into a museum and protect it from being demolished. That old structure has a fascinating history that makes it worth preserving. It's said to be the first structure built on the empty plains of Bajothang during the reign of the Third King. The place was created to serve as the centre of commercial ventures, a new idea of a marketplace back then.
Mr Norbu posing with the Museum Signage ( It's the same board we made in 2014) |
The Old Structure housing the Museum. |
I am grateful to Norbu for gathering a bunch of young people around him to revive the project I had started and for reaching out to me to be a part of it. He recognized the importance of that project, which showcases rural artefacts that are alien to urban Bhutan. The importance of the school museum will only grow with time as we distance away from our roots. Even when we were starting the project in 2014, many of us couldn't recognise half the artefacts we collected. Imagine what it will be like now and worse in a few years when Bhutanese children are born in a foreign land.
My Kids who made this happen. I wonder where they are now. |
Mr Norbu knows more than just reviving the dying project; he made it an important event in Wangdue Dzongkhag but inviting the Lam Neten and Dzongda to inaugurate the School Museum on the 115th National Day.
Chening Dorji- A Driver to a Published Birder
Chening Dorji is more than a person; he is one of the most inspiring stories you will hear. He was a primary school dropout who had to leave because of financial difficulty. He dropped out to help his parents and lived a life of a villager. After over a decade of cow herding, his desire for education brought him to Thimphu, where he became a driver for RSPN Bhutan.
A villager man coming to Thimphu and becoming a driver is no story to tell. But wait, as a driver, he just didn't drive around people, wash the car and wait for his salary. He did more. He drove around environmentalists, ecologists, conservationists, and all prominent wildlife experts. He didn't just drive them around and wait for them near the car; he joined them in the field.
23 December 2022
Personal Transformation 2022
When I came out of the last lockdown, I could feel my cheeks hanging and my belly visibly swollen. I was beginning to snore while sleeping, which often awakened me. I had backaches and beginning to feel older than my age.
18 November 2022
CSO Contribution to Sanitation in Bhutan
Following are some of the contributions made by the national CSOs in sanitation;
1. Policy Dialogue: CSOs contributed significantly to influencing, lobbying, drafting and reviewing national sanitation policies, guidelines, and roadmap. They are also a major player in creating awareness on sanitation issues and mobilizing volunteers to become a part of the solution. They are also responsible for highlighting the government's efforts and letting people do their part.
2. Proper management of public toilets: many public toilet facilities have become defunct without proper ownership or management. CSO volunteers conducted mass cleaning campaigns to make the facilities usable and handed them over to caretakers.
4. Monastic School Toilet: to make toilet facilities in the monastic schools clean and safe for the monks and nuns, the old toilets were upgraded using the same method carried out in the schools. The monks are trained to maintain and manage the facilities hence.
5. Toilet for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and Elderly: For people who cannot go to the toilet or use ordinary toilets due to disabilities, age or sickness, CSOs have taken various initiatives to either make toilets accessible or bring in innovative technologies to put toilets closer to the people. Small portable toilets were introduced as bedside toilets that are made available to people in various forms and models.
6. Emergency Toilets; During the pandemic, hundreds of duty stations were built along the borders and hundreds more outside the quarantine facilities. CSOs rose to the occasion and helped provide sanitation facilities for duty personnel across the country and for the displaced communities and schools.
7. Rural Toilets: CSOs have worked with communities that are hard to reach and that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in improving their livelihood. Communities are empowered with economically viable activities and provided housing and sanitation that are resilient and in coherence with their environment. About 1000 rural families who could not afford sanitation facilities were supported by various CSOs. On top of that, CSOs have brought in technologies to upgrade hundreds of old rural toilets to speed up government efforts to achieve 100% ODF.
8. Event Toilet: During events, the venues do not have sufficient toilet facilities. These events usually lead to massive public health issues. But CSOs have developed modern interventions to provide portable toilet facilities and safe temporary toilets to tackle the issue.
9. Professional Toilet Managers: There are no professional sanitation workers. We have been dependent on foreign workers to deal with the dirty job. CSOs have worked to create opportunities for the emergence of local professionals who are proud and skilled in doing the job. Over 200 Bhutanese cleaners are trained to manage toilets professionally.
Note: The above write-up is a brief note prepared to be included in a national presentation to be made at SaniLearn Workshop in Sri Lanka. It includes the works of CSOs like Bhutan Toilet Org, Tarayana Foundation, Ability Bhutan Society, RSPN, Rotary Club of Thimphu, among others. I am sharing this to celebrate CSO's contributions to sanitation to reserve World Toilet Day.
29 September 2022
A Letter to Author
It's not every day that I receive a mail from a reader who loved my book or otherwise. There are not many readers, and not many readers take their time out to write a review or a mail. That's why when I do get a message, I really treasure it.
Following is a heartwarming email from a young girl who finished reading my book in two days. It goes to show that she really enjoyed it. From a short mail, I can make out that she is quite a reader, and for her to like my book is a significant compliment.
Besides that, the timing is important to me. It's been over four years since my book was published, and all the hype is gone with the wind, yet for someone to read my book a
and write to me makes me
Dear Author,
This might be an odd way of expressing my appreciation, but I couldn't find a better way of connecting with you. (I preferred email for my lengthy message )
I must say, you are really an inspiring figure for youths in our country. I have heard a lot about you and your contributions to Bhutanese society from others. Still, to really be honest, I never actually knew who you were. Perhaps I never tried to discover the works you have done, or I haven't read any piece of your collection yet.
Just recently, I finished reading your book "PasSu Diary", which I got as a recognition prize during the reading week in my school. I am not a bookworm, but I do enjoy reading. However, I hardly read a book till the end as my interest in reading truly depends on how the writer expresses each line. This might sound weird, but it has been my style ever since I was a kid.
The moment I read the first lines of your book, it just gravitated my soul towards the next page and so on. Trust me, I was done reading your book just in two days. Reading your book was like getting an opportunity to be part of all the events in flashback. Your writings also give a sense of pride and a raw perception of being a Bhutanese. The sentences in each chapter boosted my thinking capacity. No other prize could have been better than this book.
As I went on learning about you, I discovered that besides writing, you had been a social activist in various fields, and above all, you are someone that youths can look up to. Your writings have motivated me to become a passionate reader and a responsible citizen.
A bunch of thanks to you :)
- Sonam Tashi Lhazom
If you are interested in my book, here is the link to get it from BOOKNESE or buy the eBook version from Amazon.
27 September 2022
A Dangerous Thruelbub Belief
It's dangerous to believe that you could wash away the sins (Lay) you have committed, bad deeds you have done, or harm you have caused to others just by bathing on #Thruelbub or visiting a temple.
19 September 2022
Bhutanese Monarchy and Queen Elizabeth II
When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, 2022, the news touched every corner of the earth, including us, who never had anything to do with the queen. While some grieved the death of the queen they had loved all their lives, others celebrated the profound life of a monarch who ruled for seventy years.
Their Majesties, the King and Queen of Bhutan, are attending the funeral of the Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom. From the short video clips, we could feel the profoundness of the moment, where a young monarch pays his sincere tribute to another monarch on the other side of the planet. We can only imagine the significance of such a gesture.
Isn't it fascinating that Her Majesty was born in 1926, the same year our First King, Gonsar Ugyen Wangchuck, passed away? It was the same year Second King Jigme Wangchuck ascended the Golden Throne. He ruled for 26 years and passed away in 1952, which coincidentally is the same year Queen Elizabeth began her era.
So, in 1952, Third Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, ascended the golden throne at the age of 23, while Queen Elizabeth did the same at the age of 26. He was three years younger than her. If he had lived his full life, he would be 93 years old. Unfortunately, he died too soon, in 1972, at the age of 43.
With the untimely demise of the Third King when the Crown Prince was only sixteen, our country was pushed to the edge of a dark era, but this blessed Kingdom was rescued by the young King in the most historical way. His Majesty, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, ushered Bhutan into an era of unprecedented peace and happiness.
In 2006, when His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo abdicated the throne at the young age of 51, he surprised the world in more ways than we can ever comprehend. If there was one lesson the world and, for that matter, the late Queen herself could have learned from our Great Fourth, it was the detachment from power and empowering the next generation at the right time. He further engraved his wisdom for eternity by putting the retirement age of 65 for future kings in the Constitution of Bhutan.
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, lived across the era of four Bhutanese Kings- from Second King to the Fifth. It was also within this period that the United States of America saw fourteen Presidents come and go, 13 of whom met the queen. Her life and death are, therefore, of significance to the world.
May Our King and Queen be blessed with Queen Elizabeth's longevity.
May the Queen rest in peace.