In music class during our week of Bhutanese exploration we we enjoy the Bhutanese holiday called Blessed Rainy Day, which celebrates the end of monsoon season in Bhutan. On Blessed Rainy Day — as depicted in these images by a twelve year old Bhutanese boy — Bhutanese bathe outside, eat Thukpa soup, play Khuru (darts), drink suja (buttered tea) and eat dresi (sweetened rice), wear a gho, shoot arrows and dance around a bonfire.
The majority of music performed in Bhutan today is still traditional, accompanying Buddhist rituals and/or celebrating the King, though in the early 1990s the newly opened Bhutan Broadcasting Service began to play music called rigsar that fused Western, Nepali and Indian sounds. Rigsar has slowly given way to other forms of Bhutanese pop and even rock. (Watch groundbreaking Bhutanese rock band “Who’s Your Daddy?” performing an all-too-familiar cover at a music festival in India). Speaking of familiar, even Bhutan even has “Bhutan Star.”
Though Bhutan’s leaders carefully control the number of tourists, they don’t control the number of pictures those tourists take and upload to the internet. Don’t miss this gorgeous photo spread of the 2008 coronation of Bhutan’s king!
Bhutan is indisputably beautiful, and you want to go there, so you should! But traveling to Bhutan is complicated. While Bhutan doesn’t officially keep quotas of tourists, foreign visitors must pay substantial fees to government-approved tour companies for the privilege. When you’re in the country, guides keep close track of your itinerary and what you do. That may be enough to dissuade you…but then you look at these stunning photos of the King’s coronation in 2008 and think, “Let’s go!”
“Bhutan is an ancient kingdom secluded high in the Himalayas with unique customs and people with deeply held beliefs….” So reads the very proud introduction to the website of the Bhutan Tourism Corporation Limited, one of the Bhutanese monarchy’s hand-picked, officially-licensed tour companies. The Bhutan Tourism Corporation Limited website is visually stunning — who wouldn’t want to travel to such a magical land? Yet a closer look through the website, and through the websites not just of government agencies but also of individual Bhutanese (their facebook posts too), reveals a sensibility that is particularly curious to most Westerners: a wholehearted and genuine reverence for such things as the natural beauty of Bhutan and the King. Bhutan is a landlocked, consciously isolated country high in the Himalayas that tries so hard to stay exactly as it is. For a country that officially values its’ economy’s gross national product less than its citizens’ Gross National Happiness…can you blame it?
[A personal note from Jay: When I was researching South and Central Asian songs for this session I wanted to sing something from Bhutan. Having a hard time finding Bhutanese children’s music on the internet I e-mailed the Centre for Bhutan Studies to ask for advice. Here is the Centre’s reply:
> From: “Centre for Bhutan studies, Post Box 1111, Lanjophaka,
Thimphu”
> Subject: Re: looking for children’s music from Bhutan
>
> Dear Jay
> You are right. There is no children music in Bhutan. It will be futile to find it since none has been produced.
> Regards
> CBS
Interesting….]
[/wpspoiler]
This week in music class All Around This World travels to Bhutan, a purposefully distant Himalayan land.
START HERE:
— OVERVIEW: Bhutan is an ancient kingdom secluded high in the Himalayas with unique customs and people with deeply held beliefs . . .”
— MUSIC: The majority of music performed in Bhutan today is still traditional, accompanying Buddhist rituals and/or celebrating the King . . .
— LANGUAGE: The three most commonly spoken languages in Bhutan are Dzongha in the west, Sharchopka in the east . . .
— WHEN YOU GO THERE: Traveling to Bhutan is complicated. While Bhutan doesn’t actually keep quotas of tourists, foreign visitors must pay substantial fees to government-approved tour companies for the privilege . . .
— BLESSED RAINY DAY: In music class during our week of Bhutanese exploration we enjoy the Bhutanese holiday called Blessed Rainy Day, which celebrates the end of monsoon season in Bhutan
