Hearing and Listening

Hearing and Listening isn’t same. When we hear something, that doesn’t mean we are listening. The sounds fall in our ears automatically and we do not really care about them. When we listen, our mind and ears connects together. The sense of seeing is also required with the situation. Our mind goes round and round leaving the gap between the previous words and we forget what is said.

Seeing and Observing

Seeing and observing is just like hearing and listening. We see things around us every day but we do not care.

Water mills in Thrimshing Village

Introduction

Water mills that were once widely used by farmers for grinding grains are now rarely found. Due to cheap sources of energy and availability of raw materials, they survived through generations. Water being the primary source of fuel to run these mills, they are located near river banks. This project was designed with the objectives to identify the raw materials used in constructing water mills and to analyse the problems in using water mills.

Materials & Method

This study was carried out at Thrimshing village under Trashigang Dzongkhag where traditional water mills are still found. Information were collected through face-to-face interviews with farmers, water mill owners, extension agents and the elderly people (who have better knowledge of water mills) in the study site using both structured and semi-structured questionnaires.

Results & Discussions

There are three types of grinding mills in the study area namely, stone mills (using hand power), water mills and modern mills using diesel as fuel. It was found that most of the farmers (13 farmers out of 30) use water mills in grinding their dried grains.

Water mills are built using raw materials available in the locality. The walls are made either with stones or bamboos. The roofs are made of bamboos which do not last more than five years. And the water mill sheds are located near rivers banks. Doors in water mills are made up of bamboos and are not fixed strongly. Grinding stones can be found only in bank of rivers. Those stones have to be shaped and curved into a sphere shape. Water mills are environment friendly. They are easy to operate and do not produce pollution. They are indeed very useful, cheap and ‘green’ technology.

However, one of the major constraints of using water mill is due to shortage of water in dry season. Sometimes, the water in the streams gets dry even to turn the turbines.

Conclusion

Water mills are fully indigenous technology made by local people using locally available raw materials. There are several possibilities for developing water mills, using local resources which can be more efficient to solve the problems faced by the farmers

Why do you think deer has wrinkled forehead?

There was an elephant living near the pool formed by a stream. Every time he goes to the pool she found the water muddy. One day, elephant was so annoyed. He looked around and saw a deer grazing in the forest. He called the deer and said, ‘Do you have any idea about the water source’. ‘No’, replied the deer with much fear. ‘Go and see the creature at the source’, said the elephant angrily.  She pulled her hair and gave to the deer. ‘Tell the creature that I am the boss of this place’. The deer took the hair of an elephant and went to the source. The source was not very far.

Such a huge creature

Upon reaching the source, the deer found a porcupine borrowing the earth. The deer asked what was he doing. ‘I am building a home’, replied the porcupine arrogantly. The soil burrowed was all fallen to the water and the water has become muddy. The deer told him about the elephant and showed him the hair. The porcupine pulled a quill from his back and said, ‘show this quill to the elephant and tell him that this quill is the smallest of all’.



A small creature

The deer went back to the elephant. He found the elephant curiously waiting. ‘Who was there at the source’, said the elephant. The deer showed the quill and the words but didn’t tell her how small it was. By showing the quill and the words of the porcupine, the elephant ran away from the place. The deer then become hopeless and expressed his hopelessness on his forehead because elephant ran away from such small creature. That’s why, deer has wrinkled forehead.

Gross National Happiness Hierarchy

Happiness in the Universe

Happiness in the World

Happiness between the continents

Happiness within the continent

Happiness within the Region

Happiness within the Country/States

Happiness in the Community/ Society

Happiness with the Neighbour

Happiness in the Household


Individual Happiness

The happiness cannot be achieved without cooperation. If somebody acts in different direction, one cannot achieve the aims and objectives of any organizations. There is a saying that, ‘if a river is separated and flows in different direction, even the lamb can cross but a bull cannot cross if they combine together’. To achieve the happiness, every component should be considered. If any one of the component is missing, its like a ladder which has missing step.  Therefore, cooperation is the base of any organizations to achieve its goals.

A visit to Khuju Lhakhang

Coinciding with the birth anniversary of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal on the tenth day of the fourth month in Bhutanese calendar, along with Sonam Phuntsho and Dorji Wangdi, I visited the Khuju Lhakhang. It is about two hours walk from College of Natural Resources.

Khuju Lhakhang

It was sunny morning. We started our journey at 8:30 am. First, we went for shopping to buy butter lamps, incense and some offerings from Pulami.  On our way to Khuju Lhakhang, we visited beautiful Doronthang Lhakhang which is about half an hour walk from our college. It is peacefully located on the sacred slope just above the college. The site has many religious facts around.

Dorongthang

We asked the way to Khuju Lhakhang to a nun. She showed the way and warned us about a bull on the way. We came across a junction of paths. We took the right turn. The path was actually used by the nuns and the people for collecting firewood. Even then, we went through the forest in search for a path. While in the forest, we met with a bull as told by a nun. We run as fast as we could to escape from the bull. Luckily we came to a right way to Khuju Lhakhang.



Taking an untravel'd path

It was our first time to visit Khuju Lhakhang. The path was not like any other religious site when going via Dorongthang Lhakhang. The steep slopes would touch your knees and the shrubs and hedges would bar your way. The gorges do not have end and the water was drowned in the mud. Unfortunately, we have forgotten to take knives.


Bajo town seen from Khuju Lhakhang

 

After ascending the slopes and rocky path, we reached to the Lhakhang at around 10:45 am. The Lhakhang is gorgeously located on the hill seeing all the green sceneries of Wangdue and Punakha valley. There were many visitors, mostly the students from Tencheling and Bajo. They told us that they had walked for four hours.



Khuju Lhakhang on the beautiful hill

The satisfaction you felt will be different. After reaching there, I felt as if I have reached to a land of happiness. So, feel the difference yourself by visiting such religious site.

From the Bhutanese film, “Sherubtse Ga Mi Ga”, an actor says, ‘Thinong namning so ngo ba tey joor ba la na, za ba kiy la za min ma ney la lhakhang ba boo jay bay dey loo ma la na. Za min ba kiy la za ma nay la Lhakhang jay bay dey loo ma la’. Therefore, it is not necessary to need opposite gender while visiting such place. There is no hard and fast rule in such case.