To Teach and Learn

Our Dzongkha Lopen walked into the classroom and we stood up to wish him. We were doing revision and each student had to memorize stanzas of the poem-like text, write it on the board, read it and explain it to the class. He nodded and we took it for permission to sit down. Though the day was bright and pleasant, it contrasted with his mood. We could tell he wore his wrathful face that day. I was nervous and scared, as it was my turn to write and explain the stanzas. He sat on his chair and called my name after running through the name list. I walked up towards the blackboard and received the chalk in my cupped hands from him. He gave me a mocking chuckle that, to me said, “Here comes the stupid no-nothing tsagay (fool)”. I had not memorized my stanzas, though I had some idea about what they meant after consulting with a friend who was good at Dzongkha.   I did what I had to do. When I finished my task, the first look on his face was sheer bewilderment....

My son loves ghost stories. I try my best with the few ghost stories that I know and when I run out I have to create them. Most of the time before I finish a story he falls off to sleep but there was one story that we were able to finish. Image from www.ramayanainfo.blogspot.com Dangphu   dingphu… there lived a demon. He had ten heads. The demon, Doe as we Bhutanese know it, was very strong and intelligent and it was all because he had ten heads. He could think ten times faster than an average demon and all his senses were ten times stronger and clearer than other demons. He had long hair on all his heads. He had fangs in all his ten mouths. He had ten pairs of bulging bloody eyes and ten pairs of huge sharp ears. Strong and powerful as he was yet these powers came with unbearable itches that his heads underwent every moment of his life. He did the best he could to get rid of the problem but every remedy failed to redeem him from his troubles. Tak...

Image from www.lisagetz.blogspot.com The first spoons were of gold, forged in the heavenly blue fires of the Gods (Lha). Men were brute then and dinning manners unknown. Happy as the Gods were beholding man, it deeply troubled them to watch a man feed. Thus, the Gods counseled among themselves to resolve this brutish eating manner and gifted the first of their spoons to the first kings of men. Beings from all the realms witnessed and glorified the Gods for their noble deed. But not everyone was with the same mind and heart. Some disapproved of man's worthiness and claimed the civil hand for themselves secretly fearing the Gods' wrath if they openly laid their claim. The desire lurked like the long dark shadows of the deep woods and drew darker and stronger lines with the light from the godly moon. Image from www.pureinsight.com The  Lhamoens ( Lesser Gods)  were the feistiest and fiercely nurtured their desire to lay their hands on the spoons. It was they who defied...