HONOLULU: Assistant curator John Johnston scaled steep cliffs for seven hours to reach a bronze sculpture of a Buddha at a small Himalayan monastery 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) above sea level. And where there was no trail, he and two companions grabbed trees to pull themselves up the mountain.

The gilt bronze figure is now one of the key pieces in “The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan,” a rare display of centuries-old sculptures and paintings that have never before left the remote, mountainous kingdom.

Even in Bhutan, the public rarely gets to see the rich collection of work now showing at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The exhibit is due to travel to New York, San Francisco, Europe and possibly Singapore over the next two years.

Almost all the art is normally kept in active temples, monasteries and dzong — fortresslike buildings home to both monasteries and government offices. About a quarter of the items were gathered from far-flung monasteries and temples reachable only by hiking several hours from the nearest road.

“This is a compilation of the best Bhutan has,” said Eddie Jose, the Academy’s chief conservator for Asian paintings.

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The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, one of the most highly anticipated exhibitions on Buddhist art in recent years, opens at the Honolulu Academy of Arts on February 26, 2008. More than 100 sacred items will be on view. All of the items are on loan from Bhutan, the vast majority are from active temples and monasteries. Monks accompany the exhibition and perform ceremonies to maintain the consecrated status of these sacred items. The Dragon’s Gift is an exceptionally rare opportunity to introduce some of the most sacred and beloved Buddhist objects in Bhutan to international audiences.

Visual expressions of Buddhism from Bhutan on view in the exhibition include painted and textile thangkas, sculptures, and ritual items. Works of art date from the 8th century to the 20th century, with especially strong examples of painting and sculpture from the 17th through the 19th centuries, a golden age in the Buddhist art of Bhutan. Works in The Dragon’s Gift were selected for outstanding aesthetic accomplishment and wide iconographic scope. Nearly all of the items in the exhibition required conservation. The Academy-led conservation program has already restored hundreds of works of art and is training a new generation of conservators, primarily monks charged with the responsibility of caring for sacred objects.

Buddhist ritual dances, or cham, are an important part of the exhibition and will be illustrated by works of art with dance content as well as video presented on high-resolution screens. An entire gallery within the exhibition explores the rich sacred dance traditions in Bhutan. The dance team has spent several years in Bhutan creating a digital archive that documents many hitherto unknown Buddhist dances. As with visual art, dance is both a spiritual practice in itself and a means of communicating Buddhist teachings.

Working together with the Department of Culture of the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Central Monastic Authority, the Honolulu Academy of Arts has been given unprecedented access to the sacred arts and dances of the country during an extensive five-year research program. We are honored and humbled to present the results of this work through the The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan.

Dec 9, 2007 -Thimphu: Bhutan’s current economic growth rate at 8.5% looks alright - meaning, as an economy the country is doing fine. Add to this, the rosy prediction that the figure might go double digit in another five years.

But there is a paradox here.

The country’s economic growth, spurred by the revenue from hydropower and service sector, has not been able to translate into jobs, primarily because of a weak manufacturing and production base.

The 8.5%-growth, therefore, is not able to generate enough employment opportunities for the people entering labor market leading to an unemployment rate of 3.2%.

Economists agree that the growth has failed to offset an increase in people seeking jobs, mainly because the growth is spurred by the sale of hydropower, construction industry and tourism that could not create enough employment opportunities.

Sale of electricity brings in revenue but does not create employment opportunities, and the construction industry is almost entirely manned by the expatriate workers. Moreover, the tourism industry is urban-centric and has not benefited the rural population much. Therefore, despite high GDP, the ‘trickle-down’ effect has been minimal, creating a gap between haves and have-nots.

The rise in GDP per capita from US $ 51 in 1961 to US $ 1320.9 in 2006 has taken Bhutan out from the circle of least developed countries. But the rippling effect has been minimal, leaving 31.7% of population (of which 31.6% are rural populace) under poverty earning less than US $ 222 a year.

Is Bhutan’s economic growth a jobless growth?

An official from the Royal Monetary Authority said: “Generally economic growth means generation of employment opportunities, but in case of Bhutan it is not, since the growth is hydropower driven which is capital intensive. But our manufacturing, production and service sectors are improving which is a good sign of prosperity.”

According to the Labor Force Survey 2007 carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Human Resources, the unemployment rate is higher in urban centers at 4.9% despite 79% of population living in rural areas, which indicates that educated youth who have migrated to urban centers cannot find gainful employment.

The Bhutan National Human Resource Development Report (BNHRDR) 2007 says that the two major constraints for the country’s economy are low level of monetization and macro policy interventions to which the economy does not have a capacity to respond. Add to this an absolute lack of entrepreneurial culture.

The report, on the other hand, estimates that the national economy will have to generate employment opportunities for 20, 600 educated youth who will be entering the labor market by 2013.

Bhutan’s industrial sector is engaged in 95% non-manufacturing activities which hardly boosts employment opportunities. This means Bhutan is emerging as an economy trading in goods produced by other countries implying that Bhutan’s domestic demand only causes income and employment generations in other countries.

Moreover, the manufacturing sector produces only semi-finished products without value addition just to benefit other countries which upon import of Bhutan’s primary and semi-finished products produce high value added goods. And most of the industries are located in the border towns preferring cheap day workers from across the border to Bhutanese job seekers which naturally leads to outflow of huge money and seizure of employment opportunities for the Bhutanese.

The BNHRDR 2007 states that Bhutan has a huge potential for small scale enterprises and cottage industries which will generate thousands of employment opportunities if some steps are taken through micro level interventions.

Some of the private employers pointed out that the Bhutanese job seekers do not possess enough skills. Does this mean Bhutan’s education system doesn’t prepare young people to pursue any specific career after they leave school?

A local consultant said that our school curricula school be made contextual to the economy’s demand for manpower and vocational institutes should be strengthened and diversified.

Entrepreneurs point out that Bhutan’s service sector is dominated by tiny micro establishments managed by family members. And the construction sector, one of the potential employment avenues, is dominated by imported workers.

“We could make jobs in the construction industry attractive by raising the wages and improving work environment,” said a local entrepreneur.

The major gray area of Bhutan’s economy is the widespread fronting, observers point out. And fronting causes income transfer to foreign countries on a large scale.

Analysts agree that economic development of Bhutan benefits her neighboring countries more than itself.

“We need to have a clear economic thought and model with the choice of enterprises and industrialization as, at the moment, our economy is heavily import-oriented,” said an economist. “It needs to be export-oriented earning foreign exchange and creating employment opportunities.”

For any economy the private sector is an engine of growth, but the Bhutanese private sector has been stagnant for the past many years. An observer said that in the past, jobs in the private sector was not a choice for many, but with the Labor and Employment Act 2007 in force, jobseekers would be encouraged to foray into the private sector.

Some economists point out that Druk Holding and Investment (DHI) could possibly formulate stronger guidelines for Bhutan’s growing economy to be more meaningful.

“We hope we will have a strong and sustainable economy with diversified manufacturing and production base generating enough employment opportunities for our jobseekers,” said an observer.

DHI, however, was not in a position to comment citing non availability of time.

Meanwhile, Bhutan’s unemployment rate has risen alarmingly from 1.9% in 2001 to 3.2% in 2006 with 7,200 productive people unemployed.

Source: BhutanTimes Newspaper 

Dec 3, 2007 -Thimphu: Dorji, 29, is in the pursuit of a long lost dream.

He entered the final lap of his pursuit yesterday. After years of dropping out from class X, Dorji, a student of the Continuing Education Program (CEP) sat for the English Paper I exams with thousands of other regular class XII students from around the country.

CEP was introduced by the education ministry two years ago to give opportunities to people who had to leave school before they could complete their studies. They are the first batch appearing the Bhutan Higher Secondary Certificate Examination, BHSCE, 2007, which started yesterday.

“I was already three years in service when I got this opportunity. I thought, finally the chance to pursue my dream has come, so I grasped it immediately,” said Dorji.

The CEP has come as a second chance to those who felt they had left their academic business unfinished. The number of people willing to enroll has been steadily increasing over the past two years.

Choki, 26, is a personal assistant to a director in a government department. But she is also a Class XII Arts student.

Her colleagues say that when the office phone rings she would hurriedly arrange her pen, pencils and sheets of papers scrambled before the computer. She would be doing her Geography practical work, her friends said.

Teachers of the CEP evening classes at Kelki Higher Secondary School said despite the limited time they get to devote for studies their students have an edge over the regulars because of their maturity and sense of responsibility.

Pema, 27, a mother of two, is undeterred by the inconveniences that come her way. She travels to Reldri Higher Secondary School, a CEP centre, every day from Phuentsholing. “For anything good, such as this, I am ready to make sacrifices possible,” she said busy studying for her exams.

Some of the students felt that it was necessary for them to upgrade their qualification with the position classification system (PCS) to retain only the qualified and meritorious people in the civil service.

“I am continuing my education; otherwise I may loose my job,” said Dechen, 30, mother of two.

Asked if they will be given equal opportunities, like the regular students, to continue tertiary education, the registrar of the Royal University of Bhutan, Kezang Dolma, said: “In principle, if they meet the minimum criteria set, they are eligible, but the modalities should be worked out involving the agencies concerned regarding the study leave and stipend. And the issue is still under discussion.”

A CEP student wants to take study leave next year if he qualifies for Sherubtse College. “We are told that we will be given study leave to continue our studies if we do well. And I am working really hard,” he said.

The coordinator of CEP and Vice-Principal of Kelki School, Leela D. Sharma, told BT that the CEP students were better than the regular students.

There are 96 Class XII and 22 Class X CEP students appearing the BHSCE and BCSE this year. Learners include civil servants, corporate and private employees and housewives.

Source: BhutanTimes Newspaper

Nov 27, 2007 -Thimphu: In view of the increasing number of industries, particularly in the Pasakha industrial estate, the National Environment Commission (NEC) in consultation with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MEA) has developed industrial emission, ambient air quality and noise standards for Bhutan.

In order to sensitize the above standards the NEC Secretariat and MEA jointly conducted a workshop with the industry owners and their senior managers in Phuentsholing on November 16.

Adoption of cleaner technologies, pollution control equipments and good environment management were some of the key issues discussed in order to realize the dream of development without destruction.

The national standards have been categorized into four divisions: ambient air quality (of residential, commercial and sensitive areas like schools and hospitals), industrial emission, work place emission (within the premises of an industry) and noise level limits (both day and night noise limit).

“The target of the Tenth five year plan is economic growth but it should not be at the cost of environment contamination and health hazards,” said deputy minister, Dasho Nado Rinchen, the head of NEC.

He further said that the old industries were given enough time to replace their old machineries but for the new upcoming industries there would be no compromise.

The press release from NEC states that these standards will play a major role in facilitating and expediting the approval of project proposals.

“By that it does not mean the standards are too high to cause commotion among the industry owners nor is it too low to undermine the purpose, making it a name sake policy,” said Nado Rinchen, adding that the factory owners can easily fulfill the standards.

He added that implementation of the standards are not restricted to Pasakha alone.

The Director General of the Department of Industry, Sangay Wangdi, said, these standards were developed after a lengthy consultation process with industries and other stake holders.

The Senior General Manager of Bhutan Ferro Alloys Ltd. C.R.K. Rao said that his company has no problem in complying with the standards, “Bhutan needs to have such standards and we will stick to that,” he said.

The standards were approved by the NEC in September during the 24th commission meeting.

Source: BhutanTimes Newspaper 

Nonghkai/Bangkok, Thailand: About 130 youths from 15 countries around the world stole the show during the third international conference on Gross National Happiness held in Thailand from November 22 to 28.

The youths representing eight countries from Southeast Asia submitted a list of urgent recommendations on improving the quality of and access to education in the region to be presented to the relevant ministry in their countries.

They said that the countries should institute a national youth council and ensure it has power at parliamentary level to bring youth perspectives to government and civil society on all issues affecting youth. Governments were recommended to create and institute a youth advisory council on education and ensure that youth leaders are involved in making education policy.

Forming an independent research commission to study the education needs of various groups and creating an alternative education advisor or advisory council that included youth leaders was also important, they pointed out.

Young people from the region agreed that the quality of education was deteriorating rapidly and the system in place at the moment didn’t prepare young people to pursue any specific career seriously.

Therefore, they recommended the governments to build flexibility into the formal education system to accommodate local wisdom and adapt to local needs. They said developing and supporting locally relevant curriculum to incorporate local wisdom, language, culture, history, social context and employment and labor needs of communities was crucial.

Adopting curriculum on globalization and global-local systems; strengthening and supporting programs that promote gender balance and equity in access to opportunities; accreditation of alternative education within the formal system; international and national study trips for education policy makers led by expert-youth working in education and alternative education; and recognition of employment problems for university graduates and adapting education system and structure to address the problem (including more vocational training) were also recommended.

Recognizing the important role teachers play in educating the population of a country, the youths stressed that teacher training standards and professional accreditation be improved. They also pointed out the need for rewarding teachers working in remote areas.

The government should also create standards of education for the private sector and regulate privatization of education institutes, they said, adding that building schools in remote areas with good facilities was equally important.

The youths pointed out the importance of developing and improving new ways to access education, especially for rural areas, by setting up internet resources in each village school or public place. They said including technology education in curriculum was also crucial.

Governments and civil societies should increase budgets for education and improve allocations to non-formal and alternative education, and direct funds to ‘expert’ cultural, health, social and political organizations to develop curriculum on pertinent issues, they said.

HIV/AIDS education in schools should be developed for formal curriculum by existing youth peer-education networks to be funded by government and non government organizations.

The youths, divided into core and study group, toured a number of provinces in Thailand prior to the academic session on GNH held in Bangkok. They worked in paddy fields, visited communities and urban slums, and studied the use of natural resources in the communities.

“We will ensure that GNH doesn’t remain within the academic circle. One of the outcomes of this conference has been that the youths will now work toward the formation of GNH youth forum and movement,” said a youth participant from Bhutan.

Namgay Zam of Kuzoo FM said that the youths were able to draw crucial lessons of life.

“We need to involve youths in policy making and youths in Bhutan need bigger forum to spread the message of GNH to the youngsters in the country,” she said.

Source: BhutanTimes Newspaper

Nov 7, 2007 -Cartesian, Kantian, Shavian, Orwellian, Kafkaesque: the world has been gracious enough to give us people who have completed with their presence the inexpressible moments of our fears, doubts and aspirations.

What is Powdyellian then?

Teaching is the most public of professions – apart from public executions, perhaps: a blade of grass from the pasture of Powdyellianisms, here goes another, “The size of our universe is the size of our mind.”

“When the song-birds stay away

And the sound of the deer is a

Retreating wail…

When the smog chokes the air and

Hides our peaks

And the dead tree gives no shelter…

That is the time a country is sad.

This is Thakur S. Powdyel knocking the hearts of readers with his first book, As I Am, So is My Nation.

“But Mr. Powdyel, the song-birds are still here, the sound of the deer has not turned into a wail, our winter fog has not been bethroed to the factory smoke and we rest in the ancient silence of our pine shades. We are not sad,” the hip-hop-geared disco track may snub you back la.

Why this book then?

“This is too small a piece of work to carry the burden it presumes to, but it is my hope that those who care to turn its pages, particularly the young men and women of our country, will find the necessary incentive to do so,” says Thakur S. Powdyel who has witnessed thousands of students pass by the shadow-lit corridors of our centers of learning.

“One thing is certain though: we cannot expect our country to be good if we are not good ourselves – each one of us, that is. We make the nation. We are the nation.”

This is why the reader is invited into his house of conversation. To be a partaker of the thoughts that formed this man from a boy who looked after cows in the distant hamlet of Dorokha to become one of the finest teachers Bhutan has ever produced.

A note to the students of Thakur S. Powdyel who had taken you with him to the English countrysides of Thomas Hardy and George Eliot, with whom you had brightened nights of Deusurey, from whom you had hid your cigarettes: This book is not a recollection of how he taught, neither is it a recipe for personal success. He is not the Bhutanese version of Shiv Khera, Deepak Chopra or Robin Sharma. This book is about a few things he had not told you while in Sherubtse, the National Institutes of Education and schools.

Did he tell you why one day he had to withdraw in shame and guilt from his son? Turn to page 36.

“My little son was desperately looking for pictures and photographs of our kings and spiritual masters to collect and paste them in his picture book as part of his class assignment. He was not succeeding very well and I ventured to suggest:

You are very good at drawing. Why don’t you draw the pictures yourself? That will be much better.

That spelt my utter undoing and proved a disaster. He said he couldn’t do it and wouldn’t do it. I asked why.

I will not be able to draw them exactly they way they are, and If I don’t, that will be a sin.

That was it. I choked and withdrew in shame and guilt.

We have not spoken about the assignment again. I daren’t ask him what he did. I have yet to recover from the impact of this child innocence and pure faith.”

This book is about the reclamation and maintaining of the pure faith and the child innocence that would enable every citizen to humbly claim, “as I am, so is my nation”. It is about the little unacknowledged moments from the margins of life that if we care to notice would help us realize the reasons why we are students, teachers, parents, business people or civil servants.

He discusses this idea while elaborating on the otherwise bureaucratic reasons why the Royal Civil Service Commission is RCSC.

“Everybody working under the umbrella of the Royal Civil Service Commission is called a civil servant, in fact, a royal civil servant. Three terms stand out prominently: royal, civil, service.

…One may not have a royal birth, but one may still have the nobility of mind and quality of action befitting royalty…Being civil, that is being refined, polite and cultured, is, therefore, an important standard required of a person working in the civil service….The civil service is intended for and created to provide service, not as charity or favour, but as the right means to organize the varied activities of the state and to reach the benefits of development out to the people…Being a royal civil servant, therefore, carries both personal and professional obligations that both elevate and humble an individual.”

In his Essay on Criticism, what Alexander Pope wrote about writers would apply to this book too: “What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.”

The ideas and hopes shared in this book must have passed through the minds of many a reader. But few in this world are gifted to articulate what passes through the minds of the common folk.

As a teacher, what you have wanted to share with your students but never had the words to put it; as a parent, what your kid had always asked about this world and you could never express it; as a person, what your heart always asked about yourself, but could never answer it, welcome to this book, this house of conversation serves as a mirror to reflect upon yourself.

“In many ways, As I Am, So Is My Nation is a statement of the way I have tried to live my life,” says Thakur S. Powdyel about himself and his book, “There may have been many defects and deficiencies in the living, but not in the intention.”

This book constructs for you a little space in your heart, a house for conversation and meditation. The words in the book will not talk to you, but the space between the words will. That space is for you, to frame a different sentence of your aspiration, a conjunction that connects your little life to that of the nation.

Source: Bhutan Times Newspaper 

2007, August 24: Rangsit University in Thailand and the Royal Civil Service Commission signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a scholarship in the name of the Trongsa Penlop.

Under the scholarship, Rangsit University will provide 15 scholarships, 5 for master’s degree and 10 for bachelor’s degree every year for ten years. The scholarships will commence next year with formal coronation of His Majesty the King.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by the President of the Rangsit University, Dr. Arthit Ourairat and the RCSC Secretary Dasho Bap Kezang on August 23.

Apart from the 15 scholarships for masters and bachelors degree courses, the Rangsit University has also pledged to offer 30 certificate level short courses annually for next ten years. For the first year, coinciding with the coronation of His Majesty the King, the university will offer 10 additional scholarships for bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

The scholarship will cover tuition fees, boarding facilities, and medicinal and living expenses.

Speaking to the Bhutanese media, the President of the Rangsit University Dr. Arthit Ourairat said Bhutan and Thailand has so many things in common.

Also Speaking to the Bhutanese media, the RCSC Secretary Dasho Bab Kesang said the courses will be selected based on the changing needs in Bhutan.

Under the MOU, the two parties will review the program annually.

So far, 17 Bhutanese students have already graduated from the University and about 26 students are currently studying in the University through private funding. The scholarship is for both public and private sectors.

August 12, 2007 - Thimphu: A one-year-and-eleven-month-old baby girl who fell from a two-storey house in Gaselo, Wangduephodrang, was miraculously saved by a team of doctors at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu.

Sonam Choki had sustained severe head injuries and lost all consciousness for 13 days after the 12-feet fall on July 25. She was immediately rushed to the local basic health unit and subsequently referred to the Thimphu Hospital.

“She was in a very critical condition when she was brought here. The urgent computer graphic of the head showed several multiple skull fractures but fortunately no internal bleeding,” said Pediatric Surgeon, Dr. Johannes Meixner. [Source: BhutanTimes]

August 12, 2007 - Samdrupcholing, Samdrup Jongkhar: A former Drimpon was killed when his neighbor, a lay monk, stabbed him with a dagger.

Dorji, 64, stabbed his neighbor, Karma, in front of the victim’s family in Thangchung Gonpa in a fit of anger during a minor quarrel on August 7 at around 7 pm.

Immediately after the incident, both Karma and Dorji (who was also injured in the fight) were rushed to the Samdrupcholing basic health unit. Karma died on the way to the Deothang military hospital, early morning. Dorji was later taken to Samdrup Jongkhar police station.

The victim, Karma, 47, on returning from a meeting that evening found his son, Tandin Gyamtsho, 19, being bullied by Dorji. The apple of discord was Dorji’s son Tshering who had been missing.

“We heard that his son was in Samdrup Jongkhar,” said Tandin Gyamtsho, “and I was telling him the same. But he started nagging me for no reason.”

Meanwhile, Karma appeared and the culprit picked up a quarrel with him. All of a sudden Dorji took out his dagger and stabbed Karma in front of the victim’s son, wife, mother and two others who had come to the family’s shop. [Source: BhutanTimes]

August 5, 2007 - Thimphu: Pray for more industries and pollution elsewhere. Bhutan may reap the benefits of global warming in hard cash.

If qualified as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project, Punatsangchu-1 and the upcoming Dagachu projects could earn Bhutan Nu 24 billion a year from carbon trade.

In simple terms, carbon trade is turning the harmful greenhouse gases into commodities like gold, salt or chilies that can be traded in the market.

CDM is a program under the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.-brokered agreement that set limits for carbon and other harmful emissions by companies in industrialized nations. Under the treaty, nations that emit less than their quota of greenhouse gases will be able to sell carbon credits to polluting nations. The mechanism is created to help finance environmentally sustainable development projects in the developing countries as well as to allow the developed countries to partly fulfill their commitment on the reduction of carbon emissions. [Source: BhutanTimes]