Posts

Featured Post

Menchu of Menchuna: A Hidden Gem in Tobesa, Punakha

Image
Nestled in the serene village of Menchuna, Tobesa, Punakha, lies the mysterious and historical site of Menchu. As its toponym may suggest, Menchuna is a place where tradition and nature intertwine in fascinating ways. Once renowned for its medicinal hot springs, Menchu has a story that reflects both the resilience of its people and the enduring allure of its natural gifts. Here’s a journey into the intriguing tale of Menchu and its place in the heart of Bhutan. The Legacy of Menchu: A Once-Prominent Hot Spring Menchu was once celebrated as a revered hot spring, its waters believed to hold remarkable healing power with medicinal as well mineral properties. For centuries, the people of Bhutan trekked to Menchuna, as it is ideally situated near traditional Punakha-Thimphu trek trail. The hot springs, with their mineral-rich waters, were a vital source of therapeutic relief, providing solace and healing to countless visitors. The Struggle and the Change However, as is often the case with p
Post a Comment
Read more

"How to Hug a Porcupine" by Julie A. Ross - A Review

Image
"How to Hug a Porcupine" by Julie A. Ross is a self-help book that offers advice on dealing with difficult people with challenging personalities referred to as "Porcupine". What is  porpupine? Purcupine is used in this took to describe and represent defensive human behaviour. Here are some key lessons from the book Understanding the "Why" : It delves into the reasons behind frustrating behaviors, helping you navigate personalities prone to defensiveness, negativity, or stubbornness. This "decoding" allows for better interaction. Understanding the Why : It explores the reasons behind difficult behaviors, helping you navigate personalities prone to defensiveness, negativity, or stubbornness. Setting Healthy Boundaries : Learn to establish boundaries that protect your well-being and self-respect. The book provides practical strategies for creating these essential fences in your relationships. Empathy and Compassion : The book encourages approaching
Post a Comment
Read more

A Melon at Rukubji

Image
Rukubji As I dissolve among the ordinary Drinking the ecstasy of sublime thoughts, Burrowing through what-ifs, and Rejoicing the best in my mind, I re-make myself every day. As I spread the deed, With no ego of having nor fear of not having I offer this chunk of melon To the deity of Pelela Who opens the door to scenic Rukubji,  I offer this chunk of melon To the serpent of Rukubji Who once slithered through the valley, I offered this chunk of melon To the omnipresent Pema Who pinned down the snake demon,  I offer this chunk of melon To the divine Kinley Who blessed the valley with mastered, I offer this chuck of melon To the red-cheek beauties of Rukibji Who shines the valley with unique art. In my humble offering May I find more solace, and May Omteng Tshomem bless them more. Lake below Palela (not Omteng Tso) Read More Here
Post a Comment
Read more

Code Monkey Teaching Learning Materials

Image
The presentation materials are created and shared for educational purpose only thus, t he copyright of the images, videos and informaiton used here remians with CodeMonkey studio.  Click on the link to access the materials CodeMonkey Jr. Introduction for Upper Primary CodeMonkey Jr. for Lower Primary        Dodo Does Math- Angles Dodo does Math: Distance                  Coding Advanture 1 Read More Here
Post a Comment
Read more

Foggy Yoeling (Weling), Trongsa

Image
Histories are enthralling yet many legends are getting mystefied among the complexity of scientific truth and turmoil. While the knowledge base of society is rapidly shifting towards scientific data, histories and their stories are worth recoding before being entirey regarded obsolute and discarded. Here is one such story for record.  The founding Lama, Drubthop Ngawang Samten of TaPhag Goenpa ༼རྟ་ཕག་དགོན་པ་༽ was rearing horeses for riding and for trasnportation of goods to his monsatery. The use of horses, however, are subject to the requirement which happened only couple of times a year. The Lama had no horseman to man his horses and they were left to graze freely in the open meadows around and below the monastery.  While this continued for many years, it so happened that horses roamed too far into the wheat fields of Yoeling (Weling) village and helped themslves with the wheats in unguarded fileds. After sometime, it became too frequent and intolarable nueasense to the villagers si
Post a Comment
Read more

How can public servants escape antagonistic role?

Image
Exclude few exceptional, self-less and top notched public servants, many of the public servants have taken antagonistic role. "Antagonistic role" is a grave description to describe any public servant without well founded justification. Anyone using this phrase, including myself, could run into turbulence of criticism and public hatred. After neatly weighing all possible outcomes of post, I choose to publish this. How public servants have assumed antagonistic role? In rendering our services, rather than orchestrating the confrontation of impediments to progress, we have made ourselves the impediments of progress. The vicious art of impediments have been crafted in manners described below.  1. Publicity and popularity seeking has became the top priority over efficiency of service delivery because of which we deliver third class service and write first class report. 2. Promotion to higher grade is more important than production. For this reason, farm production report is more th
3 comments
Read more

The Divine Stones of Singay Thang ༼སེང་གེ་ཐང་གི་གནས་རྡོ༽

Image
རྟ་ཕག་མགོན་པ། Two hours to the  north of Trongsa Chhoekhor Rabtentse Dzong, Tafa Goenpa  ༼རྟ་ཕག་དགོན་པ༽  is renowned meditation centre for Trongsa Rabdey. As we have etymologies for most names of the places, the name of the meditation centre is derived from its religious significance attached with its topography. Since the whole ridge on which it is situated is holy site dedicated to and blessed by Hayagriva  ༼རྟ་མགྲིན༽  who is wrathful manifestation of Avalokiteshvara and Dakini Vajaravarahi  ༼རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ༽  who is wrathful form of  ༼རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ༽ Vajrayogini, the place is named after their divine names. The Goenpa has her religious as well historical marvel to those who pursue the subject seriously but that is topic for another story. Top Edge of Singay Thang Around one and half hours north-west to Tafa Goenpa, walking past marshy land, bent rhododendron trees, and dwarf bamboo plants that may even hide our friends who is just a meter away among its leaves, an alpine meadow/g
Post a Comment
Read more

Trees of Eastern Girls at Thowa Drak ༼ཤར་ཕྱོགས་མའི་ནགས་ར༽

Image
There is so much charm in hearing the stories we never heard but there is nothing that fascinates us more than validating the stories and legends we heard. My parents narrated stories and folklores that lived throughout my life and I always carry this huge urge to validate and testify the stories to satisfy myself. One satisfactory testimony of the story I heard is one of the many living legends of Thowa Drak, a famed spot that cling to the highest rocky cliff to the north of Tang, Bumthang མཐོ་བ་བྲག་ལྷ་ཁང་ Thowadrak, one of the four great holy cliffs of Bumthang, famed by meditators, faith seekers, and pilgrims from all walks of life, is full of amusing legends and stories that awestruck everyone who pay visit to the temple or hear about it. The most important story from Thowa Drak is enthralling story of Guru Rimpoche performing miracles though divine powers to subdue vicious demons and summoning them as Dharma protectors. The second legend of Thowa Drak that never fail to entice us
Post a Comment
Read more

Mythical Temple of Lugi Raw ༼ལུག་གི་རྭཝ༽

Image
Lugi Raw Temple Have you heard of Lugi Raw? Many haven't. If you are one of them you are on the right platform. This is for you.  3200 meters above the sea level, secluded among the towering mountains that feed Tshachuphu river, surrounded by fragrant cypress, juniper and pine trees, the temple of Lugi Raw (Rawa) is mystically yet snugly tucked at the heart of perilous cliff. Once you are at the temple clouds scudding overhead and the eerie silence of the surrounding perfectly blends with mysterious existence of temple. The old and rugged structure looks straight from the mythical era of 10th century. Very little is known about this temple. That is no wonder since the temple was established sometime between 10th and 11th century by some renowned Buddhist master.  Ngog Chöku Dorje (C@Mar Ngog.Org) The huge rocky cliff on which temple sits is believed to be meditation cave of Guru Rimpoche. The founder of the temple, however, is attributed to Lama Ngog Chöku Dorje (AKA Ngog Ten Choe
Post a Comment
Read more

Busyness without Business? A corrective reflection

Image
Six years into the teaching service, I have never felt relaxed and accomplished. I hardly had time for myself. Every evening, right after school, I feel so exhausted, even to prepare a refreshing cup of tea. It takes at least an hour for fatigue to leave my body. Somewhere in my mind being busy has acquired new status, and it has been wrongly synonymous to being important and productive. However, series of introspection revealed that, at the end of the day, nothing great has been achieved; sometimes it has not even been attempted, I decided to look up and write this piece. Why was I usually busy? In lieu of doing something, I have actually experimented with too many trivial activities that are neither part of my goal nor organization’s requirement. I have normally packed my days to brim which are typical of adrenalin junkie. The trickiest part of getting trapped in adrenalin junkie is that we are in busyness even without any serious business. I now realized that a day fueled by adrenal
Post a Comment
Read more

Lost

Even at our best, we lose. Our busiest business is of course to search for the lost Sometimes, we lose buffalo we have. At other times we lose buffalo that is ours. We even lose the buffalo we don't have. We search them all. Tediously? Oh No!  Joyfully... Only to lose ourselves
Post a Comment
Read more

Why I write this blog even without reader and follower?

Image
One thing that every blogger crave, care and boast about is number of readers and followers they have. Number of follower is proportional to their circle of influence, or atleast assumed that way. Yet here I am, writing, but without followers and readers. It takes buckets of courage to write which I derive from story of astrophysicist and Noble Laurate Dr. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Today, I write this to remind myself of his great story.  Subramanyan Chandrasekha r Dr. Chandrashekar was a brilliant astrophysicist and remarkable man who achieved stellar success in his field of his interest. Despite his stellar success in later part of life, he worked in relative obscurity when he came up with revolutionary ideas and discoveries because scientist took about 30 years to accept his ideas and works realted to stellar evolution. Despite rejection of his work, scornful remarks from his mentor, and disappointment he faced, he overrode the momentary failure by focusing on subject of his inter
Post a Comment
Read more

Embrace Blended-Learning or Face the Failure

Image
The choice is yours. You hold the tiller. You can steer the course you choose in  the direction of where you want to be-  today, tomorrow, or in a distant time to come.  - W. Clement Stone                          In what can be praised as bold and decisive move, schools re-opened and students are back into books. It is a national achievement to rejoice. We have experience over-load from keeping schools closed. Should experience be the best agent of positive change in education system, COVID-19 was the best, but, wait; it is underwhelming to witness schools driving back to same-old-themselves. A recent viral ‘ban and shame’ photo of someone carrying a smart phone to school is one revelation of schools heading back to old-selves. Numerous school re-opening Office Orders and Notifications shared on social media (by schools) showcased how reckless and indifferent schools are to students owning cellular phones. We have not learnt the lesson. This can never lead us to victory. Peop
Post a Comment
Read more

Education during COVID-19: An Introspection

Image
When the voices of children are heard on the green,  And laughing is heard on the hill,  My heart is at rest within my breast,  And everything else is still.  -William Blake (Nurse’s Song)  We miss our students on the school lawn. We missed your entry and exit at gate. We have nothing but wish for you to be with us; sharing your dreams and aspirations. We miss the fun with you and run after you. We miss your cheers and dribbles on the playground. We dearly miss your smiles and stories. We miss your voices and ideas. Your art and handwriting too. No matter how unintelligible and indecipherable they are, they are dear to our heart. “Only know the lights when it’s burning low” make better sense now.  COVID-19 labored hard to interrupt the assumption and popular understanding of education and schooling though it took us by surprise. Schools, the cradle of future Bhutan is missing her visionaries, thinkers, writers and artisans. Leaders, planners, and makers of Bhutan in making are a pause.
4 comments
Read more