Precisely at four in the evening
Karma presented himself at the hotel lobby to take us to the archery practising
ground. Archery is the national sports of Bhutan. On our way, he showed us the
five star hotel made by Taj Group, Tashi
in traditional style where PM Modi stayed during his visit. Quite an unassuming
building just behind the Indian Cultural Centre run by our embassy. Not even a
compound wall separates the two establishments. I was under the impression that
the Indian Prime Minister stayed with the King at his palace and asked Karma
for an elaboration. He had a hearty laugh and said,
You’ll
find the answer later on your own
He was right. The very next day, he
took us to take a bird’s eye-view at the Palace from a vantage point atop a
hill at Zilukha. The whole Palace area
is out of bounds for tourists. The King stays in a humble abode by the side of
the main building with the servants’ quarters in front. Both the structures are
approximately of the same size! A golden stupa on the terrace demarcates the
royal occupant underneath.
 |
| The King stays here! |
The Palace headquarters, on the other hand is a
large building where the ten ministers of Bhutan function as elected
representatives of the people. All of them stay in the vicinity. The Supreme
Court of Nepal is situated at the back side of the Palace with a crematorium
sandwiched in between! Smoke was coming out of it as Bhutanese used only
firewood for cremation.
Yes. We got the answer the next day
why PM Modi didn’t stay with the King.
We kept mum as Karma drove us to
the Archery practicing ground in ten minutes. Four teams were playing at parallel
venues with the players taking turns to hit the target, situated at a distance
of 135 m. Very few hit the bullseye. As soon as he did, there was celebration
with both the teams joining together in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, singing
and dancing!
 |
| Practising traditional Archery |
That was traditional archery in
action. There is more to it than meets the eye as the spiritual aspect
associated with it cannot be ignored. Like the swordsmanship of the Samurai, archery is an activity to be
mastered in a special, mystical way. The participant becomes mentally one with
the bow, the arrow and the target. The Buddha is the participant’s real target,
he being both the arrow and the bow!
While returning from the ground, we
came across a three storied building, Centenary
Farmers Market. Though I wanted to see the buzz of activities there, Karma
was rather reluctant. He dropped us at the hotel and asked us to go for an
evening stroll. He specifically instructed us to use only zebra crossings
which, if defied, attracted fine. We did go for a walk, and proceeded for the Farmers Market using a short-cut. The
bylane was quite dirty like a typical Indian slum with a few families living in
sub-human conditions. Contrary to my expectations, the surroundings of Centenary Market was not exactly clean
in contrast with the order and tidiness of the arrangement inside. Cereals
occupied the ground, vegetables on the first and fruits on the top floor. We
purchased kelas and apples from Santa who was smart enough to identify
our roots to Kerala. She must be the Bhutanese namesake of our own Shantha, I guessed. (Both meant ‘the
gentle one’). She bowed towards us and took the money with both hands. I asked
her how she managed to speak in English without any hitch. She said education
upto 12th standard was compulsory as well as free in Bhutan and
English was given due importance.
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| Centenary Farmers Market in Thimphu |
We moved around to see that the
market was not a ‘happening place’. To our surprise, plastic was in use but not
the disposable, thin variety.
Next morning, we visited the
tallest Buddha statue (52 m) in Bhutan overlooking the Thimphu valley driving less than half an hour from the city-centre.
An old lady was selling pebble-like stones to Indian tourists at the entrance.
She was claiming that it had medicinal properties and the rate was Rs.1000 per
piece weighing about half a kg. Barring her, no one was in sight offering merchandise.
The Buddha statue, looking regal
and strikingly spectacular was made of bronze and gilded in gold.
Interestingly, there were 125,000 miniature Buddhas
enshrined inside the statue especially at its chest! It seems there are more Buddhas in Thimphu than there are human-beings as the total population of the largest
city is only around 100,000!
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| Tallest Buddha statue in Bhutan |
We took a pradakshina (circumambulation in clockwise direction) before
entering into the statue, which was situated atop a gilded meditation hall.
There were 108 statues of beautiful dakinis
(sky-dancers) made in marble, overlooking the circumambulation path. Dakinis were not just celestial beauties
but female messengers of wisdom!
 |
| Three of the 108 Dakinis |
A statue of Padmasambhava (b. circa 750 AD, who introduced Buddhism in Bhutan, considered
as the reincarnation of Gautama Buddha)
and the ubiquitous prayer-wheels were seen inside. We could watch the miniature
Buddhas too, made in two sizes – one
lakh statues of 8 inch in height & remaining 25,000 nos at 12 inch – all
made of bronze and plated with gold! There were portraits of the five kings,
nay it’s actually six with the photograph of the future king with a toy car in
hand! The entire structure costing around $100 million was constructed to
honour the 60th birthday of the fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk in 2015. He was a Philosopher King who ascended
to the throne at the tender age of sixteen following the untimely demise of his
father, the third King Jigme Dorji
Wangchuck. The fourth King formulated the idea of Gross National Happiness for the world. The goals and achievements
of Bhutan were to be measured in GNH. He ruled Bhutan for 34 years, started the
democratization process and abdicated the Kingdom in favour of his eldest son,
the current King Jigme Khesar Namgyel
Wangchuck in 2006. Both are extremely popular monarchs and the Bhutanese
have an unseen umbilical cord connected to their Kings. In fact, the Bhutanese
Royals take their subjects as their children.
Large photographs of five
generations of royal lineage are prominently displayed in all
institutions/establishments.
Polygamy is allowed for the King as
well as for his people, provided the existing wife/s agree to the new proposal.
In Bhutan, the first son of the King becomes the crown prince and the current
King is the first male offspring of Jigme
Singye Wangchuk by his Third Queen.
The fourth King has four Queens and
all of them are sisters. Needless to say, all ego-clashes and rivalry among
wives are reduced to zero by this wise decision.
The King owes his allegiance to Dhamma, i.e. Dharma in the Indian context.
I wanted to ask Karma about the changes
made by GNH in his personal life and he was ready to answer, anytime after
lunch. We were driving down to Zilukka
nunnery and were feeling hungry.
(contd.) ************