Wheaton in Bhutan: The Gross National Happiness Study-tour
By Professor of Religion Jeff Timm
Even before we had completed the 40 hours in transit required for the journey from Boston to Bhutan, I had inklings that this first visit (for six students enrolled in the Religion department's new course offering, "Buddhism and Development") would be no less than amazing.
During our midnight layover at the cavernous Don Muang International Airport, I read the Bangkok Post reporting that Thailand's next five-year plan would focus on social development rather than pure economic growth citing Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck's development philosophy summed up in His Majesty's often quoted maxim: "Gross national happiness is more important than gross national product." It is interesting that a country of Thailand's magnitude (pop. 65 million) would turn to a tiny nation like Bhutan (pop. 500,000) for economic philosophy.
The very next morning, aboard our Druk Air flight from Bangkok to Paro, I passed the article around to my students along with another Thai newspaper, The Nation, that ran a color photograph of Bhutan's most sacred place, the dramatic, cliff-side Taktsang Monastery, accompanying an article titled, "Costs keep Thais from following prince charming." This article referred to Bhutan's high value/low volume approach to tourism as well as to the very positive impression left from a recent visit by Bhutan's Crown Prince Jigme Khesar Wangchuck. I passed both articles around to the six students who were accompanying me to Druk Yul, the kingdom of the thunder dragon, the last remaining Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas. In two days we would stand before the sanctum sanctorum of Bhutan's most sacred Taktsang and in five days we would sip tea and discuss "Gross National Happiness," with Bhutan's crown prince at his new abode in Bhutan's capital, Thimphu.
This first Wheaton study-tour to Bhutan (June 28-July 11, 2006) is a part of a larger pattern of activities and relationships developing over the past seven years that has included faculty, students, administrators and alumni at both Wheaton College and the Royal University of Bhutan, especially including our partner institution in eastern Bhutan, Sherubtse College. Since 1999 I have accompanied students, colleagues and staff for curriculum development projects at Sherubtse College, thanks to the unflagging support given to these projects by our former provost, Suzanne Woods. In addition, there are currently four Bhutanese students studying at Wheaton on full scholarships.
In recent years Wheaton has also sponsored visits by Sherubtse faculty for professional and curricular development. Our most recent guest was Mr. Ugyen Pelgen, singularly comprising Sherubtse's nascent history department, who team-taught with me in my spring, 2006 Buddhism seminar, a class that included four of the six students on this trip. Now Ugyen Pelgen, along with six of his students from Sherubtse, would meet us for three days in Bumthang, Bhutan's cultural and geographical center, for an annual tsechu, or masked dance ritual, performed by local monks.
On June 28, 2006 our small group arrived at the Paro airport, Bhutan's only airport, built in one of the country≠s only valleys capable of accommodating such a long, flat, and straight surface. In the afternoon, accompanied by our guide and driver, Tsewang Nidup of Bhutan Expeditions, we visited the National Museum, a fitting introduction to Bhutanese culture, and perused rooms of thangkhas or scroll-paintings, postage stamps (Bhutan is renowned among philatelists), medieval armor and taxidermy. The museum is located inside the Ta Dzong (built 1656), the largest of the original watchtowers protecting the massive fortress of Rinpung Dzong, the dominant architecture of the Paro valley. At the center of the circular Ta Dzong is a temple featuring a polychromatic, paper-mache, sculpture of the life-sustaining tree, its branches pointing to the diverse masters and traditions of Himalayan Buddhism, a culture we were coming to witness at first-hand.
Following our first full night's rest at the Samdencholing "Bhutanese Hotel Food, Lodge and Bar," with its traditional hand-painted interior decorations adorning the walls and ceilings of each guest room, we were ready for a day trip along a less traveled road into the Ha Valley. On the way to the Chelela Pass (3810 meters) we stopped to visit the Kila nunnery, a place not mentioned in the guidebook, parking the ten-seat mini-van near the road and hiking up for about an hour through forested glades, and meadows filled with purple irises in full bloom. At the nunnery, a small sign over the door announced "Well Come to All," and after visiting the primary temple, featuring a central image of Chenrezig or Avalotikesvara, the Buddha of infinite compassion, we had a chat with a young nun, probably about the same age as our students, who described her voluntary renunciation of the worldly life in favor of this remote enclave.
At the pass itself we encountered an entourage of Indian military personnel who had prepared a complete mobile facility, including a tea-tent, for the imminent visit of an eminent general of the Indian army. The rain and fog at the pass kept the visit brief, and we marveled at the numbers of people, and preparations, involved for 10 minutes of hoopla. My thoughts slipped back to the young nun and her life of quiet renunciation. On the way back to Paro town we stopped at the Dzongdrakha temple. Here the central image is not Chenrezig, but rather Padmasambhava, who may be considered the patron saint of Bhutan. Popularly know as Guru Rinpoche, or precious teacher, his image is encountered throughout Bhutan, painted on cliff-sides, appliquéd onto gigantic temple wall-hangings, called thondrols, displayed only on special, ritual occasions, and somewhere or other in every temple and home shrine in Bhutan, often as the dominant, central image. And well he should be. It was Guru Rinpoche who, during the 8th century, responded to the king≠s plea for help in subduing negative spiritual forces and establishing a foundation for the future of Buddhism in the region.
As we walked to the Dzongdrakha temple, (at a leisurely pace it took us 45 minutes), the clouds separated and the sun appeared for the first time that day. Soon a rainbow made a fleeting and faltering appearance across the Paro valley. In Bhutan, as elsewhere, a rainbow is always a good sign.
Back at the Samdencholing hotel we met Professor Bruce Owens, from Wheaton≠s Anthropology department, joining the study-tour from Kathmandu where he researches developments in contemporary Buddhist rituals and sacred architecture.
Professor Owens was just in time for our visit the next day to Bhutan≠s most sacred place, the Taktsang monastery, popularly know as Tiger's Lair. Tiger's Lair or Tiger's Nest, is a reference to the arrival of Guru Rinpoche, at the small cave located in a sheer cliff over a thousand meters above the Paro valley, on the back of a flying tiger. That≠s how its told in the modern Bhutanese history books, and who are we to argue while guests in a land where tradition and modernity, the sacred and the scientific, the ancient and the contemporary, coexist in a kind of living magical realism.
Our day began with a visit to Kyerchu Lakhang, a geomantic, evil-pacifying temple first built on the site in the 7th century by the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo. Here the central image in the oldest temple is Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha who lived in northern India during the 6th century BCE, and who is celebrated as the original transmitter of the Buddhist teachings, called Dharma, in this present world system. Following the actions of our Bhutanese guide, a sincerely practicing Buddhist, I prostrate myself three times to the lama's seat located directly opposite the central image, before turning to the larger than life Shakyamuni to repeat the process. Our guide, Tsewang, explains that one always first prostrates to the lama, or to his seat, a gesture honoring the guru and recognizing our reliance upon the living teachers who transmit the power of Dharma to the present moment.
After the prostrations, a small monetary offering is made and one is blessed receiving a palmar sip of sacred water offered by the attendant monk. From the outset, and throughout the tour, I encouraged our students to engage in a respectful participant-observation, leaving it up to them to decide whether or not to prostrate, or to make offerings receiving the camphor water blessing in a gently cradled right palm, first sipping and then wiping the remainder over the top of the head.
Standing before the central image in my bare feet I could literally feel my toes sink down into the wide wooden planks of the floor, reminiscent of the body impressions left in solid rock by Guru Rinpoche in the caves where he had meditated long ago. Countless prostrations by countless monks over the years at this very spot had formed smooth toe indentations in the wood floor. The common-sense, mutual exclusion of qualities like spaciousness and solidity begin to seem a lot less certain the more deeply you enter into traditional Bhutanese worldview. Discursive reasoning can only take you so far; an official government permit for admission to sacred places takes you a bit further.
Tourists cannot ordinarily gain access to Bhutan≠s many temples, monasteries and sacred places. There are some exceptions, but most active temples, monasteries and places of pilgrimage, are off-limits to the ordinary tourist. You can look, and photograph, the exterior architecture, but only guests with special government clearance, leaving shoes and cameras at the door, are invited to explore the sacred space within. Thanks to our connections with Sherubtse College, and a Memorandum of Understanding between Wheaton and the Royal University of Bhutan signed in 2004, our students, each one a serious student of the Buddhist traditions, were granted full access throughout the tour.
After a brief stop to visit the ruins of Drukgyel Dzong, a fortress built in 1649 to celebrate victory over invading Tibetans, and lunch of traditional Bhutanese fare at the Yak Herders≠ Camp Restaurant, we were ready to make the short drive to the trailhead (2,600 meters) for the hike up to Taktsang (3,140 meters). As we arrived the area was scene of much activity. Monks, young and old, had congregated along with many laypeople. They would help carry food and supplies required by the monks during their annual month-long ritual at Taktsang Monastery, a ritual to assure good rains in the coming season.
Pack horses were being organized to carry the supplies up until they could proceed no further as the trail becomes a series of railed stairways snaking around the gorge. The weight was then transferred to the shoulders of men and women who would acquire spiritual merit for the service they were providing. Our small group immediately set out on the two-hour hike up the trail to the fabled Tiger's Nest.
After Padmasambhava≠s visit in the 8th century, in his tiger-riding emanation known as Dorje Drolod, Taktsang became a place of spiritual retreat for many great spiritual masters of Tibet and Bhutan. From the establishment of the modern Bhutanese state, credited to the leadership of Zhadrung Ngawang Namgyel who assumed power during the 17th century, monks from Thimphu visit Taktsang each year during the 5th lunar month. Our visit happened to correspond to the beginning of this annual ritual.
After making offerings and examining the several small temples comprising this cliff-side complex, after a brief meditation, and after a lingering gaze into the six meter crevice overlooking the valley, said to be the original tiger≠s nest, we turned our attention again outward, back across the 900 meter chasm, multi-colored prayer flags lifted by the wind into a rainbow arc across the expanse, to watch an orderly file of maroon-robed monks slowly making its way to this final ritual destination. The arrival of so many people signaled the end of our brief visit to Taktsang and we began our descent.
Early the next morning we set out on the lateral highway for the 90-minute drive to the Thimphu valley. Each day the road is closed at 11am for several hours to allow road crews to blast and clear; a project to widen the national highway is underway. Upon arrival in the capital of Thimphu another development is immediately apparent to me. The municipal authority has restricted outdoor advertising. Gone are all the Pepsi signboards where sultry, (and thirsty?), Bombay film stars beckon suggestively. Of course, not all Bhutanese are happy with this, but one can imagine Padmasambhava quite pleased. His image--painted on cliffsides or appliquéd onto the massive thondrols displayed at annual ritual celebrations--will not soon be dwarfed, or displaced, by the image of a Bollywood actress touting Pepsi. Om ah hum vajra guru peme siddhi hum.
In Thimphu there are many attractions demanding the attention of the first-time, or returning, visitor. High on this list is the Memorial Chorten, a dominant and visable landmark in town, and a place of spiritual practice, attracting Bhutanese across generations to join in circumambulating the structure always in a clockwise direction, three, seven, twenty-one or more times, gaining merit, expiating sins, generating causes and conditions for bodhicitta, the heart-mind of the bodhisattva saint, or simply for a good rebirth. After a brief stop at the bank and post office, we settled in at our new abode, Hotel Yeedzin, just a few blocks from the Memorial Chorten. Although I had visited this sacred place many times during my six previous visits to Bhutan, today was the first time that the interior of the structure was opened, revealing the elaborate sculptures and paintings of ferocious protector deities and pacific meditational deities hidden within. Once again Bhutan seemed to open and offer our small study-tour its best.
The next morning we got a somewhat unexpected invitation to have tea with Bhutan's Crown Prince, who was once a student at Wheaton and has maintained cordial relations with the college subsequently. After gently negotiating security we sat on a veranda with the young man who would become King of this nation in 2008, the date his father has announced for his intended retirement, having brought democracy and constitutional monarchy to his nation.
For an hour and a half we sat in the shadow of Tashichoe Dzong, the seat of Bhutanese government, and next to the swirling Thimphu River, discussing Gross National Happiness, which the Crown Prince repeatedly referred to as "the philosophy of GNH." In a thoughtful and soft-spoken manner, his long sideburns and coal-black hair making him look more than a little like a young Elvis, he responded to our students' questions about technology, environment and education and emphasized the importance of maintaining "the philosophy of GNH."
After several days of exploring Thimphu by day, and joining the city's obsession with the World Cup Finals during the night, our group was off to central Bhutan to meet up with a small group of students from Sherubtse College located in the easternmost region of the country. Led by Sherubtse history lecturer, Ugyen Pelgen, the six Bhutanese students spent two days with our group, researching the practice and meanings of the Tsechu dance festivals of Nyimalung monastery and Kurjey Lakhang located in the Bumthang valley, the latter the location of the famous body impression of Padmasambhava.
Each year at this time the ritual masked dance festival concludes with the display of a massive appliqué thondrol. Bhutanese, wearing their best ghos and kiras (the distinctive Bhutanese national dress) attend the ceremony believing that just a glimpse of the thondrol in this life has positive spiritual benefits even into the next life.
Our students entered this moment fully as participant-observers simply by adopting the dress of the Bhutanese people. The Sherubtse students were suitably impressed when Wheaton students showed up in kira and gho. Our students reported afterward that wearing Bhutanese garb made them feel distanced from the handful of western tourists that they saw, and closer to the Bhutanese.
The final day of the tour deserves mention for it exemplifies the distance we had traveled in order to enter the worldview of Bhutanese Buddhism. We returned to Paro, and to the Samdencholing, its signboard freshly repainted changing it from a "Hotel" to an "Eco Resort." I didn't return in the van with the others, instead riding in a small car driven by Wangchuk Rinzin, formally of Sherubtse College and now working for the Center for Bhutan Studies.
Wangchuk visited Wheaton in 2002 and served as a teaching assistant in my course "Engaged Buddhism." During that visit he fascinated the class explaining how his young son had been positively identified as a reincarnate lama; now four years later our group is invited to meet with the seven-year-old spiritual master in training. Lucky for us, a new road had been recently cut providing easy access to the isolated hilltop monastery above Paro called Sangchoekhor or secret mantra/wheel of dharma. Only once did "the boys" pile out in order to push the vehicle, urging it through a particularly muddy spot.
At the monastery we were ushered into a small room, seated on the floor before a low dais supporting the young rinpoche. Light radiated over his head and shoulders, and through the trefoil windows directly behind him stretched the Paro valley. Each of us made the traditional scarf offering, and the small Rinpoche with a very long name--Ugyen Dordul Thinley Kuenchab--reincarnation of Terton Drukdra Dorjee, blessed each one.
As always tea was served and the young Rinpoche, coached by his new English tutor, practiced some of the things he has just learned. After blessing some prayer flags that I had brought with me, Rinpoche abruptly launched into a spirited blessings recitation that lasted a good ten minutes, sucking in air to fill his small lungs, in order to make it to the end of the each verse.
Afterwards, my 16-year-old daughter, Emily, who accompanied us on this trip, described the moment as "the weirdest thing I have ever experienced." To make the strange familiar is one of the goals of comparative religious studies, and this visit was perhaps a most suitable conclusion to a most amazing tour.
These are just a few highlights of the recent study-tour. Now these students will complete the course, "Buddhism and Development" by producing a 20-page research paper incorporating their first-hand experiences into the scholarly analysis of their particular individual thesis, relating Buddhism and Bhutan to the philosophy of GNH by considering technology, environment, education, relations with India, among other topics.
Many, many folks provided necessary support and encouragement to make this study-tour possible. Thanks to Wheaton≠s Center for Global Education. A special thanks is required for two alumnae who have directly supported the Wheaton-Sherubtse connection out of their love for Wheaton and for Bhutan: Sukey Wagner '56 and Barbi Donnelley '63. Also, a great debt of thanks is owed to Mr. Tsewang Nidip, proprietor of Bhutan Expeditions www.bhutan-expeditions.com and an outstanding exponent of Bhutanese culture and spirituality.
