Radio Shangri-La_ What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth - Lisa Napoli [60]
Tenzin turned down the Garth Brooks playing on the workroom monitor so I could hear her opus free of distraction. I wobbled in the rickety desk chair, and braced myself.
The piece began with a short burst of traditional Bhutanese music, and after a few seconds, Tenzin’s voice mixed in underneath. Her read was clear and deliberate; I’d never heard her speak that way.
“Losar, the Bhutanese New Year, is considered a very auspicious time, marking the beginning of a very happy and prosperous new year. People believe with the starting of the new year, all things will go well and prosper. So to celebrate the special occasion, government offices are closed, shops are closed, and people stay home from work to be with their families.”
I reckoned I was one of five people who’d tune in who didn’t already know everything Tenzin was reporting.
“To know more about Losar and the change in the year, which is the Hog year, I interviewed Sir Lugtaen Gyatso, principal of the Institute for Language and Cultural Studies at the Royal University of Bhutan, which is located in Semtokha, Thimphu.”
Informing listeners that Semtokha was in Thimphu was the Bhutanese version of “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” The music swelled a bit, and Tenzin posed a question:
“What is the significance of Losar, and could you explain about the origin of Losar, la?”
The la was the most charming of the Bhutanese verbal tics. It was frequently tacked to the end of a sentence, usually a question, to soften it. Often, it was deployed deferentially, by younger people talking to elders, or anyone to an authority, as a sign of respect.
Sir Gyatso responded:
“Well, Losar is New Year. Its significance is very straightforward, because it’s the beginning of a new calendar, the beginning of a new time that everybody wishes to see unfold. So many wonders. We Bhutanese, being religious, we believe in spiritual power, and therefore we Bhutanese strongly believe that a good beginning is a sign of a good conclusion. I think the significance of Losar is to begin with a good start that will last until the last day of the year.”
From there, Sir Gyatso got a bit more technical. This New Year, it seemed, wasn’t the only one in Bhutan. There were actually nine different starting points to the year. Each had a different name. After letting him ramble on for a few minutes, Tenzin asked what was in store for this year of the Female Fire Hog.
Sir Gyatso sounded apologetic, as if it were his fault that the heavens were delivering a clunker:
“This is not going to be a great year. After every nine years comes a year that’s considered to be a bad year. And every tenth year is supposed to be the worst year of that decade.”
Whether this was the ninth or tenth year in the cycle, I couldn’t quite glean from his comments, but the underlying message was clear: Things were not going to be good, not for a while. I understood why the coronation of the newly anointed king and the democratic elections had to wait until 2008.
Tenzin asked what could be done given the dire astrological predictions.
Sir Gyatso’s response was very Buddhist, very wise. Big tasks would have to be tabled out of respect for misaligned stars, but life had to go on, despite the astral challenges.
“I think there is no timing for good things. We can always try to be good human beings, do a little bit of soul searching, ask ourselves, ‘How good a human being am I?’ We can still try to do something good, and avoid doing something bad.”
Now Tenzin introduced an interview with the proprietor of the Wong Meat Shop, who said he’d been mobbed with customers in the last few days before the meat ban took effect. Excerpts of Tenzin’s interviews