Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal arrives in 1616. He was the Tibetan Lama that united the mass of feuds that were at war within themselves, turning those into one country. He tried, as well, to establish a unique and distinct cultural identity, apart from the Tibetan culture taught to him. For this, he baptized the new kingdom as Druk Yul, The Land of the Thunder Dragon - translated literally.
In sync with its’ poetic names, Buthan was known to all Tibetans as ‘Land of the Southern Medicinal Herbs’. For me, it was just as charming as the current one.
For years, generations have dreamt of a mystical, mysterious and unshakable realm inhabited by dragons and princes just like in fairy tales. Maybe, for that reason, I should have begun these words with the usual 'Once upon a time...'. Let us start again then... Bhutan, the land of the thunder dragon Once upon a time, before the 70s, somewhere in the middle of the Himalayas - meaning where the snows reside - a realm existed where no outsiders had ever set foot on. Its inhabitants main purpose in life was only to be happy. The king, in all his solemness, one day stated that the happiness of his subjects was the guiding line to the country's development. 'National Happiness is more important than the Gross National Product' he said. Henceforth he decided that aiming the GNP towards providing happiness would be a good growth indicator as well of citizenship. Would you like to know the rest of the story? I'll be right back at it. Before that, I want you, my reader, to travel back in time with me. For now let's travel back only a few hours.
Through the window, a few dozen of kilometers away from where I stand, I can see the top of the world - Mount Everest. Mount Everest is a mark in a range like no other on the planet. These Himalayan mountains emerged from the crash between two tectonic plates, Indo-Eustralia and Euroasia, a thousand years ago. Their collision was so intense that created these mountains, the highest in the world, and converted the place in the area known as "death zone". Above eight thousand meters the oxygen is so rare that might not be enough to sustain human life. Walking a step can be as hard as breathing through a straw after running the marathon.
I sit almost nine thousand meters high, and from here, snugged on my seat, everything looks like small snowy heaps standing on top of a thin cotton robe, velveted by clouds. It can be said it's almost a site out of reach and it is, for certain, the place on earth closest to the sky. Mount Everest crosses seven peculiar countries, like ancient Hindustan that served as passageway to the Alexandre's the Great army. Hindustan was as well raided by the Gengis Khan Mongolian, and it still stands wrapped in Maharajas' stories and other thousands of legends. In this region, people used to greet each other in Sanskript, a sacred language considered spoken by the Gods. It was believed that Sanskript had been born to reveal what could not be said by the most purest of words. |
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I am leaving towards the realm where happiness is a way of life...maybe I should have written this text in Sanskript, if I knew how. Maybe in that way I could express the reality that transcends this small country: Druk yul - "The Land of the Thunder Dragon".
TEXT & PHOTOS / SÉRGIO BROTA |
