My World of Contrasts

Every day I see huge contrasts: the medieval structures around me with satelite dishes, the monks with their I phones, going from my little house where I just turned off the internet to confront a cow on my doorstep. 

I am soaking up everything and trying to place it in my memory so I can find it when I am in Canada.  My students are starting to tell me how much they will miss me and they bring me little gifts: a couple of walnuts, a guava. 

Today was a beautiful sunny himalayan day and the staff all sits outside, cross-legged, on the lawn when they are not teaching. One fellow asked me all sorts of questions about life "over there".  Salary, where we live, how much petrol costs.  He has family in Texas, that he talks to often, distant cousins.  Many of the questions focussed on family staying and living together.  The Bhutanese have heard that we do not all live together as a family and that cousins may even stay in a hotel when they visit.  This is not really comprehensible to them as they all pile into two rooms- the altar room and the bedroom- no matter how many family members are visiting.  They are horrified that my mother is turning 80 and lives alone.  It is a daughter's - or in some cases son's  -responsibility to stay in the family home and look after the parent. In the past property was passed to the daughters.

Even those who have little share everything.  It is weird for me still, I am trying to share and be generous, but I don't think like they do.  They never put something in their mouths without offering it first, even if they are hungry. I have to make a conscious effort to bring biscuits or fruit to offer.  They cannot understand when I say no to food, as it is being offered, so it is polite to take some.  

Contrasts:  a Wealthy Yak herder's winter home.  They have 60 yaks. 

The rules are unspoken but structured - refuse an offer three times, then accept, so I have to remember to offer more than once.  Once you have taken, there is second share, which is also important. 

Solar panels and prayer flags.  Ancient belief and technology. 

We also talked about how their culture is evolving so quickly - from a medieval-like feudal system to a democracy within my lifetime. Beliefs form the biggest contrasts for me.  The same person will explain their belief about the mermaid deity in the lake nearby and be up to date on some new technology.  

Exploring the countryside I came across a well established settlement of road workers.  They live in corrugated metal houses with various amounts of "decoration".  This particular village was in a beautiful jungle and the inhabitants had cleared garden areas, painted some of the structures white, and used road materials to make a sort of cement interior.  Looking briefly into their homes and lives felt like travelling back through time 1,000 years.  Bare-footed children and women working and playing around open fires in dark rooms that were about 2 metres square.  Rooms shared with the chickens and goats.