Villages – Tshering Tobgay

Weather service

October 11, 2012Villages9 Comments

I woke up to a glorious morning today. The skies were clear. And the heavens promised a warm, sunny day. That's how it's supposed to be at this time of the year - warm, sunny and bright: perfect weather for harvesting paddy. And that's why some of our farmers, prompted by BBS's forecast for sunny weather, have begun to harvest their crop. But the farmers who harvested their paddy a few days ago and, as is required, left them to dry in their fields were in for some anxious moments yesterday. It had rained the previous day and almost…

Pep-say

June 15, 2012Villages7 Comments

Thank you for participating in Big Picture -12. It was fun to follow your comments - most of you recognized the picture, but you still spent the time to craft interesting answers. Thank you. My favorite answer comes from "Thinlay", whose keen sense of observation, meticulous research and precise composition bags our prize: bragging rights! Here's the scholar's complete and completely correct answer: It is a white plastic bottle with narrow neck and closed with modified wooden cap, and tied around the waist to ensure that it does not fall off while walking. The content could be anything from…

Country roads

May 6, 2012Villages6 Comments

I am in Dorikha. I got here this evening having walked up from Dorithasa. My ancestors did this journey every year, at this time of the year, over the course of many centuries. They migrated to escape the oppressive summer heat of Dorithasa in favor of the much cooler Dorikha. And in the winter, they moved right back to Dorithasa to enjoy the mild weather there. Most of my relatives no longer migrate between two farms. They now live, throughout the year, in one of the two villages. But the two villages are closely related. So our people still…

Inadequate and insulting

January 14, 2012Villages15 Comments

Farming in Bhutan is difficult work. Our farmers toil from dawn till dusk, in the sun and the rain, and with rudimentary tools, just to secure a basic harvest, which, at the best of times, is barely enough to feed their families through the year. Farming in Bhutan is also a notoriously risky business. Rain, drought, floods, storms, hail, insects, disease and wild animals combine to keep our farmers on edge till they have harvested and safely stored their produce. But even after that, our farmers face one more big risk: markets. There’s absolutely no guarantee that their…

The best possible shed

September 26, 2011Villages20 Comments

I'm in Shaba, a small village in Sombaykha. The recent earthquake damaged all 12 of its houses. Luckily, no one was injured. And thankfully, most of the houses have suffered only minor damages. But one house was hit hard. It has been damaged beyond repair. It's still standing. But barely so. And it is no longer safe. That house belongs to Ap Zhep, aged 70, and his family. Fearing aftershocks, every family scrambled to erect temporary shelters for themselves immediately after the earthquake. And because Ap Zhep was practically homeless, the entire village got together to build him a…

Big ideas

March 30, 2011Villages7 Comments

I stayed at Yangtsena yesterday. It’s a small village on the southern slopes of the Pu-la overlooking the Amochhu river. Yangtsena has only seven houses. But all of them are handsome, traditional farmhouses. It wasn’t always like that – just 14 years ago, they lived in basic bamboo huts. That’s about when, when Yangtsena’s residents got together and decided that they, all seven households, must have better houses. Individually, no family had the resources to build a farmhouse. So they decided to pool their resources, especially labour, and collectively build all of their houses, one farmhouse at a time.…

Happiness without kerosene

March 24, 2011Villages5 Comments

Today is the 24th of March. So it’s exactly three years since PDP got clobbered in the kingdom’s first general elections. Actually it wasn’t that bad – 33% of the voters had supported us. It’s just that that, unfortunately, translated to only two of the 47 seats in the National Assembly. Anyhow, it’s now three years since that fateful day. And I’ve decided to commemorate the general elections by going to the people. I’m in Dorikha, at my indulgent aunt’s farmhouse, on my way to Gakiling gewog. I’m taking along two important items for this trip. The first is…

Forest fire

January 8, 2011Villages

The people of Lopa village in Haa, Samar Gewog, did not sleep last night. They stayed up to guard their village – a cluster of mostly old farmhouses at the edge of a pine forest – from wild fires that was spreading through the woodland above their village. The fire had started yesterday afternoon. And the Haa Dzongdag had quickly mobilized forestry officials, civil servants and community volunteers to fight the blaze. But the fire, which was fanned by strong winds, would not be contained. And by nightfall, the dzongdag wisely called off the fire fighting efforts as boulders,…

Fighting poverty

May 11, 2010Civil society, Villages

A popular attraction at the recent Tarayana Fair was the Lhop house. The house, which barely measures 8 feet by 9 feet, had belonged to Ap Pen Tshering, and in it, he and his wife, Aum Gagay Lham, had raised their four children. 75 year-old Pen Tshering’s house had been dismantled and transported to Thimphu, where it was carefully reassembled to showcase the lifestyle of the Lhops, Bhutan’s first inhabitants. And Pen Tshering had been more than happy to abandon his house. After all, he had no need for it. Ap Pen Tshering, you see, had built a bigger,…

Birthday celebrations

February 25, 2010Monarchy, Villages

Sombaykha is the latest of our country’s 16 dungkhags. It was established barely two years ago to serve the two remote gewogs of Sombaykha and Gakiling. The offices of the dungkhag, which consists of three makeshift houses, are located in Sibthang along the banks of the Amochu. Last Sunday, on 21 February, farmers from Gakiling and Sombaykha, descended on their dungkhag to celebrate His Majesty the King’s birth anniversary. This week’s banner features the dungkhag office. More photographs of the festivities are in the gallery.

Land ceiling

February 19, 2010Villages

The draft national land policy, particularly the proposal to remove the 25 acre landholding ceiling, has already become controversial. That’s why Thinlay demanded “to hear OL’s views on this very important issue.” When I didn’t respond, Thinlay sent this reminder: “do you … have opinion on this, because this issue is to important to be ignored?” Yes, the issue is important. And yes, I do have an opinion on this matter. Removing the existing maximum landholding restriction of 25 acres will be the quickest way of stripping our farmers of their property. But the policy has caught me by…

Banking on vouchers

January 22, 2010Economy, Villages

B-mobile’s strategy to market their cellular phone services in rural Bhutan is aggressive. In Sombaykha, for instance, where they introduced their services recently, B-mobile had a representative traveling from village to village dishing out free SIM cards and offering recharge vouchers at initial discounted rates. Our farmers were delighted. Everywhere the B-mobile representative went, farmers rushed to welcome him. In addition to giving free SIM cards, B-mobile automatically doubled the value of each farmer’s initial purchase of recharge vouchers, subject to a maximum purchase of Nu 500. This meant that if a farmer was willing spend Nu 500, she’d…

Connecting Bhutan

January 22, 2010Miscellaneous, Villages2 Comments

Many of you would have noticed that I was able to regularly update this blog during my recent visit to Sombaykha and Gakiling. And, that I was able to tweet about my experiences there. Romeo, a regular commentator, was sufficiently impressed to remark: It is indeed incredible that you are connected through out your trek and able to keep us informed of your whereabouts and also update your informative blog. How is this possible? Are you carrying your laptop along and that you are connected through satellite to the internet? Hasn’t Bhutan progressed in terms of communication? Yes, it…

Road to Merak?

January 21, 2010Villages

On 7 January, Kuensel reported that: A 28 km farm road will connect Merak to Radhi, the nearest semi-urban centre to the gewog. On January 5, a simple groundbreaking ceremony of the farm road was conducted, which was attended by villagers of Khardung, Tokshingmang and Merak. The road will begin in Khardung, pass through Tokshingmang and end in Merak. The same article went on to quote Lyonpo Jigme Tshultim, who is the Speaker of the National Assembly and the MP of Radhi-Sakteng constituency, explaining that the new road would benefit many people and that “Merak is one place with…

Gakiling eggs

January 20, 2010Economy, Villages

Guess how much an egg costs in Gakiling? Two ngultrums! Yes, farmers there are willing to sell their eggs for a pittance. And still they still don’t get any buyers. That just shows how little access they have to markets. “Yoed ba chin tsong sa med. May ba chin nyo sa med,” is how Ap Tshering Wangdi had described their predicament a few years ago. But some farmers have now decided to take matters into their own hands: they’ve decided to, collectively, sell their eggs in Thimphu. And, Rinzin, a young farmer, has volunteered to collect the local eggs…