Being a Bhutanese means being a GNH citizen

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here There is a totally different level of pride, perhaps the best kind, that I feel when I call myself Bhutanese. It is a beautiful feeling one gets when one thinks about the best thing in life. It makes us...

What it means to be Bhutanese

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here “We Bhutanese are an endangered species,” my friend, the former Gelephu National Council Member, is fond of saying. He means that partly in jest. But, in many ways, I find that to be true indeed. In an increasingly complex...

What does it mean to be a Bhutanese?

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here Being born in Bhutan is not enough for an individual to call himself or herself a Bhutanese. One has to have all the moral values and attitudes that make the Bhutanese distinct from any other people in the world....

My identity as a person and as a Bhutanese

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here Strictly speaking, from a Buddhist philosophical point of view, the conception that “I” am Dorji Wangchuk or that Bhutan is “my” country would be a misconception or misconstruction. This is because although the historical Buddha himself seems to have...

Living the Bhutanese life abroad

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here I am a Bhutanese woman living abroad. Without trying to make the statement sound like an epiphany, I know my story is the story of many other Bhutanese women who have left our country deep in the mountains of...

I guess you can never really leave

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here “Where are you from?” I am often asked. “Bhutan,” I reply. “Oh, the happy country?” That is what most people know of Bhutan. I’m pleased and also a little embarrassed at the same time. The aspiration of Gross National...

The way we think matters more

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here Sixty-five-year-old Lopon Kunzang Thinley has been a researcher and writer for 31 years. He is the author of four dictionaries, including Bhutan’s first Dzongkha dictionary, and some 20 notable books. After passing out of the erstwhile Rigzhung Lobdra in...

Conversation with the Bhutanese farmer

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here Chimmi Dem, 57, is a Bhutanese farmer living in a village not far from Thimphu. This interview is extracted from my conversations with her. Q. What is life like in the village these days?          ...

Religious History of the South: a very late review

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here Sometime in the 10th month of Iron Hog year, 1731, Tenzin Chogyal, the prelate who later became the 10th Chief Abbot of Bhutan, offered a cup of fine tea before the physical remains of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the founder...

The History of Bhutan: A review

Spring Edition , May 24th, 2015 You can download this Article as a PDF by clicking here This is a big book in every way: long, heavy, expensive, and content full. But far more than that, it is a big book because of the role it should, indeed must, play in the history of Bhutan itself....