By Salam Rajesh
What was so special about the Bhutanese lifestyle in a very first visit to this secluded Himalayan mountain kingdom? This preoccupation, and so as many other minute details, had a lasting impression upon this writer on the small and significant ways Bhutanese people had adapted themselves in a world of their own.
Primarily a Buddhist country, and with the larger population following the Buddhist faith and religion, Bhutan is the typical setting of a secluded nation state independent of outside influence in almost all ways of their lives.
The immediate impression is of a nation of people who consider their monarch as an embodiment of spirituality, compassion and of the very essence of humanity within the larger concept of man in close relationship with the elements of nature.
The monasteries reflect the sanctity of places of worship where humans are at absolute peace with nature, and entirely absorbed in the pursuit of realizing the oneness with the supreme beings.
This is easily realized when anyone visits such a majestic and enchanting worship place as the Takshang Monastery, which is universally and popularly known as the ‘Tiger’s Nest’ – a concept closely associated with the founding of the monastery in the mythological times.
The respect of humanity, and of humanism, in every step of life is what distinguishes the Bhutanese people from others, especially given the nature of ways of life regularly seen in mundane everyday life in most cities in India.
In four days of stay in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu recently, and in the peri-commercial hub Paro, there was not a single instance of where either the private or the commercial drivers honked their vehicles to steer their vehicles past others or to take a turn sideways – absolutely intriguing and fascinating all at once.
As amazing as it was, the concept reflected the Buddhist ways of thinking and reflection on the intricacies of life itself, such as, if one does not mean to cause harm to others then there is no reason to worry that others will cause harm to you. This is an unwritten code beyond mundane human life and thinking.
As simple as it sounds, the very act of respecting commuters on the zebra crossing where all vehicles come to a respectful halt to let the commuters go first (or cross first) is something that does not come easily in most Indian cities.
At this point, it does come back to the mind of this writer the unique experience of the Japanese city of Nara where people share the same space with ungulates, the one respecting the other in a demonstrated feeling of oneness. This is the peculiarity of people who follow the Buddhist faith and religion, that is, the respect of the one to the other in a most humble way.
The Bhutanese majesties – the monarch, his queen, the queen mother or any other member of the royal family – travel simply without the fanfare of the hi-fi politicians in Indian cities (nee Imphal). People out on the highway halt their vehicles respectfully to let the royalty pass before proceeding on to their different ways. The wailing sirens are absolutely missing here.
Road rages is perhaps unreal here, very much different from the everyday hustle and bustle of life in Imphal (or as in any given Indian city) where road rages is quite common with drivers honking wildly or screaming at one another even for minor offences such as a vehicle overtaking haphazardly or without flashing the side signals.
In all assessment, it is quite hard to think of how the average Bhutanese people would fare when they visit over-populated and over-congested cities like Imphal, Guwahati or Kolkata where there are less signs of sanity, respect and forgiveness.
A twelve-member team was sponsored by the Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Manipur, under the lead of its Media Resource Center to undertake the once-in-a-while visit to the kingdom of the dragons (Druks) with the express purpose of understanding the springshed management and traditional system of water harvesting, use and conservation in this Himalayan nation state.
Although separated geo-physically by the massive Assam floodplains of the mighty Brahmaputra River, Manipur shares certain affinity with Bhutan in the very sense that both regions belong to the mountain family of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH).
Eight countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar – encompass the HKH region, sharing much in geography and in biodiversity typical of the Himalayas.
The Rhododendron arboreum – the Himalayan mountain flower – is the signature tree that connects most HKH regions as one. It blooms in Manipur (Ukhrul, Senapati) and in Meghalaya, Nagaland, the Darjeeling Himalayas, Sikkim, Bhutan, the Garhwal region, and much more.
As it is, when comparing the everyday lifestyle as is observed in Bhutan and in Manipur, there is a marked contrast on how people view each other in terms of respect and humanism. The bloodbath in Manipur currently is largely amiss in the Himalayan kingdom which is reasonably an abode of peace in every sense of the word.
The Manipur team did joke with one another that Bhutan absolutely needs no traffic policeman as there is no observed instance of traffic violation in its streets. In fact, the highways are neat, undisrupted nor punctuated by potholes, and there is absolute sanity and order. No one violates the regulations, and each one looks out for the other – definitely quite unimaginable in the rush and din of the Imphal streets and highways.
Manipur has much to learn from Bhutan and its people.
