GOLDEN JUBLIEE CELEBERATION AT KENGKHAR LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Kengkhar Lower Secondary School was established in 1963. The first batch of students was from Kengkhar Gewog only (including Jurmey Gewog which was bifurcated as separate Gewog in early 2000). As per the assumption of the present school management, approximately  1500 students had passed out from the school. The alumni serving in different parts of the country in various capacity including prominent figures like Member of Parliament, Doctors, Engineers, and businessman private sectors.

The Fourth Dragon King

The monarchy institution is deeply revered in the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is known that Monarchs in Bhutan have guarded the people and country well even at the cost of their life. All monarchs are considered by people to be the manifestation of Buddha and other Buddhist saints. 

His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, during his 35 years reign has brought more peace and prosperity to already happiness accustomed society. HM was always a concern for his people and the country's well being. He traveled the length and breadth of the country to discuss the issue with people. HM always ask people that they should be at the forefront to take responsibility themselves to tell the government on what are the needs of the people. In this way, HM seems to have initiated many reforms including the political structure of the country. In the midst of enjoying continued peaceful journey under HM, there was a sudden announcement on devolving full executive powers to the Lhengye Zhungtsho (The council of the Ministers), elected by the National Assembly by HM in 1998. The Lhengye Zhungtshog was empowered with full executive power except on the need of informing the king on the matters concerning the country’s sovereignty and security. 

Though His Majesty asks people not to keep the responsibility on the king on the country's sovereignty and security during the HM's formal discussions on the draft constitution with people of twenty districts in 2005 people managed to task the King on responsibility for country’s sovereignty and security. 

The elected Minister chaired by the Lhengye Zhungtshog on a rotational basis in a sequence of the number of highest votes obtained during the election. For there only people started realizing HM's initiative of decentralization of power to people in a gradual manner. The District Development Committee in 1981 was instituted and the Block Development Committee was formed in 1991. The people were made to shoulder responsibility for the peace and stability of the country in the future. The king was firmed on establishing and strengthening the human resource and institution capacity by making citizens of all levels to participate in the socio-economic development process of the country.

I heard that in one of the Assembly sessions, the Fourth Druk Gyalpo proposed the vote of confidence for the King. The proposition was not new to Bhutan to be asked by the king. The third Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck had also asked National Assembly in 1969 for the vote of confidence in him.  This initiative was taken to judge the king, primarily on the performance and capability to lead the country, not by the virtue of the birth. However, none doubted the prophetic initiatives of all the kings and instead reassured the faith, dedication and commitment towards the king in his support to lead the country for further positive change in the country.

On 4^th September 2001, the Fourth Druk Gyalpo briefed the Council of Ministers, Chief Justice, and Chairman of Royal Advisory Council on the need for a written constitution in the country. The thirty-nine members consisting of each representative from the twenty districts, two members from the Monastic Body, the National Assembly Speaker and the member of the Royal Advisory Council formed a drafting committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Bhutan. The first draft was submitted on 9^th December 2002 followed by numerous rectifications and resubmission of the draft. On 18^th July 2008, the constitution was formally adopted at Tashichoedzong Kuenrey after extensive deliberation by the First Parliament after the inception of democracy.

The Fourth Druk Gyalpo shocked the nation during the National Day Celebration at Tashiyangtse District on December 17^th,  2005 by declaring that he will abdicate the throne for the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was formally given the charge of leading the Kingdom on 14^th December 2006. The Coronation was held on 1^st November 2008. The Fourth Druk Gyalpo insisted that it is his wish and prayer to remain Palden Drukpa strong and glorious, achieving greater prosperity with the sun of peace shining on our people during the reign of the Druk Gyalpo Jigme Khesar  Namgyel Wangchuck.

Drukgyel Zhipa also guided the Kingdom to conduct a successful election to form democracy government in 2008. The election was successfully conducted in line with democratic principles. It took a long time for people to wake up from the shock of his abdication but was reassured that His Majesty the King is equally good like his father to lead the nation.  People are enjoying the same peace and stability under the guidance of His Majesty the King. 

The Fourth Dragon King, after accession to the throne in 1972, there were tremendous positive changes in the county that were arisen from the heart of the wise leaders.  The development process accelerated unprecedentedly in the country and saw phenomenal accomplishment in access to education, health, power, telecommunication, and building roads. The national goals and policies were not mere-based on “Socio-Economic Progress” but also taking account of the emotion and spiritual well-being of people. Therefore, ‘Gross National Happiness’ has become more important than Gross Domestic Product in every policy of the country. 

If we review the pattern of socio-political reforms of the country,  it is always taken by amazed at the success and the flow that knitted with the time and situation of our country. Thank you His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo.

*** No words of expression can articulate His Majesty the Fourth King’s contributions and insights. This simple article is just to offer my sincere gratitude to My beloved Druk Gyalpo during HM's 58th Birthday. 

(The opinion is of self and at no time represents anybody’s assessment including my employer. If anyone is offended or disrespected by the article I would like to kindly beg for forgiveness to my innocence. I shall ever remain grateful)

Rural Development Bill – Pledge of Mass Electorates, faded in first session of parliament

The Rural Development Bill(RDB), a pledge by candidates contesting in both the National Council and the National Assembly election was noteworthy agenda during the first session of the second Parliament Session. During the election, most candidates declared it as an urgent and crucial bill to top the sequence among other agendas in both the houses. 

On this promise by candidates, not only from the rural folks but also having experienced the sufferings back in village civil servants voted to these candidates who made a promise and to the candidate who has also ability in pursuing the bill. These candidates are now occupying in hounored position of the highest legislative body in the country as the members of the Ruling Government, Opposition, and the National Council. Now it appears that they have landed in the comfort zone.  Where has this pledge disappeared? 

Not even one member has prompted to discuss the bill in the next session forget about getting it to the agenda on the current session.  All have promised to look into it as early as they take a seat to represent the constituency.  The prospect RDB discussion is taking the corner shade and suppressed by discussing the perks of MPs in the house. Going through ‘The Budget Appropriation Bill’ for Fiscal Year 2013-14, the budget for the Agriculture Sector is seen as a surprising decrease compare to the past. The Agriculture Budget is of utmost importance for the rural people. Although the bill could have assured them some development without having to discuss financial aspects, now it seems that rural development will be in thin air for another year.  In the past also most of the agriculture budget seems to be used for the construction of farm roads to woe the voters systematically denying the agriculture productivity program - the main holding nerves of the rural development. 

The denied Rural Development Bill is shot down to abrupt the following  scenario in the country:

1. The widening of the gap between rich and poor: RBD could have pullout maximum poverty lying population suffering from inadequate infrastructure. 

2. The increase in Rural-Urban Migration:  The comparable expansion of opportunities and other programs in rural could have drawn the attention of unemployed youth and citizens in the country and assisted in remaining youths in the village that can ease the problem of Rural-Urban Migration.

3. Increase unemployment ratio: When there are farming mechanization, the youth staying back in the village could have started farming occupation raising employment opportunities.  This could have pulled an answer to the hard founded solution of unemployment.    

4. Trade Deficit: When there is mass agriculture production, this could reduce import which would definitely help reconcile the trade deficit. The rural folk could also set up small cottage industries like furniture house and promote indigenous in the market. 

The sad reality in the parliaments is keeping important agenda in the side like RDB for discussion, MPs are initiating moving the motion to amend the resignation clause in the National Assembly, National Council, and Local Government Act, which seems to be the interest of promoting their political power. I did not find any reasons to amend these provisions at this juncture. This shows giving importance to one or two persons who are against democratic principles. If there are members resigning from Local government or parliament, they should be easily shown the way than giving an indication of the importance of them. I think no one is irreplaceable. We shouldn’t make them feel importance instead the house could gather and show more strength in taking democracy forward in a different stature than individual importance. 

In my opinion, to flourish democracy vibrantly, all must take the responsibility to strengthen the peace and stability of the country by having good policies that would benefit the mass of the country. I see no reason why RDB is not on the agenda and I don't know how MPs are preparing to face their people in the constituency after the session. 

(*The above opinion is of self and at no time represents anybody’s assessment including my employer. If anyone is offended or disrespected by the article I would like to kindly beg for forgiveness to my innocence. I shall ever remain grateful).    

གྲོང་གསེབ་གོང་འཕེལ་བཅའ་ཡིག་འདི་ གཞུང་སྐྱོང་དང་ལྡོག་ཕྱོགས རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་འཐུས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱི ཐུགས་ལས་ཡལ་སོགཔ་ཨིན་ན།

འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་མི་སེར་ཆ་མཉམ་རང་ བློ་དམན་ང་བཟུམ་ཅིག་ཡོད་མི་ག་རང་སེམས་དགའ་དགོ་པའི་གཞི་གཙོ་བོ་ རང་ སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༣ གྱི་བཙག་འཐུའི་བསྐུལ་བསྒྲགས་ཀྱི་སྐབས་ལུ་ ད་ལྟོ་གཞུང་སྐྱོང་དང་ལྡོག་ཕྱོགས་ དེ་ལས་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་ནང་འཐུས་མི་འབད་བཙག་འཐུ་བསྒྲུབས་ཡོད་མིའཐུས་མི་མང་ཤོས་ཅིག་གི་རང་ གྲོང་གསེབ་ གོངའཕེལ་བཅའ་ཡིག་འདི་ཕྲལ་མགྱོགས་འབད་རང་ ཆ་འཇོག་གནང་སྟེ་ གྲོང་གསེབ་མཐའ་ཟུར་ ཡར་རྒྱས་གོང་ འཕེལ་བཏང་ནི་ལུ་རྩོན་ཤུགས་བསྐྱེད་ཐབས་ལུ་ ཕྱག་ལཱ་གནང་ནི་ཟེར་གསུངསམ་ལས་བརྟེན་ཏེ་ཨིན།

Visit to “Ability Bhutan Society” – Emotional and Embolden

The Ability Bhutan Society(ABS) is a public benefit organization that intervenes in promoting the development and intellectuals of differently able people.  ABS is registered as a Civil Society Organization in 2011.

Her Majesty the Gyaltsuen is the patronage of the society. Mrs. Beda Giri, currently serving as the Executive Director started the society drawing inspiration from her late daughter who was also a differently able girl. It has been an accidental, and of course, worth to be visited the society today morning. It was personally an emotional visit for me as well as learned the other side of the story of differently able people.  You need to listen and see it yourself on the difficulties faced by these groups of people. It was heartwarming to see many bravery people working hard in society for the cause of other people to grow.

I learned that organization is facing numerous challenges in helping this group of people in society and other similar people outside the society. They are short of funds, expertise, and space to accommodate more people. It is still finding difficult to educate society on disabilities thus facing discrimination from society for differently able people.  

As Buddhist, we believe that this comes as a form of your karmic result of the past lives. But in this century we must put common effort to support this group of people. The Government has already started considering including the disabilities aspects of the policies. ABS informed that they have already approach city authority to develop infrastructure that is friendly to this group of people.    ABS is making a difference in the life of these differently able individuals. It is encouraging to see the group of an energetic  and dedicated teams in ABS and volunteers who are transforming the life of differently able people.  Let us all come together in appreciating those people involved in ABS. Personally,  it would be boundless merit in one’s life to support the ABS in your own way.

Please do contact Executive Director, Mrs. Beda Giri, at  +975-2-340747 if you want to support the organization.

(Views expressed are only personal and don't reflect any individual or institution stands including organization I work. No lines will be quoted unless permission is granted by author).

Forgotten Anniversary

On Monday, 26^th August 2013, I opened my notebook after a week of an intensive official works. To my surprise, the message reads as follows in my wife’s timeline (Facebook) posted on 22^nd August 2013:

Palang making- lifeline of many Kengkharpas

Palang - Local Ara Store

Palang making- lifeline of many KengkharpasPalang making- lifeline of many Kengkharpas
Kuenga Tashi, MonggarAug 6, 2013

Kengkharpas in Monggar are well known for producing wood-based products for ages now. One of the most popular products they produce is ‘Palang’ or wooden flask. Over the years it has become one of the major source of cash income as they get demand from other Dzongkhags.

Palang is used as a container to store locally brewed alcohol or Ara. It is made up of Gongtshong Shing, a wood locally known as Gongtshong.

Thukten Thinley, 26, has been in the business for four years now. “The toughest job is to collect materials from the forest. There are no trees available nearby and we have to go far always. Also it is difficult to find the trees too,” he says.

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Tashi Wangchuk, 47, partners with Thukten. He mainly does the outer design, making beautiful pattern rings around the Palang. He says all his family expenses are met from the sale of Palangs. “Making of Palang began serious since last 30 years,” he remembers, adding that the tradition of making Palangs were there since olden times but got serious only in the last 30 years.

People in the east are still using Palang to store Ara, to be offered to their guest. They say, it’s their pride to offer Ara from the Palang to their guest. The age old tradition of carrying Palang during social gathering is even followed now.

Unlike other business, sale of Palang is not a concern for them. It’s just that they cannot meet the demand some times. “Palangs make major part of our sale, and even few Choeshams. In one year we sale over thousand Plangs,” says Sangay Dhendup of the Yudari Tarayana Tshogpa

It is time for the villagers to collect raw materials at this time of the year. They will begin producing by the end of the year. Kengkhar is located about 67 Kilometres from the proper Monggar town.

(Views expressed are only personal and doesn't reflect any individual or institution stands including organization i work. No lines will be quoted unless permission is granted by author).