thedawaring's blog

December,2014, Trashigang Sunset through the Window When I opened the old wooden windows of our house, a cool & gentle December wind was blowing. Pieces of colorful flags danced in harmony to the tune of roosters signaling the end of the day. The western sky presented itself to me as a magical formation of shades of yellow and orange. A sweet natural melody erupted from the wind blowing into empty bottles lying around in the dry grasses. Flakes of white clouds turned grey above the horizons as the sun began to set faraway behind the towering mountains. A sense of blissful air slowly covered the whole hamlet. From above the monastery, the aroma of juniper being burnt spread throughout the whole village. A full moon day as it was, monks playing the soulful jaling could be heard. With every passing second, the golden sun dipped itself deeper behind the shadows of the mountains. Then and there, I was once again, as always, struck by the eternal beauty of seeing the sun setting....

Switch off the TV and start reading All the great men and great leaders are great readers as well. Television has completely changed the way we think and work. New lifestyles are adopted from popular reality shows broadcasted on the TV. Ancient culture and heritage are replaced by modern popular western culture. Children are glued to the idiot box for most of their free time. Families get rare opportunity for quiet and peaceful time after a tiresome day. Everyone is busy in their own world watching different shows on the TV. On the other hand, the culture of reading books is diminishing at drastic rate. Children and young people find it more and more monotonous to pick up a good book and enjoy the read. Supporters of the mainstream TV culture maintain that watching TV is more effective for learning than reading. They also say that what you see in live pictures and footages remain more vividly in the memory. They assert that scientific knowledge can be assimilated more ea...

The Boudnath stupa, Nepa l Sharing the pain of Nepal. In ancient India, there lived a beautiful nun who was known for her exotic beautiful eyes. Around the same time, there lived a man who was deeply attracted & attached to the nun. The man made desperate attempts to meet the beautiful nun but to his dismay he could never arrange an agreed meeting. One fine morning, when the sun was rising, the nun was going for her routine alms begging when she chanced to bump into the man. The poor man was so surprised and happy that he could finally let the nun know that her eyes were beauty beyond descriptions. So he told her, ‘my dear bhikshuni , your eyes are the most beautiful thing I can ever imagine of in this world. I am attracted, out of control, for your divine beauty.’ Hearing this, the learned nun thought it was time for the ignorant man to learn a lesson. She pulled out both her eyes and gave it to the man. The man was shocked to see how she looked without her eyes. She looke...

A curious case: Rebirth after thousand years An elderly man from Norfolk in England called Arthur Flowerdew, who from the age of twelve experienced inexplicable but vivid mental pictures of what seemed like some great city surrounded by desert. One of the images that came most frequently to his mind was of a temple apparently carved out of a cliff. These strange images kept coming back to him, especially when he played with the pink and orange pebbles on the seashore near his home. As he grew older, the details of the city in his vision grew clearer, and he saw more buildings, the layout of the streets, soldiers, and the approach to the city itself through a narrow canyon. Arthur Flowerdew much later in his life, quite by chance, saw a television documentary film on the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. He was astounded to see, for the very first time, the place he had carried around for so many years in those pictures in his mind. He claimed afterward that he had never...

The arrival of spring Before indulging in the nectar of words that I get to taste while writing, let me first rejoice that I am writing this blog after a real long time. Spring is always a beautiful time of the year to get poetic and for many people; it’s also the perfect time to get romantic. After a dry & dusty winter, signs of the coming of spring can be seen everywhere. From  fresh pale green innocent buds on withered willow trees to tender grasses sprouting by the roadsides, from the sight of gardens being prepared for plantations to the smell of fresh earth after a slight drizzle, from the melody of spring birds arriving in Bhutan to the wordless humming of happy songs by happy farmers,  here we are once again at the most crucial point in the life of everything natural!  On a beautiful Saturday morning, I am woken up by the sound of singing doves. I pull apart the curtains of my window to be greeted by the magical view of Thimphu valley. As the morni...

Merak village, East Bhutan I am a pilgrim on the pilgrimage called Life. Life is a journey both in real sense and in metaphor-sense. Those people who can travel and see the world are, I think, truly blessed and lucky souls. Travelling is like recharging your otherwise monotonous life. It fills us with beautifully fresh memories. It adds vibrant colors to a boring, scheduled, mundane life. It also opens the gates of our souls to a sea of new feelings and emotions. Needless to mention, travelling fosters new friendship and experiences. Though, I have travelled a very less portion of this giant world, it’s my dream to go see some beautiful destinations someday. When it comes to travelling, I feel I’m like a curious infant ever ready to take every opportunity to learn new things. Even when travelling through Bhutan, I always am mesmerized by the beauty of my country. The freshly frozen snows on the tall mountains, the intricate matrix of endless mountain ranges, the richly colore...

Chukha, Bhutan. October 3. 2014. A paradise called Drukyul. I am beginning to realize that being born in this beautiful Himalayan kingdom is by sheer luck and previous good karma. No wonder foreigners describe the place as the last Shangri-la . From peaceful morning sunrise from behind the lush green towering mountains to tranquil evening sky filled with billion stars, from countless cascades of pearly waterfalls to beautiful traditional Buddhist stupas, from serene temples to jolly monks, from merry farmers in the paddy fields in the autumn season to wandering musicians, I feel Bhutan is designed by the Almighty. Simply waking up to be greeted by a cool morning breeze against the backdrop of a promising sunny day, you can literally feel all make-happy chemicals being released in your body. And as you gleefully wander through small villages, you come across amazing display of an ancient culture very much intact even in this age of globalization. Traditional son...