Post-Bhutan Ponderings

December 27, 2013

Some photos from my final day of research, field visits, and interviews in Bhutan:

At the National Seed Center

Certified seeds

With my host and Coordinator of the National Potato Program - in the tissue culture lab :)

Agriculture Machinery Center

Paro Museum was under construction

Paro Valley in the background

Last time wearing my kira!

As I provide my own final re-cap and analysis of this magical place, I will amalgamate some particularly poignant quotations from Married to Bhutan, the memoir written by Linda Leaming, which I have so often cited in my recent blog posts.  This entertaining book had become a sort of helping hand for me while in Bhutan, as I was able to relate to and trace the progression and emotional/spiritual development of another Western woman who eventually called this Himalayan kingdom home.

“The world outside Bhutan seemed drained of color.  I had never been so in love with a place and its people as I was with Bhutan.  For the first time in my life, I was pining for something.” (p. 26)

Likewise, I think I left my heart somewhere in the Himalayas; how else can I explain the void and weariness that permeates my bones?  Or perhaps it’s the inexplicable exhaustion and jet lag that is leaving me feeling empty and homesick. I have crossed 12 time zones in the last three days, miraculously made five international connections, and somehow my luggage also ended up in South America.  My body and internal clock have no idea what time it is and I feel so exhausted, I can barely sleep.  I began the long journey departing from Paro International Airport in Bhutan on Tuesday morning.  The sequence of tiring travel events started when I accidently had my Swiss army knife packed in my carry-on bag, which made the security check interesting.  This incident was followed by the fact that I couldn’t get through immigration because the border police had not stamped my passport when I first arrived in Bhutan, overland from India.  In fact, they merely looked at my paperwork, including my paper visa, and let me go freely.  In retrospect, they should have charged me $20 and stamped my passport, but I had no idea.  So here I am, frantically trying to get through immigration and having them explain the difficulties in leaving the country.  After several phone calls to higher ups, I managed to pay the $40 visa fee, get my passport stamped, and ran to the tiny plane where they had already fired up the engines and I was literally the last passenger to board before they closed the doors.  Adrenaline rush to say the least!  This was compounded by the fact that I was graced with surreal views of the Himalayas as my flight made its way westward to Nepal, including vistas of Mount Everest.  

Last one on the plane!

Goodbye Bhutan!

Hello Mt. Everest and Nepal

I spent about ten hours in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, of which a brief two-hour city tour occupied some of my time.  I way overpaid for a taxi, not realizing that the exchange rate of Nepalese Rupee is even better than the Indian Rupee and the Bhutanese Ngultrum, if that’s even possible.  But I was smart enough to ward off some extra men who offered to “be my guide” by retorting that the taxi driver could serve as both driver and guide.  One man responded with: “oh you are clever, madam.”  Yep, sometimes I can be.  However, I didn’t realize that entrance to one of the temples would cost another 1000 Rs.  This may not seem like a lot, but when you are trying to operate on a shoestring budget, these kinds of unexpected expenses really catch you off guard. 

So to the tune of around $10, I was able to enjoy another UNSECO World Heritage Site, Pashupati Temple.  I can add this to my growing list, which now includes several national parks in Tanzania, the Taj Mahal, and the Darjeeling Himalayan Express Train to name a few.  According to one brochure, “Pashupatinath is Lord Shiva, the God of Gods.  Ancient Scriptures have described Him as Lord of the entire living beings and the source of eternal bliss and peace.  The Pasupatinath Temple is one of the holiest temples of the world revered and worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists.”  Records indicate that it was rebuilt around 1120 AD and today, it is part of Pashupati Development Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The temple “symbolizes Nepal’s national glory.  It is a centre of faith and religious piety for the Hindus and Buddhists of the world, as well as a unique treasure that forms part of the world heritage.”  

Looks like Varanasi, India

I was told that these old men sit around all day on drugs...interesting

Famous Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu

I love this: Buddha Air alongside Yeti Airlines.  (Jack - I think I found Sasquatch in the Himalayas :P)

Spending only a few hours in Nepal was mildly disorienting because it felt like being back in India, if only for a fleeting moment.  The crowded streets had a palpable layer of dusty smog and scattered litter as rickshaw-like vehicles rambled by.  In fact, Pashupati Temple reminded me of a mini Varanasi (the famed Hindu city in Uttar Pradesh), as there were even burning ghats where people were cremating the bodies of loved ones along a contaminated river. 

--

“This little spot I have come to think of as my hideout.  Living in Bhutan is already like hiding out from the rest of the world, so here I suppose I’m about as far away from the world as I can get without leaving the planet, a hideaway within a hideaway.  I recommend two things to anybody interested in finding out more about who they really are, what they’re made of, what they can endure, and how far humor will take them: running away and hiding out.  If you have a chance to do either or both in your life, then by all means, take it.  Two trees at the bend in the river act as camouflage.  Some people might call what I’m doing meditation, but I prefer the term daydreaming.  It is a lost art.  I look around.  Everything is achingly beautiful, shining in the pristine air.  The glorious early-winter light; the river, now bright blue reflecting the sky; whitecaps, perfect in their water-ness – these white flecks of pure liquid energy make me feel relaxed.  I think of the movie White Mischief and the character that actress Sara Miles plays, a jaded American heiress living in Kenya.  Every morning she opens the French doors in her bedroom and views the spectacular Kenyan landscape, the flawless sky, and says, ‘Oh, God, not another fucking beautiful day.’  I don’t want to be jaded by this beauty.  The water is rushing and so clear you can see the smooth black and brown rocks shimmering in the bottom.  In fact, everything shimmers.  The thin air is crisp and electric.  A haze in the distance will burn off in an hour or so.  Hot sun high up takes the edge off, so it’s not that cold.  The brush-covered cliff to my right had bear tracks below it a few weeks ago.  The bears were foraging, getting ready to hibernate.  Above, the tree line goes all the way up a small slope to the sky.  The landscape is one-third blue sky, two-thirds sand and evergreen trees pointing up, taking my eyes to heaven.  Nearby, green and red prayer flags on long poles whip gently in the wind, sending prayers off the cosmos.  I envision myself growing roots like a tree.  My legs knot at the place where they meet the ground, my buttocks grow long roots that push me into the earth.  My straight spine forms one long brown taproot that burrows into the ground as it forms fine lateral rootlets.  I am immovable and unyielding.  Rivers figure largely in my personal metaphors: water coming and going means being graceful, fluid, and adaptable.  Learn to be water.  In dreams, rivers are symbols of change or transition…I’m aware how far away the world is from this maze of rivers cutting through mountains.  I can’t stop thinking of this as an impossible place, as magical.  It’s certainly done its magic on me, and I feel like a benevolent Buddha.  Of course, I am far from Buddha-like.  I am very much of the world, and stressed.  That’s why I’ve come to the river.  I like to unwind here because even in Bhutan the world closes in.  There are things to do, hassles, and tensions, and we’re always broke.  But here we live so much in the moment.  It’s a gift to know this: that life and the world are fleeting, like water in a river.  Knowing that change is inevitable and life is ephemeral is being mindful.  It makes each moment rich with possibilities.  To really understand this, to feel it, you have to derail, switch off, and run away.  That’s why I come here.” (Leaming, p. 140-142)

Next, I found myself on a fifteen-hour red eye flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to Paris, France with a brief stopover in the Middle Eastern city of Doha in Qatar.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know Qatar was a country before this and had only heard of Doha because of the famous round of economic talks.  I managed to watch some good movies including When Harry Met Sally and Dead Poets Society, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  However, I was dreading getting to Paris because I was extremely worried about not making my connection.  At the time of booking, I guess I had a little bit of a brain lapse because I didn’t realize that Paris had two international airports.  So I was very relieved and excited when I saw that I could fly to Lima, Peru from Paris with an ample four hour layover between flights.  Yet to my surprise, I had accidentally booked my second flight from Orly International Airport, not my port of entry: Charles de Gaulle.  Worst case scenario, I thought to myself: take a train from Paris to Amsterdam if I miss the connection.  Fortunate reality: I made it across the city in a mere hour with plenty of time to spare.  Next stops: Rome and Amsterdam, which hardly made sense, because flying to Italy was like going back in time and space when I really needed to move westward to South America, but alas, one cannot control these absurdities.  After some serious internal debate, I decided to book an overpriced hostel in Amsterdam so I wouldn’t have to spend Christmas sleeping in the airport.  In fact, everything about Europe feels drastically overpriced, from the train fare to the hostel to my dinner, especially coming from India where I could often get by on less than $3 a day.  Spending time, albeit brief, in the “West” where squat toilets are not a thing and designer stores like Dior were everywhere, was disorienting.  Even seeing so many white people with an excess of belongings draped over their bodies was disconcerting.  I had become so used to only see Indians or Bhutanese people that being jolted back into the developed world was a shock and one from which I was eager to extract myself.  Unfortunately, in Amsterdam, I had to wait until 15 minutes before the gate closed to know whether I would make it on my flight out of Europe, since KLM Royal Dutch Airlines had overbooked the flight and I didn’t yet have a seat.  As you can imagine, this was quite stressful.  Miraculously, however, I made it on the flight and after an additional one hour delay on the plane, I even enjoyed several more films: two Woody Allen movies (Match Point and The Scoop – I’ve decided he’s one of my new favorite filmmakers), The Butler (a film about an African American butler who served several administrations in the White House, tracing his family’s personal story of growing up picking cotton in the deep south, through the era of the Civil Rights Movement up until the 2008 election of Barack Obama), Elysium (a rather violent dystopian sci-fi-y movie with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster), and Argo (again, though I slept through most of it as I struggled to keep my eyes awake).  So all in all, I can’t believe I made it to Peru, with my bags!  It was strangely comforting arriving in a warm city where I can (mostly) read and understand the billboards and even communicate freely with my Spanish speaking taxi driver.   

--

“It’s almost winter, my favorite season.  I know this is unusual.  I love the way the trees have a soft brown look without their leaves, and their sap, their life force, concentrates in the trunks.  The river makes a soft lulling sound, a winter sound; and water moves slowly, like it is caught up in the sunlight and wants to stay.  Slow glistening of the sun on the slow-moving water.  A clean sound.  Here, my body rooted to the earth, my thoughts flowing, I understand that we can’t see what’s right in front of us unless it is comfortable and expected.  To truly see something, we don’t need to reply on senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing.  For clear perception, we need to rely more on natural, not reasoned, impulses.  I think of the choices I’ve made in my life.  For me, there is a big difference between choosing and deciding: Choosing means we take the initiative – we learn about options, think of alternatives, and then pick one – and I prefer it.  Deciding means someone has already made the choices for us.  They are assembled in front of us, like a big menu in a fast-food restaurant.  We merely pick A, B, or C.  IT is more passive.  These aren’t the traditional dictionary definitions of choosing and deciding I’m using, but I make the distinction because in the world, so many things seem to be decided for us.  We don’t really believe we have much choice but we do.  If we choose to follow our dreams and desires, then other things, good or bad, fall into place.  I discovered this in Bhutan.  In its remotest corners, with so many layers stripped away, I find my inside self is the same as my outside self.” (Leaming, p. 143-144) 

But rewind back to Bhutan.  What can I say about this amazing little Himalayan kingdom, one that makes up for its lack of size in natural beauty and personality?  Although I was only able to spend a mere three weeks there, I feel like I am coming away with a much deeper understanding of both its agriculture and culture.  I don’t know how I can possibly summarize what I’ve learned, but I’ll try.  In short, I did five homestays (four of which with farmers) and saw five Dzongkhags or districts, in addition to 28 interviews/visits with a variety of stakeholders:

·         Two interviews with the Coordinator of the National Organic Program
·         Interview with an Agricultural Marketing Officer at the Centenary Farmers Market
·         Visit to Wangsisina Organic Research Farm and interview with Farm Manager
·         Personal Interview and International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) Seminar with IFOAM President Andre Leu
·         Several informal conversations with a Senior Research Officer of the National Organic Program
·         Visit to the National Post Harvest Center
·         Interview and Visit to the Agriculture Machinery Center
·         Interview with Director of the Plant Protection Center
·         Interview with National Soil Services Center
·         Interview with Marketing Officer of the National Seed Center
·         Interview with National Biodiversity Center
·         Interview with Agriculture Professor at the College of Natural Resources
·         Interview with Agriculture Extension Officer doing trials in SRI
·         Interview with Druk Organic Farm Manager
·         Visit to an Organic Research Center
·         Visit with young entrepreneur of “Himalayan Chefs Garden”
·         Interview with seed producer and farmer outside Thimphu
·         Informal conversations with Agricultural Extension Officer of Sarpang
·         9 farmer interviews in Tsirang and Sarpang Dzongkhags

“Living here, I understand the notion of time as a quality or shade of being.  We are ruled by weather, so time is inseparable from the seasons, what food we eat, where we go, what we do.  We are able to forget about the schedules of the world for now and make a little world of our own.  Sit back and take care of our own…I’ve been sitting with my eyes closed.  Sometimes I fear that if I blink or tilt my head in a certain way, all the beauty of Bhutan, these gorgeous evergreen mountains dotted with fall foliage, the white snowcaps in the distance, will disappear.  Mindful of being mindful.  Change is constant.  Suffering inevitable.  Sow your own garden.  If enlightenment is possible anywhere, I think it is particularly possible here.  Tantric Buddhism teaches that there are many paths – as many as there are stars in the sky.  Vajrayana, the diamond vehicle, means that anything can be an aid to enlightenment: jade, meditation, coq au vin, standing still, sex, walking out of a door, compassion, waking up, happiness, intuition, choosing, not taking yourself so seriously, mountains, breathing.  Like the title character in Voltaire’s Candide: Or Optimism, the 18^th century satire about how we ought to view the world, I’m a disenchanted optimist.  Most optimists are, when they reach a certain age or accrue enough experiences.  Dr. Pangloss, Candide’s teacher, said, “This is the best of all possible words.”  This is not true.  Yet I do believe in miracles and magic in this part of the world.  I believe in accidental enlightenment.  It could happen, and probably about as easily as one could become enlightened form, say, reading a lot of books about Buddhism.” (Leaming, p. 155)

Through these enriching experiences, I have come to understand many things.  For instance, Bhutan may still be attempting to scale up to 100% organic (without a set time frame), but this doesn’t actually seem to be the hard part.  In reality, the country is facing a number of other unique challenges, namely related to its dramatic topography, varying climate, and sparse population.  The issue is not that farmers are dependent on chemical inputs for farming or at the whim of multinational corporations such as Monsanto, as is the situation in much of India.  In fact, very few farmers have access to synthetic fertilizers and even less to pesticides and herbicides.  In contrast, one of the major problems is very poor road infrastructure, which limits marketing options for farmers, keeping most in a subsistence lifestyle.  Moreover, fragmentation has led to even smaller land holdings and even those minute acres are often mountainous, difficult to cultivate, and nearly impossible to mechanize.  And the lack of both export and domestic markets dis-incentivizes farmers from scaling up to commercial production. 

Unlike India and many other countries in the world, the Bhutanese government plays an extremely large role in the agricultural system with most areas entirely nationalized and minimal privatization.  There seems to be genuine concern for farmer welfare and the necessary oversight, though perhaps too much in some cases.  However, efforts are being made to privatize some aspects of the agricultural supply chain to relieve the burden on the government and promote efficiency and quality, but also to monitor to prevent exploitation of farmers.  The country lacks agricultural subsidies in the conventional sense and the import and distribution of synthetic inputs is highly regulated at the federal level.  Unlike in India where the state seems to be failing farmers, Bhutanese farmers get most of what they need from the government, including a well-developed extension service.  At the National Biodiversity Center, I was told about efforts to promote biodiversity and traditional seeds through value addition and marketing of local products.  Of the importance of appropriate technology at the Agriculture Mechanization Center; post-harvest storage and processing for preservation and value addition at the National Post Harvest Center; different methods of pest, disease, and weed control at the National Plant Protection Center; various nutrient management techniques at the National Soil Services Center; and aims to promote food self-sufficiency through improved seed varieties at the National Seed Center.  I also observed first-hand the potential for private business through the eyes and experiences of a young entrepreneur; about struggles with improved methods such as System of Rice Intensification from farmers, extension officers; and department directors and efforts to support farming through academic conduits. 

“Even as Bhutan evolves and modernizes, it is as if the geography and weather are holding it back.  Nature is saying, ‘Not so fast.’  But the Bhutanese are philosophical about it.  They take things as they come.  I think it has something to do with the fact that they see things in a continuum.  They don’t have to have everything in this lifetime.  They have an ease with death and dying, maybe because the end isn’t the end if you believe in reincarnation.  It’s just a blip on the screen of your existence, a momentary setback, an intermission in the movie – go out and get some popcorn and it will all start again…When people die in Bhutan, being good Buddhists, they are cremated…mostly the Bhutanese are concerned not so much with the dead body as with the spirit of the dead loved one.  Cremation is to help the spirit find its way to the next reincarnation…Some people come to Bhutan to die because they think it is an auspicious place to achieve their next life.” (Leaming, p. 185-186)

In addition to learning about the various challenges that farmers face from the government side, I was also able to observe and interact with small farmers themselves.  I saw that Bhutanese farms are predominantly small, diverse, and integrated operations (e.g. 30 different crops on one acre, livestock, and agroforestry).  Some are selling half of their produce or more but struggle to make ends meet financially because of expenses such as transporting produce, high labor costs, and lack of surplus.  I was also able to witness the benefits of participating in a farmers group first hand: free hybrid seeds, polythene greenhouses, increased attention and training from extension agents, group financial accounts with low interest loans, economies of scale and joint marketing.  In terms of agricultural development, I observed a sequence of development in that farmers were naturally more interested in roads and electricity than agricultural implements.  Largely speaking, the farmers I met seem to be very satisfied with their occupation and quality of life, including contentment with government support, agreement with organic farming and are aware of human health effects of using chemicals, and hopes of obtaining larger land holdings and more commercial activity.  Furthermore, I was exposed to organic technologies such as vermicompost, vermiwash, biofertilizers, green manuring, botanicals, and biopesticides, and was able to gain valuable hands-on experience in farming activities, including: milking cows, making butter and forming cheese, weeding the vegetable patch with hand tools, harvesting grass for fodder with a small scythe-like knife, harvesting vegetables by hand, seeing a hydro-powered traditional thresher and the water wheel stone mill, cleaning millet by sifting it through a hand woven basket, learning how to maintain vermicompost, preparing the field/bed for planting, transplanting seedlings to the field, and transferring compost and planting seeds in a nursery.

“In my life, adventure and dreams have taken precedence over desire for material objects.  I follow my intuition and my dreams because this is the only way change happens.  I am not adverse to working without a net.  And I’m not adverse to leaps of faith…In the West, it is possible to live and be asleep.  In Bhutan, one is compelled to wake up.  There are all kinds of ignorance in the world.  Education, learning to read and write, doesn’t necessarily give us knowledge.  We have to learn to use our minds to see what is really happening…[but] Some things in life are more important than understanding.”  (Leaming, p. 216-217)

After an enjoyable week living with four different farming families, attending a Bhutanese wedding, conducting nine farmer interviews, gaining hands on experience in farming, and twisting/spraining my ankle from falling down a treacherous hillside path (the not so enjoyable part), I found myself back in the capity city of Thimphu.  And it was perfect and just in time for a very special guest: Andre Leu, President of IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements headquartered in Bonn, Germany) was visiting Bhutan to do a seminar for Ministry of Agriculture executives, including the Minister himself.  Obviously I was not expecting to meet Andre, so it was a wonderful surprise and awesome way to celebrate the six month mark on the Watson Fellowship.  And even though he’s probably traveled to more than 100 countries representing this international umbrella organization (that has a presence in 120 countries around the world), he is very much approachable, humble, and does not make you feel intimidated at all.  He raised a number of excellent points, both in his seminar and in our two-hour interview.  The most poignant parts of his seminar, titled: “Achieving Food Security with Science-Based High Yielding Organic Agriculture in Bhutan,” was that modern organic agriculture is not the same as the low-yield, backbreaking farming of the past.  He noted that today, organic agriculture combines tradition with innovation and science by focusing on ecological processes, biodiversity, and local cycles.  Andre also emphasized the deep need to remove dogma from the organic discussion and instead promote science.  In a balanced and realistic approach, he introduced me to concepts such as Ecological Function Intensification or the science of applied agroecology to deliver multiple ecosystem functions.  He did some myth-busting about organic with well-defined arguments as to why yields do not have to go down, the potential for small-farm income generation, and the prospective for participatory guarantee system (PGS) certification in lieu of an expensive third party scheme.  It was a striking moment hearing the Minister of Agriculture himself admit that the presentation was eye opening and to observe ministry employees show both the resistance and eagerness to move forward on the national organic plan.  Yet during my interviews, I felt some reservations and doubt within much of the ministry with regard to the 100% organic plan, as many individuals argued for integrated pest and nutrient management systems that utilize chemical inputs as a last resort.  Regardless, I think the IFOAM president sums it up quite well, as in my interview, I asked what it would mean for the rest of the world if Bhutan succeeds in its 100% organic plan:

“There is a lot of misunderstanding about organic.  People are saying if we went organic, the world would starve and they are confusing organic with old style traditional.  Seeing a country like Bhutan go ahead with it is very important in providing an example to other countries.  I personally see Bhutan as a shining beacon of light in the world, not because of organic but also the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH).  If you look, everywhere else has gone down using GDP and its effects: overcrowding, pollution, depression.  Most of us would agree that we haven’t developed the world the right way.  Here we have an experiment that could show the world the right way to go.  Combining the issue of human and social well being and the right level of development that looks after the environment.  It may be a little country but a huge shining beacon of light to the world.” 

And lastly,

“I’ve learned not to question so much.  I understand that life is full of these happy, life-altering coincidences.  They probably happen much more than we think or know, especially when we are traveling, loosened from our moorings, if you will.  They happen quite often in Bhutan.  And I know that if a day comes when you’re in a place that seems absolutely magical, when you feel like anything can happen, you just have to go with it: go ahead and let yourself get carried away.” (Leaming, p. 224).