Following the sacred cows

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche's article that appeared in Kuensel, Many questions, a few answers, seems to work up some of the Bhutanese minds, and rightly so! The 'sacred cow' points raised by Rinpoche may not be too sacred in the end, but HE has done the job to engage ourselves in debates and arguments. I am not much of a thinking person myself given my inadequate intellectual capacity in this and other such fields. However, I ended up browsing my thoughts.

A recent retort to Rinpoche's article by Dr. Karma Phuntsho, A response to Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse's article, that appeared in Bhutan Observer's website on 14 May, was a point well made that rendered further food for thoughts, which is now more of a burden to my incapacitated mind.

What do you make of Rinpoche's article? Are Rinpoche's sacred cow points not too sacred as stated by Dr. Karma? Are the issues raised by Rinpoche too blatant and out of point?

One thing for sure, the issues raised by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse are not the real problems. They are just some baskets carrying other problems.

Is the progress of a nation so much like a snake shedding off old skins?

The first point Dr. Karma disapproved of Rinpoche's article was the Laotian quote which states that too much education makes you unhappy. The main thing we must keep in mind about this proverb is 'too much'. Dr. Karma misread the proverb, and most probably read it as ignorance is bliss, which is a complete ignorance on the Doctor's part.

In this materialist world, ambition is a by-product of greed. There is no denying that. As opposed to Dr Karma’s view that there is a ‘fine’ line between the two, I would rather say there is a thin line given the current situation and time. Dr. Karma talks only about letting go of gho and kira and zhugdrel traditions. What about kabneys and patags? What about Tshoglams? What about the tradition of doma eating? What about our tradition of time management? What about office culture? It all comes down to attitude in the end. By attitude, I mean mentality too.

It may be wrong of Rinpoche to assume Hindi as a failed attempt to make it the national language of India and immediately linking it with Dzongkha. But Rinpoche is not wrong in that either. He merely suggests that English must be used alongside Dzongkha as a medium of communication in the Parliament to make points clear during parliamentary deliberation instead of pressing too much importance on the use of Dzongkha.

Now, Dr. Karma is equally or more wrong in comparing Dzongkha with German, a language so rich and a major European language spoken (and written/read too) by millions of people. German is a rich language because it evolved itself with time. The case with Dzongkha is different. We are forcing Dzongkha to evolve as a result of our immediate need for terms and expression as more foreign words creep into our daily conversation. Log rig computer is one such example. First we were made to believe ‘log rig’ is the computer. It was not enough as log rig is a term for any electrical or electronic appliance. There was this joke in passing one time where the then DDC attempted to translate carom-board to Dzongkha and came up with zhongdey phiriri, which sounded stupid and useless at the same time.

The point I am trying to make is, Dzongkha as a national language is a failed language from the start. We did away with Sumtag long time ago. Out of eight class periods a day in schools, Dzongkha got just one – meaning, around 40 minutes a day. Too less to develop a national language, I should think. Dzongkha lopons taught less lashed more, munching doma and reeking of alcohol. The government then attempted to promote Dzongkha by organizing Dzongkha stage plays where the winner was given a hefty sum of money. The tradition is still practiced today, this time the film with best Dzongkha dialogues wins the money and the best Dzongkha film is archived in some producer’s closet. There is nothing wrong with that. Encouragement is good. But why not promote Dzongkha in some other ways?

How many films do we produce a year? What percent of the population watch Dzongkha films per day that will really propel Dzongkha into its targeted development? How many of us read Dzongkha books, articles, news? We have cable Television in almost every home with Hindi soaps/movies and English programs. Why not go a step ahead and dub foreign language films into Dzongkha and release it in our local theaters? Why don't the government encourage opening multiplex cinema in major towns? Why don't we dub television programs into Dzongkha (with dual language/subtitles facilities) before we telecast to our homes? Why don't the government simplify Dzongkha as a language instead of complicating it? Lack of funds? But we can afford McKinsey...

If we were to forgo the English translation and read the Dzongkha version, how many of us would really read or understand our very own Constitution? Instituting Dzongkha as a national language is one thing, but to really understand it is what would matter the most. Even before we learned a fair deal of vocabulary of our own dialect, we were made to learn English from the very start treating Dzongkha somewhat like the other sister from another parents.

Anyway, some questions for Dr. Karma Phuntsho as listed below which he may never see or read my blog to answer:

• How can we preserve our culture and traditions without resigning ‘to the pressure of time or external forces’?

• Who else communicate in English besides ’some elites and youth who increasingly prefer to use English as their medium of communication’? Are not most of our official correspondents done in English?

• Is ‘the exposure to appreciate the finesse of Zen style or the wealth to incorporate sanitary facilities’ necessary to understand the importance of sanitary? Who among us get more of such exposure?

• Why is there the ‘reluctance on the part of most people to invest even a tenth of the time they devote to English’ on Dzongkha? Who is the failure, the people or the government? And why have they failed?

• Why is Dzongkha necessary to realize our most beloved GNH?

• Since the not so ’sacred cows’ are debated constantly, what are your findings?