Nawang P Phuntsho

(Google Image) On traditional bamboo bows and arrows, hitting the gorthig (bull’s eye) is a big thing, but now with the coming of Yangphel archery tournaments, the concept of hitting the bull has changed slightly in a sense that now the probability of the bull escaping is far less. On traditional targets the bulls are depicted small; in fact they are hardly visible if one moves away a few yards from them. Yangphel’s bull on the other hand is 25 cm wide diametrically while the target is 31 cm wide.  Statistically, the top 20 players (from three league rounds of the ongoing Yangphel archery tournament) hit 607 kareys of which 136 were hit on the gorthig and only 31 sakareys . This means the probability of hitting the coveted bull is 22.37% while that of sakarey’s is 5.01%.  Technically speaking, it is more difficult to hit sakarey than it is to hit the bull. And the highest number of bulls hit is 11 while the lowest stands at 2 in the league rounds.     O...

(Photo: http://www.bhutan2008.bt/) The article in Kuensel “No child to be left behind” dated August 16, 2010 gives us some hope for our children as well as us the concerned citizens. Dagana education officials in close coordination with the local leaders promise to have 100% school enrollment by 2013. The move is to confirm if the children whose census are in Dagana Dzongkhag are already enrolled in school elsewhere and to call them back home if they are not in school. The Dzongkhag aims to enroll them in schools with some kind of kidu support. What a wonderful initiative by the Dzongkhag education officials! This should go a long way in setting example for others and hopefully achieve us the status of child labor free country.  Child labor is “the employment of children at regular and sustained labor” and is “considered exploitative by many international organizations … illegal in many countries ... was utilized to varying extents through most of history, but entered public di...

(Penstar Garden) Back in 2006, I thought the whole concept behind having a blog was about posting some beautiful pictures or some stories or poems. I did just that – posted classmates’ pictures from various occasion and my highs school fictions. A few months later, laziness took me by neck and put my blog to rest. Then a year ago, I had to start from the scratch and erected another blog – this is how my current blog found its place in the cyberspace. And now four years later, I find blogging a useful tool to vent out our pent up thoughts on varying issues that affect us socially, individually, politically, environmentally and culturally. And our blogs are like our kitchen gardens where we sow our thoughts or harvest bunches of satisfaction. The more we sow the more fruits it bears and more satisfaction thereof.  (PaSsu's Garden) Some of my friends caution me sometimes. They say most of my writings are about current and often controversial issues. That’s good, I say, because...

(Photo: MPC Bhutan Entertainment) I was watching Miss Bhutan show last weekend. I tell you it is a good pastime. But our illiterate folks back at home would have enjoyed it more if they could understand what participants said on the screen. So much for the preservation of national language! But other than that the show was organized well. Kudos to the organizers! Well, personally I don’t believe in quantifying beauty (if there is such a term) because one man’s food is another’s poison. Beauty as you well know is subjective- that’s why someone has rightly said beauty actually lies in the eyes of beholders. Something that appears beautiful to me may not necessarily appear thus to you. It is quite elusive. But I think beauty is what beauty does. I salute whoever said that and I can’t help agreeing. Of almost 700,000 people in Bhutan, roughly 50% comprise of women. And it is sad to know that not many women turned up for the audition. Of course it is not the organizers' faults. Our...

(Educating for GNH - a student posing for me) This afternoon, I happened to meet a friend of mine who teaches at a school in town. Since it has been sometime, we were trying to catch up what’s happening, and chatting on various subjects ranging from politics to jobs to inflation to relationships. I was asking how he likes teaching because I didn’t hear him mention teaching as something he always wanted to do back then. But he said he enjoys it. He likes the idea that he is educating children some children. At the end of the day it is satisfaction he gets, which matters. This is good. But I was unprepared with what was coming next. He said students’ attitudes have changed over the years. “Some students openly go against and argue with teachers. Principal does not care about teachers. Students barely notice their teachers,” my friend continued. “Some students openly refuse to do project and home works.” I thought he wanted to restore corporal punishment to its former glory. We were...

This is a pictorial glimpse of what is happening in our towns and cities. All these pictures are taken accidentally and I have randomly sieved them for this post.   (So much for climate change) (Paved two months ago) (Pedestrian free road) (Thank God, if you can manage to cross without getting hit) (A deer taking refuge near a building) (A tall canvass - an art on one of the tall pillars)

Image by Kuensel Well, Sherubtse College is doing it again. I remember  uprooting those green weeds in the college campus. It was an exhausting day of hard work and discovery. Some of us didn't know the existence of those weeds. Most of my friends have heard about marijuana plants, but they didn't know exactly to point their fingers. And thanks to that weed pulling campaign, they were introduced to those freely growing plants.  I think it is good to educate students and create awareness amongst the youth. But letting them pull out weeds is something I never agree. It is at the most a weed awareness campaign , which instead of keeping youth away from drugs, takes them to appropriate places  and introduces them to these freely available weeds.  One man's obervation. No malicous intention made to anyone. 

The weather at this time of the year is unforgiving, but every evening, as I walk home, I see her walking home with a bag or two on her back, among a group of school children. But don't mistake her for an old woman going to school. It is but a burden of old age. Old age is the best time for prayers some say, but Abi Wangdi does not enjoy that kind of luxury for she has to drop her two grandchildren to school and pick them up in the evening.

Photo: Google Images Now this is shocking. A Royal Bengal tiger ( Panthera tigris tigris ) has mauled a farmer at Trongsa on August 1, 2010 according to Kuensel report dated August 3, 2010.  I am worried about the safety of our farmers in the villages who live in close proximity with jungles, closer to the danger of man-mauling tigers and other wild animals. And for them the forest is a place they visit almost on a daily basis like we are used to visiting bars in the urban centers. And I know this is just one incident. But how many  dead bodies do we have to count before we take some actions against such intruding threats? It is most likely that now our farmers might never know if they would even return home safely in the evening. And that revelation is shocking and traumatizing to say the least. And this is at a time when the nation and the entire region are working towards saving the big cats. We are told of concerted effort being made from all quarter towards this no...