Kingdom of Yangdon

A Filipino romance-drama television series Princess and I was shot in our country Bhutan and will screen from 16th of this month on ABS-CBN. The series starred some of the most sort-after Filipino celebrities decorated in best of Bhutanese costumes. I have learned their costumes were selected by Pila Wangyel (Congratulations man).I am yet to know what the story is all about, but from the little I could grasp from the YouTube trailer- the princess of Bhutan (strangely Bhutan is called the Kingdom of Yangdon), who grew up in some place away returns home and finds the love of her life. It seems, she also discovers who she really was during her journey home.

This series shall remain on the top of my wanna-watch list, and I hope it finds its way to Bhutan soon, like the princess and give us a break from ordinary Bhutanese movies. 

 

Update October 2012: I am receiving thousands of Filipino visitors on my blog looking for information about the actual Kingdom of Yangdon. 

The place that is portrayed as Yangdon in the Movie is actually The Kingdom of Bhutan. The architectural design, natural environment and the costumes shown in the movie are as it is in our country. We are located to the north of India and south of Tibet.(Read more>>)

The king in Princess and I is very handsome but not as handsome as our beloved king, and we have the most beautiful queen in the world. She was crown as the queen of Bhutan on October 13 2011 at the age of 21. 

Our Beloved King and Queen

For those of you wish to visit Bhutan, I am sorry to inform that it's bit too expensive. Our country charge US$ 250 per person per day, but that cost covers up your hotel, car, guide, tours, food and recreation. Read Why Bhutan is worth US$250>>

If you are interested in visiting Bhutan or the Kingdom of Yangdon as you know it, you could discuss your intention with Bhutan Crown Adventures. They will arrange your tour to Yangdon.

Norbu Wrote About My Childhood

Norbu- My Victim!

Norbu Tshering is one of my junior high schoolmate, who forgave me and wrote about the change in me. I wasn't surprised when I read his blog post "Passu-The Metamorphosis", I was only thankful he showed mercy by just writing a little bit from my childhood. He is one among the many schoolmates who didn't enjoy their school life because of me, and I had been too brutal to understand that. 

He wrote "Believe me he was more than the average Denise the Menace; an outrageous wild energy ever ready to do anything, especially beat you up. He was neither a gang leader nor the school boss but within our own age group he was someone you didn't want to mess with unless you had the protection of a bigger boy." 

I was a wild village boy trying to survive among the decent urban children and in my quest for attention I landed up being a terror. My village folks have a big hand in creating the then me; I was made to fight every boy in the playground and they would cheer me. They declared me the champion fighter of Yangthang, whom even the boys from neighboring villages feared. Brutality of my primary school added more horns on my head and by the time I joined junior high school where I met Norbu, I was literally out of my own control. I would fight three fights a day minimum and get beaten up by big boys and teachers when I wasn't lucky. I went on fighting- fighting another battle within me to free myself from who I was. I felt guilty and sorry after each fight I won, I felt scared after every fight I lost, and every night I would say to myself, "From now on I will not fight anyone." 

It took hundreds of nights over the years to break free from my childhood instincts and find the man I am today. It takes a willing heart to change the design of the god. I was born wild but I didn't like that, so I sort to change and I have.

My apologies to Norbu and so many schoolmates in whose lives I came like storm, but for me you all came like pieces of puzzle I was trying to solve. Norbu and I are friends now. 

Demolishing the Palace of the Tshomem

Tshomem (mermaid) is believed to be the keeper of water bodies. My school is on the bank of the Punatshangchhu, the river that has the legend of having a tshomem. Astrologers have repeatedly mentioned that the construction of the school has displeased the keeper of the river, but for the last fifteen years of existence school has done nothing to come into harmony with the spiritual power. The consistence disaster these few years forced the school to take the threat seriously.
We lost a boy to the river in 2009, the spot where astrologers said the mermaid lived. The same place was flooded the same year, washing away our fishery tank. An old woman committed suicide near the fishery tank. Over four cars accidents occurred on the adjoining road, of which one fell right into the river killing a young man. School faced fire disasters, theft cases, and even bomb pranks.  All this has reminded us to listen to the silence for once.
School, with the help from Dzongkhag Dratshang, picked the spot to construct a Tshomem Phodrang (palace of the mermaid), it's the traditional and spiritual negotiation of peace with the unseen owner of the place. Only the name is 'Palace', otherwise it's just a stone and mud structure, where no metal,cement and chalk can be used.

Site Map of School

However, in the twist of the story- in our quest to please the mermaid we have displeased a rich businessman in Bajothang. We have reached halfway through the construction of the palace, when the man came and claimed the stones we used. The well shaped stones were lying in the extended school campus for years and we knew the owner. But after we finished fencing the whole campus we had wrongly assumed our ownership over the stones. The construction committee had the intention of asking him, knowing that the old man would agree if we told him our story. But the angry rich man came twice and asked, "Do you think these shaped-stones emerged naturally? I have invested Nu.25 in shaping each stone. Nu.25 those days was powerful. I myself stole the stone from Nobding in the darkness of the night and you think you can use it at your will?"
School apologized, begged and asked him to be our patron for the construction of the palace but he remained angry. Then we asked him to put his price on the stone. We are already halfway and if he would give us at a reasonable price we thought we would buy. Teachers could contribute about Nu.10,000 to pay him up. But his price shocked us to demolish the palace right away. He wanted Nu.50 per stone, which means we should be paying him Nu.50,000 for half structure alone.
This school educated four of his children and his grandchildren will come here soon but he didn't want to spare some stones. This is the sort of public help our school is getting. If we had a legal support I have a feeling that the stone might belong to us after all these years, or may be he might have to pay us for keeping the stone in our area for so long.

Disclaimer: The views reflected in here are NOT School's, it's just my personal observation and interpretation of what is happening.

Update 7th April 2012

School helplessly demolished the structure built with those stones and rebuilt it with mud bricks. The construction committee engaged senior students and any helping hand they could get to erect the phodrang within three days, so we could consecrate it today during the school annual rimdro. Now the palace of the tshomem is built and consecrated as if nothing has happened. And we hope this brings peace to the invisible power and to the entire community of Bajothang.

The Palace of the Tshomem- built in three days

Refereeing A Social Fight

Courtesy: oahuleague.com

Last Saturday I was rushing for my evening class when I was stopped by a fight in a rustic local bar. A man held a woman by her hair and pushed her to the ground. He was calling her a 'shameless thief'. She didn't quite look fit for his description but I was yet to understand the story.
I witness the fight from the first minute but I couldn't interfere because I had my adult students waiting for their after-office class.
He went on dragging her around, demanding answers.
Then the woman said, "That's my house too and I have the right over things in there."
The story soon unfolded before me. They were divorced recently after 8 months of marriage. The fight started when the woman, who had moved out, went and took two blankets, which he claimed was his.
I was still weighing weather to run for my class or to be a referee. There were over ten people watching the fight and except for pushing the man out of the bar, nobody said anything. The man went on, "When did we ever get married? Who says you are my wife? I already told you that I don't want you, why are you following me like a dog?" That's when I jumped in.
"Sir, you can't humiliate the lady in public." He was silent. Everybody went silent. "I think your marriage is not working and you have chosen to go separate ways. But there are procedures to settle it peacefully. Have you followed any course of action to settle the matter locally?"
The lady was quick to answer, "No sir, he ran away locking his room when I went to talk with my jabmi."
"In that case sir, you can't claim those blankets or any other things in your house as your until the case is solved because those things belong to both of you. And most importantly you have no right to assault her. There are these many witness to what you have done to her and therefore you could face charges."
By then I was joined by several other elders and the man eventually calmed.
I turned to the woman and suggested her not to do anything that to lead to such fight until the case is settled. And I advised her to seek help from police or RENEW if he assaults her again.
I was 30 minutes late to my class and took another 5 minutes explaining why I was late. Later I wondered if I was even allowed to do that, because I often heard people denouncing the interference in marital affairs. What would have happened if the man turned violent against me? These were some things I didn't bother at that moment but I am happy that I did something wise people won't do. And that makes me a fool!

The Best School in Bhutan

After the declaration of Board Exam results, it's interesting to see and hear how people make bold judgement on schools. Which school is the best in 2011? There is yet no official research done on this though, but Bhutanese society must have already declare their result by now. And I am not even curious to know the result because I know the foolishness with which the result is drawn. Even the official declaration of "Top Ten Schools" last year amused me, because even they thought it wise to judge schools by their academic results.

Bajothang in Summer

My school is one among the few schools decorated with ill reputation by the public, and therefore they want to take away their good performing children to schools with good reputation. This is an annual trend and many of our academic toppers leave for "better" schools. They don't stop for a while to reflect on which school made them who they are, not even their parents. Their ticket to "better" schools are confirmed because they are going with outstanding marks, and therefore keeping up the reputation of that school.
But here we begin again with new set of students, and the best part of my school is that we don't look at their past- their character certificate and mark sheets. If we are so hungry about reputation we would just take in students with good marks and stainless character certificate but we are not.
Not every child is born with intelligence, not every child is born talented but if a school wants the intelligent and talented students where would the less gifted majority go? Children are young and innocent and aimless, therefore they can be naughty, aggressive, violent and mannerless but they have the right to education, they have the right to grow and correct themselves. If a school denies them admission, where would they get time to fine their way in life?
My school takes in just everybody because it's the school's moral responsibility to educate every child- not just every good child. It's not about building and keeping reputation of a school, it's about children's right to education. And in keeping with this national interest we land up having disciplinary problems, and sometimes poor academic result. And that's how we get our ill reputation by doing good. Should we mind?
School is just an open stage, students themselves are the magicians. And my school is a stage where all magicians are given equal space and time- often some magics are different but magic is a magic after all, god made it that way, and we have learnt to accept that.
Going by the result my school is not the best school in 2011, but going by what I know of my school it is the best school and I am proud.

Under 16 Nuisance in Wangdue

There were two explosions in my school earlier this month and you must be wondering if I didn't hear them. Of course I heard them and I even gave my statement to police. But I didn't want to make it public so that police could do their job at peace. But now that the news has already been reported in two papers I see no harm in writing about it.
I have nothing different to tell from the story The Bhutanese and Kuensel covered but let me run the narrative as unfolded before me. At about this time, 11:40 on March 1, I was working right here when I heard the first blast. I ran to my window and surveyed the campus. Nothing was out of the ordinary. I was lost in my works again when I heard the second blast. After spotting nothing unusual, I thought it must have been army firing at Tencholing.
Only in the morning I found out that it was right at my friend's door. But even he didn't realize it was there until morning when he found his door latched from outside. Upon opening the door he found three sheets of warning notes pasted at his door and on the school notice board. We reported it to the police and police requested army to identify the remains of explosives. They concluded that the devices used were those used in construction works.
This ordeal raised two big questions: How did the explosives land in the hands of children? How safe are teachers in doing our duties? While the first question would be answered soon by the police, the latter shall remain unanswered. This incident has sent a wave of question across the teacher community and some were talking about thinking thrice before disciplining children. Our friend, who was attacked that night, is still weighing his moral duty as a teacher against his personal safety. He was our backbone when it came to keeping the students on track but now the backbone seems to be cracked even though the Dzongkhag education officers came here to give him and all of us their support.

As the story unfolds I was shocked to hear that two boys, who were arrested after they broke into a store, were the mastermind of the March 1st blasts (Read in Kuensel). I know the two boys for last four years, and one joined our school last February. They are chronic thieves and everybody in the town knows them by their name. They can break open the best locks and find cash from the safest corners. They seem to have the database of every dweller of the town because they know who is out at what time of the day. No matter how careful you are when they walk into your shop, you will always find something missing after they are gone. One time they were caught red handed and guess what, they assaulted the house owner and escaped. They are never worried about getting arrested, as long as they could run away and enjoy the cash, because they know that once the case is gone, it's gone.
Interestingly they were caught and arrested 90% of the times and been to jail almost every week but they were released because they are under 16, which they know and are taking advantage of. If they were kept locked up Bajothang is a better place altogether but even police is helpless. Now this time they have crossed their highest limit and I hope they won't roam freely among us.
I know they are just kids, they have dreams but they are not ready to change themselves yet. They are going bigger and bolder with time and forgiveness. They must undergo so sort of special correction before releasing them back among general public. This asks for Correction Camp of young lawbreakers. A prison where classes are taken so that inmates don't lag behind when they finally come out as good citizens because we can't afford to let them walk free if they are going to keeping having fun at the expense of public security.

What More is Terrorism?

Fake Nu.1000 notes.(source: BBS)

In such times, when the country is struggling to survive a financial crisis, how could our own people assist outsiders in printing and distributing counterfeit Ngultrum notes (on BBS)?  I am saying outsiders because Bhutan can't have such printers. What more is terrorism to a country? This can't be the first time these brothers are doing this, and they may not be the only Bhutanese men involved it.
The sixteen Nu.1000 notes may be just a part of a bigger plot and these men must take police to the root of the fake money. It's our national luck, as always, that the activity was discovered before it could affect much. However, there could be many other innocent victims that may be known by tomorrow following this timely news on BBS.
For now, we must double check every Nu.1000 note that comes in and goes out of our pocket to be sure.

Black Money Heaven

It's funny that black money is not black in color, it can be of any color but obtained illegally or undeclared to authorities, and therefore untaxed. During the BBS discussion on rupee crunch the Governor of Royal Monetary Authority explained why it all happened. The man was straightforward to the extend of declaring everybody as ignorant and irresponsible. Of course, everybody know who's been irresponsible.
What was so disturbing was the figures he shared of our import and export. Going by the record he mentioned Bhutan is a rich country with export far exceeding import, and record he had was our national record, which means import figure is insanely understated. Nu. 25 Million is so much we imported? Later on Twitter I got to know from some learned Bhutanese that we import 9 Billion worth of fuel, forget all the other things. Now it's simple maths to solve and see how much money is unaccounted for. When unaccounted, it is untaxed and that's black money.
For the population of ours, and the economy health, so much black money is outrageously too much, and so far neither authorities made any stringent law to stop black money nor we thought it would impact this big, thus Bhutan was the heaven of Black Money. If every import was declared and taxed we would have never reached here. And now I am worried if there is anybody who knows how to get out of this mess.

Out of Syllabus

This article appears in the latest publication of Student Digest, and unlike other stories I wrote this exclusively for the magazine.

4th Issue

Would you spend an hour reading a chapter that is out of syllabus? Would you do an assignment your teacher would not mark? The answer is obvious, there is hardly enough time to study what is actually important. What makes something important? The high probability of something coming in exam is considered important. Do you study only for exam? When will you study for your life?

These are some questions I didn’t ask myself when I was in school, but today as I reflect and realize I begin all over again. I make my students question themselves often between their chapters. I make them question every page in their book. While every school has an elaborately decorated vision that encompasses every aspect of life, they lack the freedom in bringing their vision alive. The written syllabus creates a narrow tunnel through the school, from exam to exam.

Exam has become the license to so many offers in life and therefore everything in school should revolve around exam, and there is no way other than the narrow tunnel. One day we reach at the end of the tunnel with good marks in hand and a job ahead of us, but then we realize that everything around us is out of syllabus. Nobody would want to wake up unhappy for the rest of our lives, despite having a passed so many exams and having gotten into a good job.

We must realize early in our lives that life is not bound by syllabus; we must dare to go out of syllabus to pursue real life.  We must go beyond mere collection of information to processing information and invention of ideas, so that we don’t feel stagnant. We must discover our natural talents and polish them because we all come with our own unique gifts. So many strangers gather in one place called school wearing same clothes and there is no better place to build relationships, respect differences, work in teams, and learn leadership, for these are the elements of life that could guarantee us happiness. We should love to learn every new skill that comes our way and try to master some, for we never know what life has in store for us.

Millions die every year yet we don’t even know but when Steve Jobs died world stopped for a moment. What makes him so special? He discovered his natural talents, spiced it up with his ability to lead, supported it by his courage to rise from failure and went on to make an almost perfect technology. iPhone was not in his syllabus, he created it. He literally went out of syllabus by dropping out of school. Walt Disney was another drop out who now lives forever like his characters. If Albert Einstein studies within the syllabus without dropping out at fifteen would we remember him now? Bill Gates is a living example of someone who went so much out of syllabus to create Microsoft and become a billionaire. Who remembers his classmates who were lucky then to be able to complete their college?

When the time is right, don’t sleep in the syllabus. Wake up to life’s calling. For if you land up in a good job you must know how to work happily and if you remain jobless you should know how to create job- these are not in your syllabus.

Get your copy of Student Digest @ Nu.65. If you are in Wangdue and Punakha, just get it from me.

Thank You and Goodbye SIF

Yesterday a two member team from Singapore International Foundation visited my school to say a formal goodbye after three years of working together. They spent the whole day here auditing the Bhutan WIREd Project they undertook. 

The project identified five schools- Drukgyel HSS, Chhukha HSS, Punakha HSS, Yangchengatsel LSS, and our school Bajo- and trained five teachers from each school in use of Information Technology in teaching. The project donated ICT equipment to set up a collaborative classroom in each school and brought in six teams of trainers to train 25 of us during the project period. The project also walked the extra mile in taking all of us and our principals to Singapore to give us exposure to how schools there use technology in teaching. Each year the brought in a volunteer and left them at our disposal. These three people, Kong Ming, Jermain and Louis, not only survived our culture and discomforts, they also made their places in the hearts of many Bhutanese teachers. Louis came back again to wind up the project and it was then that I realized how deep an impression he has made on me. I felt like a brother returning home.

And now the time has come for them to say goodbye to us and let us walk our own journey. It's no more difficult to walk independently, the project has done its magic on us and I am saying my goodbye happily. In my final words to our Project Manager Ms. Deeksha, "Please say my thanks to SIF for the finding us and making differences in our lives. I am still amazed at the generosity your organization in a faraway country coming all the way to invest so much in our country." Ms. Deeksha smiled and said, SIF's vision is "making friends for a better world", and I couldn't agree less.
It didn't seem to me that SIF is saying their goodbye yet, they may come back with different project anytime soon and I already committed that if they are going to take WIREd project to other schools we are available anytime.
My love and gratitude to SIF and Singapore!

There are 5 Articles on Singapore in my blog, if you wish to read.