‘Handicrafts’ here is defined as products that are produced either completely by hand or with the help of tools.

A total of 167 entries from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal were judged by an international panel of experts on the products’ excellence of quality, authenticity of cultural expressions, innovation in design and marketability at the international level.

India bagged the highest number of awards, 27. Pakistan took five, Sri Lanka three, Nepal two and the other countries one each.

The mission of the award program is to give recognition to quality craft products that combine excellence of traditional skills, design innovation and aesthetics, thereby raising the quality standard of craft products to facilitate international market access.

On a score of five, the cotton shawl scored 4.68 points, according to the jury, for its “very appealing colour, motif and good pricing.” The shawl was priced at USD 40, about Nu 1,900.

“When they saw the shawl, everyone went for it and it scored the most in quality and authenticity,” said the UNESCO’s programme specialist for culture Moe Chiba. “This award means a recognition more to the craft than the person,” she added.

Among the other products presented for the award, the jury felt that the wild silk’s texture was too coarse for scarves, colours were not to the taste of contemporary market and the products too costly.

However, the general observation for Bhutanese products included excellence in quality/techniques and authenticity of tradition but weak in innovation, market appeal, pricing, finishing, sizing and packaging.

Meanwhile Karma Yangchen, 53, from Dungkar, Kurtoe said that she is very happy and proud to win the award. “ It means so much to the handicrafts association of Bhutan (HAB) and to me.”

The mother of three has also won other prizes within the country. Her designs and colour combination won her the top three prizes during the recent textile festival. She has also designed the kira for Druk Air stewardesses’ uniforms.

“I get my inspiration from flowers and GNH. When it comes to innovation, I change the old designs slightly,” said Karma Yangchen.

She learnt weaving from the age of 15 but gave up after she had children. The handicrafts shop she opened after her children grew up and the trainings she received from the UN and the ministry of economic affairs renewed her interest in textiles.

More than weaving, today she designs the colours and patterns for her 12 weavers. “Besides the award, I’m very happy that the Druk Gyalpo kept three of the four ghos I designed for the coronation and centenary celebrations.”

Kuensel Newspaper – Shawl bags only Bhutanese award

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Bhutan Today, an eight-page morning paper, is part of Bhutan’s attempt to build a free press after its former monarch and fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, forced his largely unwilling subjects to accept democracy earlier this year.

Delivering copies of Bhutan Today will be a chore in a country with few passable roads, meaning newsagents will have to carry it to far-flung districts on foot and on horseback.

The paper has a cover price of five ngultrum, or about 10 cents.

Monks chanted prayers and rang bells and drums were banged as the newspaper’s first copies rolled off the presses at an auspicious hour chosen by astrologers.

Bhutan’s only newspaper until 2006 was a bi-weekly, state-run venture. Two privately owned papers entered the market later — the bi-weekly Bhutan Times and the weekly Bhutan Observer.

There is fierce competition for the small advertising revenue generated in the country of about 700,000 people. There are virtually no private advertisers and only government agencies offer advertisements.

In its first editorial, Bhutan Today complained of unfair competition.

“They asked the Ministry of Information and Communications to deny us a license to operate,” it read.

But Tenzin Dorji, the newspaper’s 32-year-old managing director, said they would overcome teething problems.

“I am confident,” Dorji told Reuters, adding that the novelty of being Bhutan’s first daily could win it more advertisements.

Bhutan’s literacy rate is about 60 percent but newspapers estimate a total readership of only about 12,000 people. Bhutan Today has an optimistic print run of 18,000 copies.

It is written in English but Bhutanese law means it must soon be printed in the local language.

The newspaper launch comes days before the coronation of the new king, 27-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, on November 6.

His father and predecessor abdicated in favor of his Oxford-educated son in 2006.

Bhutan held its first general election in March and parliament endorsed the country’s first constitution four months later, formally turning the absolute monarchy into a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.

Bells and chants launch Bhutan’s first daily newspaper

The health secretary, Dasho Dr Gado Tshering, the resident representative of JICA, Tetsuo Yabe, and head of development cooperation division of the GNH commission, Thinley Namgyel, signed a project agreement on Monday.

Under the project, the Japanese government will supply vaccines and vaccine storage equipment, also called cold chain equipment. Japanese technical advisers will also train Bhutanese health workers. Japan has supported the health sector through EPI by supplying traditional vaccines like oral polio vaccines, measles and rubella, tetanus toxoid, diptheria tetanus, bacilli calmette guerin and related injection equipment since 1995.

The health secretary said that, since 1995, Bhutan’s health record indicated less number of people suffering from diseases such as polio, measles and tetanus and others.

“This was made possible with the Japanese government’s assistance to regular expanded program on immunisation,” he said. “The agreement will go a long way in supporting the Bhutanese by keeping them healthy, happy and also in achieving the goal of poverty reduction.”

Resident representative, Tetsuo Yabe, said that the Japanese government would continue their support to Bhutan in achieving the 10th plan goal of poverty alleviation.

“I think during their marriage they used to have small fights which, you know, used to have bad impact on us,” he told the BBC.

“They used to fight and you know my father used to put hands on my mother. So it was quite bad to see that.”

We meet in the studio where Barun works – a collective of artists in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, its walls plastered with brightly coloured pictures.

At least one of his colleagues joins in the conversation saying he, too, comes from a family affected by divorce. Marriage break-ups are common in this tiny kingdom. So, too, are love marriages, not arranged by one’s family.

Pregnant

In both these ways Bhutan differs from its neighbours like India, Bangladesh and Nepal; this is a region where divorce is rare and carries a stigma.

A few blocks away Tshering does a completely different job. Now in her late 20s, she says she got divorced after a three-year marriage, having got pregnant while in college.

“To have a baby without a father is not very acceptable in Bhutan,” she says. “We got married and we tried to compromise and we tried to make it work. [But] we kept fighting for small little things.

“At the same time we barely spoke to each other. So it wasn’t a very healthy environment for a child to grow up in. So we talked it over and we just had a very clean and peaceful divorce – it wasn’t ugly at all.”

Thimphu is an attractive, orderly city set in a valley of pine forests. By world standards it is a very small capital. A recent press article on social trends said, however, that the town had nearly 700 divorce cases in its courts over a four-year period.

Many causes were cited, including alcoholism, infidelity, domestic violence – and plain incompatibility. There were many more cases that did not come to court. And the divorce rate is rising.

It is the kind of trend many would associate with urbanisation – but Bhutan is urbanising less quickly than its neighbours.

Barun Gurung relates it to the fact that people here “are quite easy-going and a little laid-back” and that, compared with, say, India, women here are treated more on a par with men.

But the attitude to marriage itself is also unusual.

In this Buddhist-dominated society, in both rural and urban settings, many people tie the nuptial knot in a more casual, less ceremonial way, than elsewhere. There is also a long tradition of people starting to live together and, once they are clearly committed, being regarded as married.

Passang Dorji, a senior reporter at the Bhutan Times, cites his own situation.

“In Bhutan basically marriage is very mutual and practical,” he says. “It basically depends on a couple’s mutual consensus.”

He met his own wife – a teacher – in their primary school days. Later “she used to work in a very remote place and I used to go there and live with her. So basically our marriage didn’t have any ceremonies.

“So far our married life has been very good. We are parents of two and she is also a working mother.”

‘Puppy love’

It is a far cry from the lavish, sometimes cripplingly expensive, weddings common in the region.

Given that marriage is more low-key, and more often tied to romantic love than to parental choice, that might be a reason why it has become easier to leave it. And, says Passang, neither the man nor the woman is likely to be disdained.

“Her friends, her relatives, her parents would be there to help and sympathise with her,” he says.

“If by stigma someone is forced to live with the person she or he doesn’t like, I think it is not a meaningful life… Our system basically gives liberty for a person to practise a lifestyle that she or he prefers.”

But some think the tide should turn; that some young people are too careless and get married for reasons of “puppy love”.

Sangay Zam, a member of parliament, stresses that many Bhutanese do still revere and value the marriage institution. She feels that marriage break-ups are usually initiated by men and are too easy.

“If the men get the opportunity to pull the strings and have their say, they would naturally have divorces. And divorces are not so expensive, if you look at the law of the country.

“So I think some of the parliamentarians are taking it up to say that divorces shouldn’t be so cheap – there should be some cost factor so that people think twice before they think about divorces.”

Barun, the artist, now has both a stepmother and a stepfather – both his parents have remarried. He gets on well with both. But he too says divorce should be a last resort.

“If the relationship is not working out, I think it is better to get divorced. But if the relationship is working out and it’s just that you have a feeling for another girl or woman, it’s really bad.”

It is striking that this generally poor country seems, in some areas of life, to be following a path more akin to Western countries than its neighbours.

Tshering is glad that as a divorced mother she is not ostracised. But she is not in a hurry to marry again.

“I need a lot of time – to bring up my son, to focus on my career – so marriage is the last thing right now,” she says, laughing.

BBC NEWS

Lama Karma is the founder, spiritual director, and teacher at the Drukpa Mila Center in Boulder, Colo. The center fosters religious exchange between Bhutan and the West. From the age of 7, Lama Karma grew up in the monasteries of Bhutan where he became a chant and dance master and studied for nine years to attain his Buddhist Philosophy degree. He performs rituals and ceremonies from the sacred traditions of the Drukpa Kagyu Buddhist lineage, which have remained in Bhutan, with few outsiders having the opportunity to experience them.

On Jan. 3 at 1 p.m. he will conduct a Buddha of Compassion Fire Ceremony and Dance of Vajrapani. During this special ceremony, certain offerings of food and herb medicines are given to the fire while Lama Karma chants and recites special prayers. Attendees will have the opportunity to offer individual prayers during the ceremony.

The Fire Ceremony offers healing to all types of diseases and imbalances and purifies obstacles and negativity. For Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, the power and inspiration of the ceremony is dedicated to world peace and to the spiritual advancement and benefit of all beings.

Following a reception, Lama Karma will perform the Consecration Dance of Vajrapani. In this dance, the monk visualizes the wrathful emanation of the wisdom deity Vajrapani. He performs wearing a ritual mask and a costume that represents tiger skins while holding a flaming piece of wood in each hand. The monk invites Vajrapani to destroy negativity, protect, and heal the area where the dance is performed.

This dance will act as a consecration for the museum and its objects.

At 2 p.m. Jan. 4, Lama Karma will present a teaching on “The Value of Compassion.” In celebration of the New Year, Lama Karma will discuss compassion as a solution to difficulty in our lives and in the world. He will speak about the law of karma as it relates to our choice of actions and will also include the subjects of interconnectedness and an acceptance of humanity to develop a positive focus for the well-being of our planet and all living things.

The Tibetan Museum is located at 338 Lighthouse Ave. For information, call 718-987-3500, or visit www.tibetanmuseum.org.

Bhutanese monk to spend weekend at Tibetan museum – SILive.com

The Association of Bhutanese Tour Operators (ABTO) has said that over 1,500 tourists have cancelled their proposed trip to the country in 2009 following the financial crunch.

“More bad news may be in store. Even the ones coming in do not or will not stay long,” ABTO General Secretary Sonam Dorji said. ABTO is requesting “interim measures,” such as deferment of the planned tariff revision in 2009 from $200 to $250 till thin gs normalise, and concession on the royalty amount and national carrier Druk Air tickets. It also wants hotels to keep a lid on their annual tariff increase. Observers, however, think differently.

“Tourism is not an intensive investment business, not for the operators anyway. It is a more superior revenue-generating business than most, from comparably less investment,” an observer said. “Our tourism industry has had it good for a long time, they should be able to ride this storm, which too will pass,” the observer added.

According to the official records, over 30,000 foreign tourists visited Bhutan last year. In 2008, it generated $40 million royalty to the government. The country, with a population of under 750,000, has slowly eased up the rules for foreign tourists. E arlier, not many tourists were allowed to visit the country annually. – PTI

The Hindu Business Line :

McCain stopped in Bhutan, a tiny Buddhist kingdom nestled high in the Himalayas between IJohn McCain visited Bhutan on Thursdayndia and China, while on a tour of South Asia.

He was joined by Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, two frequent companions during his campaign for president.

Bhutan, known for its unique index that measures its citizens’ Gross National Happiness, is a beautiful place. It’s not a bad place for McCain to hang out while Washington is aflutter with the impending presidency of his former Democrat rival, Barack Obama.

The country was in the news earlier this year for its first-ever democratic elections, bringing an end to a 100-year-old monarchy. In 2002, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck voluntarily gave up absolute power and called for a constitutional democracy.

While in Bhutan, McCain, Lieberman and Graham met with the newly-elected officials, including the prime minister and chief justice. They also met with the new king, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who functions mostly as a figurehead (he’s pictured with the senators above).

According to the Bhutan Observer, McCain praised the “extraordinary quality of leadership” in Bhutan at a press conference yesterday.

“We intend to encourage our friends and colleagues to get to know Bhutan better because I think it can serve as an example to many other parts of the world that have either tried and failed or are struggling towards freely electing democratic governments,” McCain said.

Graham was equally effusive. “We’ve travelled all over the world and I don’t think I have met a group of people that are more informed and have a more sophisticated view of the world and the region than the people here and the officials of Bhutan,” he said.

The senators then gave the Bhutanese a little advice.

“You can lose the election in America but not lose your voice, not lose your property; so I would encourage the government and the people to make sure that you have honest and fair judges, that the judiciary be above politics,” Graham said.

“I think it will serve this country well to have a strong legal system that will set people and property apart from politics,” he added.

Los Angeles Times

Batting first, Bhutan batted the allotted 25 overs losing nine wickets. Thanks to Sonu Khadka’s excellent bowling, Nepal restricted Bhutan to 34 runs. In reply, Nepal completed the chase in 9.3 overs losing just a wicket.

Opener Maya Rawat posted an unbeaten 20 runs off 25 balls, which included a

boundary. Roshani Singh hit two runs before being trapped leg before by Anju Gurung while Trishna Singh, who had come to the crease after Roshani’s departure remained unbeaten at three runs.

Earlier, player-of-the-match Sonu bowled miserly grabbing two wickets and giving away three runs in her five-over spell. Nepal kept Bhutan under pressure right from the beginning, and none of Bhutanese batters could reach double figure. Sonu bowled Yeshey Choden when Bhutan had seven runs on the board. Three runs later, Rekha Rawal had Ugyen Dema trapped leg before. Bhutan was dealt another blow when Sonam Deki (6 runs) was run out. Pema Cheki top-scored with just seven runs for Bhutan.

Sita Magar took two wickets for Nepal. Likewise, Rekha, Nary Thapa, Keshari Chaudhary and Binu Magar claimed a wicket each.

Bhutan Coach D.S. Gurung hailed Nepal’s excellent bowling, saying Nepal was the strongest team in the group. “The bowlers are outstanding. Everyone rates Nepal as a good team,” said Gurung.

Nepal’s Coach Jamil Ansari said he was happy with his team’s performance and hoped to keep up the good work throughout the tournament. “Our bowling has been excellent and our fielding is good too in comparison with other teams,” said the coach.

However, Ansari expressed concern that his team’s batting was yet to be tested. “I hope we get to bat properly in the next couple of matches,” said Ansari.

Nepal’s next outing is against Singapore on Tuesday at Prem Centre.

eKantipur.com – Nepal’s No.1 News Portal

But this week, the first of 5,000 refugees from Bhutan arrived in Canada, offering a reminder of the dark side of the country’s recent history. The refugees — ethnic Nepalese and mostly Hindu — were effectively forced out of Bhutan by that same, Buddhist royal family almost 20 years ago and have been languishing in camps in Nepal ever since.

Their unusual story has continued with the Canadian resettlement offer. Some Bhutanese refugees believe no one should leave the camps until their homeland lets them return and, as part of a sometimes violent internal dispute, have spread misinformation about Canada to discourage immigration here.

Prospective migrants have even been told they will be forced into labour camps in the Arctic if they move to Canada.

“There are lots of rumours circulating,” said Yogendra Shakya of Access Alliance, a Toronto-based social service agency, who visited some of the camps in August. “I was asked a lot ‘Is it true that Canada is so cold that you can’t have children there, and that’s why they want us to go there?’ ”

The resettlement program is also part of a new approach by the federal government to sponsor large groups of refugees en masse. In support of the project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada this month put out a $1.3-million contract to conduct advance health screening of the Bhutanese coming to Canada and provide treatment for tuberculosis and other conditions if necessary before they relocate.

Refugee sagas usually begin with an infamously despotic leader, or with years of war and strife. This one unfolded differently. Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Bhutan’s king until recently, has been widely praised for lifting his people from near-medieval conditions, beefing up public education and health care and opening the window to the outside world. He also promoted Gross National Happiness, a creed which holds that material wealth should not come at the expense of spiritual wellbeing, the environment or culture.

Two years ago, the hugely popular king converted Bhutan into the world’s newest democracy and abdicated in favour of his Western-educated son. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was crowned just last month, earning glowing press coverage as a handsome and charismatic monarch of the people.

Almost forgotten was a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s when more than 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepalese origin — a sixth of the population — departed the country, leaving Bhutan largely to the majority Kruk people.

According to a 2006 article by the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, “tens of thousands” were evicted, often after being made to sign “voluntary” migration certificates. An Immigration Canada spokeswoman said the camps’ residents were “forced” to leave Bhutan, while a 2007 Human Rights Watch report states that most, if not all, the refugees in Nepal have a right under international law to return to Bhutan.

A spokesman for the Bhutanese government, however, argued on Tuesday that few of the refugees are actually from his country, suggesting that many impoverished residents of the region settled in the camps to take advantage of services funded by the international community.

Bhutan has no ill feelings toward its remaining Nepalese minority, with some even serving now as cabinet ministers, added Tshewang Dorji, counsellor with Bhutan’s mission to the UN.

“Nobody was forced to leave … The government didn’t want the [ethnic Nepalese] people to leave,” he insisted. “People who have ill feelings toward Bhutan have blown this issue out of proportion.”

Regardless, repeated efforts to win the refugees’ repatriation failed, until eventually a group of seven Western countries, including the United States, Australia and Britain, agreed to accept about 70,000 of them. Canada is taking 5,000 over the next five years.

And yet the humanitarian offer met some stiff resistance in the camps, with certain groups fearing that mass resettlement would spell the end of their efforts to get back to Bhutan itself.

“There have been fairly organized efforts to discourage migration,” said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees. Word spread, for instance, that refugees who ended up here “would have to work at camps at the north pole,” she said.

To try to set the record straight, Canada has distributed leaflets with accurate information about this country, and is further briefing those selected to come here, said Danielle Norris, an Immigration Canada spokeswoman.

The years of living in refugee camps, unable to officially work to support themselves, has taken its toll on the displaced Bhutanese, said Mr. Shakya, who is of Nepalese origin himself. “Depression, stress is very, very common in the camps,” he said.

And yet, he said the refugees have strived to make the most of their grim predicament. Levels of education are higher than in the Nepalese population outside the camps, and many speak fluent English, he said.

Lately, it seems the refugees have also come around to the idea of setting down roots in the West, with many believing they can continue to fight for return to Bhutan from their new homes, said Mr. Shakya.

Bhutanese refugees tell dark side of Himalayan kingdom

The steel factory owners are seeing this as indicative of the government’s willingness to help. But the minister has not given away anything yet, only that they submit a “report” to the government. The owners says that they are in desperate need of working capital as theirs had been spent on raw material and the returns had dwindled because of the world financial crisis, which sucked the money from the market. In other words, there was a credit crunch.

“The problem of working capital, if not solved sooner, can lead to a shutdown of the industries,” said an industrialist at a meeting with Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk. In terms of employment and revenue to the national exchequer, which steel owners say they help generate, the success of the industries and the investors was important and that, at the moment, working capital was integral to their survival.

“Our proposal is that we want the government to talk with the financial institutions to consider bridge loans,” said Letho, the secretary general of the association of Bhutanese industries.

According to the owners, they were referred to Druk holding investments, when approaching Bhutan power corporation for consideration on power tariff and penalties in the wake of the current crisis. When seeking of the banks a bridge loan, owners say, the prudential regulation of the royal monetary authority (RMA) became a problem. “We’d like the government and the ministry to be a bridge between the concerned agencies and us to revive the falling industries,” said a steel owner.

They have a loan debt of around Nu 1.6 billion from individuals as well as consortium loans. They were also among the top ten largest borrowers in Bhutan. However, according to the prudential regulation of RMA, the aggregate sum of 10 single largest borrowers should not exceed 30 percent of the total loans and advances. Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk has said that the government will look into the matter.

The owners have put up a proposal to waive the prudential regulation for at least 3 to 6 months. “In my case, we’ve reached a situation of hand to mouth survival and almost all of us will have to shut down our industries if something’s not done sooner,” said a woman industrialist.

They pointed out that they are not at a loss because of no market. “We have a market but the only thing we don’t have is working capital, due to the current global crash crisis. We’re confident that we can recover our losses if we could have the capital to start full production,” said Ugyen, a steel manufacturer.

Steel owners said that they had purchased in bulk raw material at a high rate when the price of steel was high and, when they started production, the prices suddenly dropped, causing them huge losses.

Kuensel Newspaper