Best of Bhutan

This post is aptly called the Best of Bhutan. I've decided to include some photos that I had not previously been able to the blog. Each picture has a story which I'll briefly share.

Another Day Another Cow

Every single day, I walked to DHI and on my way I encountered a new cow on the way. This one is quite pleasant looking but occasionally I have to walk past enormous bulls. They were sure to leave cow pies on the road each day. I felt like I was walking through a minefield. 

"Tiger's Nest" from afar

View From "Tiger's Nest"

Tiger's Nest is a monastery over 10,000 ft elevation perched on a cliff. 

 

From there, the view of the Paro valley was amazing.

Just out of view to the left is Paro Airport. Planes are only able to fly there during the day because the mountains are difficult to navigate at night.  

 

This is the Supreme Court which was within walking distance of my apartment and DHI. It was here where I consulted with the Court Registrar and with a Supreme Court Justice regarding my research. These meetings were very informative and provided with much needed perspective on my assignment. 

View from my Front Yard

This photo was taken on my way to a banquet where DHI officials met with the officials of its subsidiary companies. The rapport between these companies is very interesting. In many ways DHI is a new-comer to the public sector in Bhutan since many of these subsidiary companies pre-existed before DHI was established. They were initially within the Ministry of Finance until they were transferred to DHI which manages them. 

Gho vs. T-shirt and Jeans

Every single day I worked with people who wore Ghos which are the traditional outfits which Bhutanese have been wearing for hundreds of years. I was tempted to purchase one but I managed to move around wearing western dress. 

Thank you everyone for reading my blogs! I can't wait to meet up with the rest of the WDI fellows back in Ann Arbor this fall.

Going to Church in Bhutan (Part 2)

Bhutanese Folk Dancing-I think I sat this dance out

In my last post, I introduced you to my church community. I mentioned that they are mostly of Nepali descent as opposed to the Bhutanese that make up the majority of the population. The community is very close knit and I was immediately invited to people’s homes for dinner. As I mentioned earlier, Nepali people usually speak Nepali as their native tongue and only a few are fluent in Dzongka. So just like me, they may have to speak in English with Dzongka speakers. I attended English services which were comprised of a mixture of South Indians, American expats and Nepalis. It was in this service, where I played keyboard with the worship team. That was an interesting experience because if I was not careful, I’d miss song transitions because everyone spoke Nepali around me. In fact, sometimes when I was still being careful I would still miss instructions on key changes or when the leader would change the order of songs. This past Sunday was my last at the church so I decided to introduce an American song that they never heard. It was well received!

One last note on Nepalis. Many of them have never been to Nepal and are actually not citizens of Nepal. Unfortunately, many of them are also not recognized as citizens of Bhutan therefore they are a people without a country. Both the Bhutanese and Nepalese government go back and forth arguing over what percentage of the Nepali refugees are actually Bhutanese citizens.

My wife and I with the Chairman of DHI

My supervisor is to my right

On the topic of DHI, I just came from a banquet last night where for the first time DHI employees dined with employees of DHI’s subsidiary companies. Enjoy the photos! 

Going to Church in Bhutan (Part 1)

I've had the pleasure these few months of attending one of the few churches in Thimphu. I’ll speak about this experience later on in the post but before I think I might need to lay a foundation of religion in Bhutan.

As you may know, Bhutan is a heavily Buddhist nation and even has the designation as being the last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom (after Nepal’s king was forced to abdicate). What this means is that although there is  officially freedom to practice other faiths aside from Buddhism, there is a real push by the government to perpetuate Buddhism in all the facets of everyday.

Similar to how the King of England was the head of the Church of England, the Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King) constitutionally acts as the dual head of state and religion in Bhutan. That means that the King could not lightly decide not to practice Buddhism or convert as both would have serious repercussions in Bhutan.

Punakha Dzong- Administrative office/ temple/ court house

The government financially supports the monastic body which regularly meets and performs rituals throughout the many fortresses (known as dzongs) around the country. As in yesteryear,  these dzongs served partially as temples, storehouses for taxes in kind (people used to give part of their crop as taxes), court houses and administrative offices. Dzongs are a representation of the dualism between the government and Buddhism. On Dzongs and on other government building are pictures of the Buddha, prayer wheels, lotus flowers, or sacred scriptures.

So where do Christians fit in this context. Well amongst all the visible Buddhist symbols and faith there is a relatively small and vibrant community of Christians in Thimphu who are largely Nepali in ethnicity. I guess I have to explain who Nepali people are. Nepalis are the largest minority and they originate from Nepal. Nepali people speak….Nepali and often do not speak Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. As a result they need to speak to other Bhutanese with the Dzongkha they know or even communicate in English. Nepali people are largely Hindu and they look more like they are from northern Indian then do the Bhutanese. I heard one explanation for why the churches in Thimphu are largely Nepali. As I mentioned earlier, Buddhism is really intertwined in the cultural fabric of Bhutan. Many people view leaving the faith of Buddhism as turning your back on your cultural heritage and as a result people who are even remotely curious about Christianity are often discouraged to explore. Nepali people in Bhutan don’t have the same connection to Buddhism as they are predominately Hindu so that might explain why it is slightly more acceptable for them to convert.

I'm in the middle playing the keyboard during worship ministry practice.

A Valley in Punakha District

In attending the church, getting to know the pastor, and breaking bread with them I’ve learned a little bit about how it is being a Christian in Bhutan. Anecdotally, several people who had prominent posts in the government have either been demoted or lost their jobs because of what they attribute to be religious persecution. Also there have been incidents when the government would send people into the congregation to report on what was being said. That would never present a problem in the church I attend because we always pray for the royal family and the country. =) 

In my next post I’ll explain more about the church community, their worship team, and English language classes. I’ll also take a detour and talk more about my project with DHI. 

N-Word in Thimphu

When Francois Hollande ran for President of France in 2012, his campaign tapped into a sore spot in French politics-race relations.  In a broad appeal to the often neglected and disparaged African and Arab communities across his nation, he ran a spot on French television with him on the streets and in public transportation shaking the hands of various minorities. The imagery was on-point but the choice of music was not--Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Niggaz in Paris.”  Yes…Hollande lifted this American rap export and no… I do not believe he understood the lyrics.

What does this have to Bhutan? Well when American culture, especially media portrayals of Black America is exported overseas, I suffer. Last week when I was walking to the “Himalayan School of Music” (which has one of the few keyboards in Thimphu), my mind was far from Jay-Z. I noticed a group of a dozen teenagers loping down a hill just before me. They crossed the street ahead of me and I passed them by. Just above the din of their banter and boasts, I made out the word ...  the infamous word,
the word that was buried in Detroit several years ago, 

no, not this word but this word. 

Again, it was repeated, this time louder for me to hear. So I did what any black person, who was alone, and out-numbered in the Himalayas would do …  I invited them to my side of the road, sat down and spoke to them.

                “What’s your name?” I started systematically from left to right and got everyone’s name. Not surprisingly, they all had the most common Bhutanese names:

                “Sonam”

                “Tshering”

                “Ugyen”

                “Thuji”

                “Wangchuk”

                “Dorji”

                “Pema”

                “Karma”

                I shook some of their hands and introduced myself, “I’m Yannick. Yannick Wood. My name is not [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigga]. If you were in the United States and you said that to a black person you would get in a whole lot of trouble.”

                “Do you have weed?” A 16-yr old right in front of me asked. To insure I understood his q uestion, he put a imaginary blunt to his mouth and took a puff.

                “No. Of course not. Where did you get that idea from?”

                He responded, “Hollywood. In the movies black people smoke pot.”

                I explained to them that they cannot believe everything they see on TV especially through movies. I could see and hear the wheels turning in their heads as they contemplated my response. We concluded our discussion and they went on their way. One of the teenagers apologized to me and left. With this experience fresh in my mind, I proceeded to the music school where I jammed with another Bhutanese teenager to none other than “Hotel California” (this was not my song choice). For better or for worse, these cultural exports are here to stay.

"Bridging" Cultural barriers

                In a very timely CNN article, several minorities who live and work in China divulged their experiences. Like some of these individuals, I have been the recipient of epithets but not all of them are bad. Sometimes I’ve been called Obama and other times Didier Drogba, an Ivorian soccer star that plays for the Shanghai Shenhua team. It is almost as if when they see black, they must immediately cycle through all that they think is black and then immediately draw upon these stereotypes. As our world gets more connected and Black Americans increasingly travel and work overseas I’m sure similar encounters will occur. These encounters are often tense, and sometimes humiliating but we should look at them as "teachable moments." 

Hello all,

Tashichho Dzong, a government and monastic administrative building in the background

It’s been a while since my last post so I’ll make this one a longer one. In my last entry, I listed 5 of my experiences in Bhutan. In this entry I’m going to briefly explain one of the experiences on my list and explain more about my project.

Thimphu Tech Park...my actual photo was not uploading so here is an artist's rendering of the building...lovely

Unfortunately, I didn't dress properly for the occasion

I’ll start out of order with #2 “Planting a bottle-brush tree at Bhutan’s new LEED Platinum technology park.” I had the awesome opportunity to tour Bhutan’s tech-park which is actually housed in one building. As per Bhutan’s regulations, all buildings no matter how recently they are constructed must have a traditional façade. The result is that all of the hi-rises and new construction appears as if they have been fixtures for several hundred years. The Techpark is no different. From the outside it looks like an ancient fortress but all along the tour, our guide showed us the modern and “green” features. For example, the pavement is water permeable so that when it rains, the water gets to replenish the ground water rather than running off into storm drains. Water that collects on the roof is collected in a cistern and is used to water the plants. Solar panels powered the water heaters and lighting. Special materials were used to keep the sun’s heat out and make the building really cool during the summer. There was a whole bunch of other features that I could hardly explain right now. The certification speaks for itself. What I found most interesting is how they used part of the park to house a small business incubator. Yes, they have a special room where prematurely born businesses rest and develop into strong healthy organizations. At least that’s the image I got from the word “incubator.” Basically it’s a large room that actually resembles a hospital neo-natal ward. It is has long tables, internet access and it is rented out to business start-ups. The goal is for all of these start-ups to cross-pollinate their ideas as they work in the same room. When needed, the Incubator will provide loans for these businesses. So far this whole operation is embryonic as they only have a couple start-ups but I look forward to working with them on one project this summer. Oh, I never got to the tree part. So, the building is completed but the grounds still need to have trees and shrubs planted. The groundskeeper gave me a small shovel and a baby tree and I had the difficult task of breaking the fallow ground. One day, this tree will grow to be over 50 feet tall.

Alright so here’s the part where I talk about my project. At first, I mentioned that I was researching avenues for how Bhutan’s Companies Act can be amended to help DHI as it manages its subsidiaries. My project has since changed and I am now researching DHI’s legal status within Bhutan and I am devising ways that DHI can clarify this status. So when I say legal status, I am referring to general categorization of DHI as an entity within the government. For example, we know that the FBI is an agency within the Executive Branch in the United States. Ascertaining this status is important because it determines which laws apply to DHI. DHI’s status within the Royal Government of Bhutan is not so clear cut because it was not created by legislation. It was actually created by royal decree! Essentially, His Majesty, the Druk Gyalpo (the Dragon King) of Bhutan, Jigme Kesar Namgyel Wangchuck in 2007 decreed: Let there be DHI! and there was DHI! …That’s not actually what happened; he consulted with a very limited group of people in the government. The problem was that the royal decree did not comprehensively explain what DHI was and all the laws it should be subject to. This has proven problematic and so I have been charged with uncovering this. The research is a bit sensitive so I can’t explain everything but where possible over the next few blogs both you and I will uncover answers to this mystery.  Until next time!

A preview of what's to come in my next post...

Yannick Wood...without the S

In Bhutan with Druk Holding and Investments

Hello everyone. This is Yannick (The guy on the right) and I am the WDI Fellow serving in Bhutan this summer. First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the delay in beginning my blog. It has taken me a few weeks to get my bearings here and now I am ready to share my experiences.

Before I do that, let me explain my assignment. I am working for the Legal Department of Druk Holding and Investments (DHI). DHI is a government run holding company which holds at least 15 government companies. These companies range from Cement manufacturers to Telecommunications companies. They also own an airline. DHI operates under the 2000 Company Law of Bhutan which governs all corporations. The law needs updating and DHI wants me make suggestions on how it can be better. My assignment also includes researching the tax laws here and coming up with suggestions on how they can be revised to help DHI. Lastly, I am coming up with ways for DHI to clarify its mandate and its jurisdiction in the Bhutan (I’ll explain in later posts).

My experience in Bhutan so far has been nothing short of exciting. My experiences have included:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1)      <!--[endif]-->Hiking up to a monastery above 10,000 ft.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2)      <!--[endif]-->Planting a bottle-brush tree at Bhutan’s new LEED Platinum technology park (take that Michigan Law School! MLS was just awarded the LEED gold standard for the new South Hall building). 

3)      <!--[endif]-->Being tricked into eating Betel-nut, what Bhutanese eat instead of chewing tobacco-I will explain later.

4)      <!--[endif]-->Being nearly attacked by a dog (stray dogs are a problem in Thimphu. For the most part they are friendly but every so often you get aggressive ones).

5)      <!--[endif]-->Finding a Bhutanese church with English language services—which is remarkable in this predominately Buddhist country.  

Well that’s about it for now. I think I’ve whet your appetite for more and I’ll be sure to deliver.