Natural Reverence: Transitions

Yesterday’s Bhutan News states the following:

The first batch of students enrolled at the Institute of  Language and Cultural studies in Taktsi, Trongsa district, are an unhappy lot. With some structures such as the hostels to be completed,  the 160 students are sleeping in the classrooms.

This is not the end. Other than hostels, the dining hall, staff  quarters, library building and auditorium have not been completed. The  food is being cooked in a makeshift kitchen. The classrooms are packed with beds and luggage, making it difficult for  the students to even move around. The classrooms have no proper electric  lines. 

A student said the ongoing construction works are distracting students.  “This is disappointing. Why were we sent here when the construction is  underway?” she questioned.  

“Text books were supposed to be issued by September 2 but we still  haven’t got it and we are not receiving any facilities that we require  in a college,” another student said. 

Meanwhile, the Director of the Institute, Lungtaen Gyatso, attributed  shortage of manpower as one of the main reasons for the delayed  construction. He said since Taktsi relatively is in a rural setting, the laborers  prefer to work in places like Thimphu, Punakha, Paro and Phuntsholing.  

Lungtaen Gyatso also said that he does not see any major problems faced  by the students. According to him, temporary electrification is provided  for the students to study for the time being and necessities of the mess  are provided.“Yes, there are definitely some problems but the situation will improve  after the construction of the dining hall is completed in two months. We  hope the students can adjust until everything is completed as we don’t  have a choice.”  

He cited that it was wise for them to start with the session rather than  waiting for everything to complete. “As each day and hour passes, everything will be in place and the  session will move on. Everyone is working hard and in a couple of weeks,  we will see fully completed structures. We cannot push the session  further and waste more time,” he added.

Kencho Wangmo, counselor, said that the sessions started from September  1 and with time many students are learning to adjust. “They understand  the problems and since they know there is nothing we can do but wait,  they are moving on with the hope that everything will be all right soon.”  

The entire work is scheduled to be completed by March next year. The construction is monitored by a private consultancy firm based in Thimphu and it is being carried out by three Bhutanese contractors. The institute is located on a 72 acre plot in Taktsi, about 20  kilometers away from Trongsa towards Zhemgang. The construction started  in 2009. 

The new ILCS campus seen from across the valley

Today, our final bags are packed. Hopefully, the rest of our luggage is loaded on a large truck awaiting transportation to the unfinished Taktse ILCS campus where classes are already underway and Chris will need to jump straight into teaching. If our luggage ends up missing in the ether somewhere, we will have a couple of shirts, a pair of shoes, and a jacket or two. We are leaving Thimphu after nearly six weeks and jumping straight into the heart of the dragon—or perhaps, straight into a mud puddle. After such a long period of stasis, it is odd to suddenly be in motion and the activity of the last few days stands in stark contrast to the leisure and space of the weeks before. But that is, apparently, how things often work in Bhutan. Nothing happens for a long time and then everything happens at once.

And so, we are in transition.

Closer View of the Academic Area

Living Quarters

The new campus of ILCS has two main locations, one for the academic block—including classrooms, offices, the Cultural Center, kitchen, dining area and auditorium and the other including staff quarters and student dormitories. There is about a ten-minute walk between the two areas. See photos to give a sense of just how far behind construction actually is! We have been promised that our staff quarters will be finished by the time we arrive. Both Chris and I have very ambivalent feelings about this given the situation of the students. It feels lousy to have “luxurious” (or at least livable) housing while all the students sleep crammed into two classrooms, the women sharing three toilets and two sinks, the boys the same. No showers, no privacy.

Office Block

Classroom Block

We should arrive at our destination by Friday night after spending two days in a small town called Lobesa, the location of the College of Natural Resources, where Chris and I have been asked by the head of the Royal University of Bhutan to teach two session of “mindfulness practice” or shamatha/vipashana meditation to the students there. At the same time, we will have an opportunity to visit the main environs and monastery/lhakang of my Buddhist saint, Drukpa Kunley, the Chimi Lhakang. I am fascinated to see this temple. Today it functions largely as a popular fertility cult locale, with many women and couples from around south and southeast Asia journeying there to receive blessings from the ten-inch phallus said to have been carved by Drukpa Kunley himself. (But I’ll write more about this once we have actually been there!)