Tiger’s Nest Monastery
This image of Tiger’s Nest Monastery is from Google Images – but somewhere I have my own photos that I took of this sacred place in 1986. My husband and I hiked up from the starting point in Paro – if I remember correctly it was a 2 1/2 to 3 hour gentle ascent. It was pretty tiring and I thought at the time I was only going to do it once in my life. But oh it was so spectacular and rewarding.
I must search in my box of photos labelled of course Bhutan.
Our house in Thimphu Bhutan, our son David sitting in the doorway, and our wonderful Puppy on the grass in front
I’ve been scanning some old photos. What memories!! Did we really live in this Royal Kingdom for 2 years back in the 1980’s? It was magical!
I have just participated in a 2 day workshop on Rosemaling Painting – a Norwegian folk art tradition. I kept thinking of our years in Bhutan where we were absolutely surrounded by a rich tradition of traditional painting. And I kept thinking of the art of calligraphy and the art traditions of China and Japan. I’m prompted to explore the connections between these various traditions and influences and interconnections.
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National Art School Thimphu Bhutan
My 12th Great Grandfather Miles Crosby 1483-1538 was a Royal Archer during the reign of King Henry VIII. I love these discoveries in my genealogy.
Incidentally – I reminisce and think of our 2 years 1985-87 in Bhutan where archery is the national sport. We would regularly see competitions and celebrations presumably when good scores were made.
It’s not often that you see a headline story about the tiny country of Bhutan, but such was the case when I picked up the Seattle Times a few days ago. In a way it was a heartwarming story – but also a sad one. The Nepalese are/were a minority community in this Himalayan Kingdom. But during the years we were there in the late 1980’s there were rumblings of expelling the Nepalese, even though they had been there for generations.
The headline story in the Seattle Times made this very personal. Here was a Nepalese/Bhutanese family – the family members had been separated for many years. They were among the more than 100,000 ethic Nepalis who were expelled from Bhutan in the early 1990’s (this was just after we left). In 1992, 15 members of the Biswas family fled their home in southern Bhutan in the back of a truck. They had sold their livestock and the land they had farmed for generations. They crossed India and found safety in a refugee camp in eastern Nepal.
Starting in 2009 waves of the family were resettled in Tukwila in South King County Seattle. The headline and feature article featured the last of the family to arrive here in Seattle from the refugee camp. A happy ending to a sad story.
For more details and pictures see the Seattle Times, October 17, 2016
I hope there is a happy ending for our many Nepalese friends we knew in Bhutan.
admiring the view
I have my own photograph taken from this point in 1986 – a monk was sitting in the foreground. It was a very tough hike. I couldn’t do it now!
Roaming the internet, i.e. reading Facebook messages, I saw a post from the United Nations Volunteer Programme in Bangladesh. Memories were triggered. I was a UNV once upon a time in Bhutan! A speech writer for His Majesty the King.
I can’t find a Bhutan photo but this is me back in time wearing a very warm Icelandic type hand knit sweater – essential in winter in Bhutan
