Whichever side of that fence one sits on, there’s no escaping this fact of life common to all
As sure as taxes and as much, if not more, of a wrench
WE, that is to say, the human race, have come a long way, baby – thanks in no small part to our fecund bent for breeding — but we just can’t shake off that doggone shadow of death. It’s like a tail, the one we’d shed, [... Read More]
Despite a busy academic schedule, students of Sherubtse College find time to teach monks
More than 100 monks of Kanglung Thubten Choekhorling shedra and Wogmin Choekhortse Buddhist college are learning English, Mathematics and translations from Sherubtse college students.
About 26 arts and science students are involved in teaching the monks as part of the college’s social service unit’s (SSU) education project.
The education project to teach monks at the two shedras started in 2004, but SSU has been [... Read More]
Last Thursday, while Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his residence, urging Japan to invest in the mega-project in Dawei, there were news headlines in Myanmar that Abe would be visiting Yangon the next day, and offered loads of financial assistance and long-term economic development plans worth nearly USD 1B. Both Japan and Myanmar have the Thilawa Port in mind, not the proposed Dawei development plan for the time [... Read More]
Protecting watersheds and biodiversity is vital for Bhutan’s economy
There is no doubt about Bhutan’s abundant biodiversity. The whole country is located within one of 34 designated global biodiversity hotspots. Ranging from sub-tropical to alpine ecosystems, the country is endowed with rich habitats that host a number of endemic and endangered species. By creating protected areas in over 50 percent of country’s geographical area, and designating biological corridors to connect the protected areas, Bhutan has demonstrated [... Read More]
The world knows us as the tiny Himalayan nation that endorses happiness over economic wealth. Our visibility as a nation in the international arena dynamically revolves around the philosophy of “happiness” as the guiding principle of the Bhutanese life. In the recent past, our country has become one of the most exclusive travel destinations, with the number of tourists increasing by the year. Its unprecedented effort in conserving its pristine natural environment, and its attempt [... Read More]
The illuminating map1 – titled as forest park of flower garden – of Bumthang, the divine hidden land2.
by Longchen Ramjam (1308-1363)3, composed in 1355. Translated by Karma Ura4
ཐུབ་པའི་བསྟན་པ་སྐྱོང་ཞིང་ ཁྱད་པར་དུ་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་མཆོག་གི་གསུང་རྩོམ་འདི་ནང་འཁོད་པའི་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་དང་གྲུབ་གནས་སོགས་ཁ་གསོའི་སྦྱིན་བདག་མཛད་པ་དང་ བུམ་ཐང་དུ་སྔར་མེད་ཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་བཞེངས་མཁན་ མི་དབང་རྒྱལ་ཡུམ་སྐུ་བགྲེས་ཨ་ཞེ་སྐལ་བཟང་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་དབང་ཕྱུག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་ བསྣན་འཕྲི་གང་ཡང་མེད་པར་སྒྲ་བསྒྱུར་གྱི་བྱ་བ་འདི་ ཕུལ་ཕྱིན་མིན་ཀྱང་དད་པའི་ཡིད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་པའོ།།
This translation, though imperfect, is dedicated to Royal Grandmother, Gyalyum Angay Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck: a Promoter and Practioner of the Teachings, and a Gracious Benefactor of new Temples, and of Old Temples and Hermitages mentioned in this Poem by the Omnisient Longchenpa
ཨོཾ་སྭ་སྟི་སིདྡྷཾ།
མཆོད་བརྗོད། [... Read More]
The writer argues against the introduction of private medical practice in the country
The issue of private practice has been in the web of national thinking for quite some time now. The debate has been mostly in the public domain but, as a Bhutanese, who will be affected by any decision on the issue, it is our right and responsibility to think about it too.
I have personally come to the conclusion that health care should remain [... Read More]
Both teams knew they were each up against stiff opponents, as did the crowd that thronged the YDF basketball court yesterday, expecting a spirited playoff.
They were not let down as the finals between the two top teams of the first club basketball championship – Phojas and Wizards – had them scream and shout until the end of the close match up that eventually saw Phojas give into the tactical play of their opponents.
The game ended [... Read More]
The correlation between inflation and poverty does not seem to have been scrupulously reflected in the report
While the government reports that the poverty rate in Bhutan has decreased from 23.2 percent to about 12 percent between 2008 and 2013, there is a general concern among many experts whether Bhutan has employed the right methods and indicators, and whether this declaration is even true.
The national poverty line was derived from the BLSS 2007. The total poverty [... Read More]
So as to reverse the rural-urban migration via the education sector
Current education scenario of our nation is the best opportunity for Bhutan to bring in desired changes and make everything fighting fit. And the education ministry can play a very fundamental role in paving the best roads for thousands of generation to come. Yet, my happiness dies as soon as it is born, for the ministry has gone blind to witness this vast ocean of [... Read More]
