Download or read book The History of Bhutan written by Karma Phuntsho and published by Haus Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2008, Bhutan triumphantly took the stage as the world’s youngest democracy. But despite its growing prominence—and rising scholarly interest in the country—Bhutan remains one of the least studied, and least well-known places on the planet. Karma Phuntsho’s The History of Bhutan is the first book to offer a comprehensive history of Bhutan in English. Along with a detailed social and political analysis, it offers substantive discussions of Bhutan’s geography and culture; the result is the clearest, richest account of this nation and its history ever published for general readers. A 2015 Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title Award Winner

Download or read book The Story of a Pumpkin written by Hari Tiwari and published by New Hampshire Humanities Council. This book was released on 2013-02-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rollicking, sometimes scary, and always magical tale carried to New Hampshire by its new Nepali-speaking neighbors from Bhutan

Download or read book Divine Messengers written by Guyer-Stevens and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As mystics, healers, and travelers to the netherworld, female shamans continue to impact the spiritual lives of the Bhutanese. These divine messengers act as mediums for local spirits, cure diseases through prayer, and travel to the realm of the dead. They are sometimes referred to as “sky-goers,” “reincarnations,” or “returners from the beyond,” and their stories are intimately connected with the Buddhist ideas of karma and rebirth. Journalist Stephanie Guyer-Stevens and anthropologist Françoise Pommaret traveled to the Himalayas to meet seven living Bhutanese female shamans and to help make their stories known. Stephanie and Françoise offer an intimate narrative of these shamans’ spiritual experiences and important roles in society. This book also provides an overview of the history of this tradition and a translation of an autobiography of the famous eighteenth-century divine messenger, Sangay Choezom. This insightful and sensitive account is a rare look inside the world of these brave women.

Download or read book Buttertea at Sunrise written by Britta Das and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2007-05-30 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set against the dramatic scenery of the Himalaya, this beguiling memoir reveals hardships and happiness in a land almost untouched by the West.

Download or read book Married to Bhutan written by Linda Leaming and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tucked away in the eastern end of the Himalayas lies Bhutan: a tiny, landlocked country bordering China, India, and Nepal. One of the most remote places in the world, Bhutan is rich in natural beauty, exotic landscapes, and ancient wisdom, where people are genuinely happy with very few material possessions and the government embraces "Gross National Happiness" instead of Gross National Product. As one of the few Americans to have lived in Bhutan, Linda Leaming offers a rare glimpse at the peaceful mountain kingdom so many have only dreamed of. For over ten years, Leaming has lived and taught in the small town of Thimphu, where there are fewer than 100,000 people and no traffic lights. "If enlightenment is possible anywhere," she writes, "I think it is particularly possible here." The Bhutanese way of life—quieter, slower, and more tranquil—can seem daunting to most Westerners, consumed with time, dates, speed, and efficiency. In Bhutan, people rarely check their e-mail and take their time answering their telephones. But, as Leaming shows us, a little patience—over a cup of warm tea and friendly conversation—can help soothe the most distressed mind and soul. In this funny, magical memoir, Leaming takes us with her on her travels through South Asia, sharing her experiences as she learns the language, customs, and religion; folklore of a revered Tibetan holy man who gave blessings to the people by whacking them on the head with a big wooden phallus; her unlikely romance with a Buddhist artist; and her discoveries about the unexpected path to happiness and accidental enlightenment, where true bliss resides. Married to Bhutan is a reminder that following our dreams is the way to be truly happy.

Download or read book Beyond the Sky and the Earth written by Jamie Zeppa and published by Doubleday Canada. This book was released on 2011-01-28 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Iron and Silk and Touch the Dragon, Jamie Zeppa’s memoir of her years in Bhutan is the story of a young woman’s self-discovery in a foreign land. It is also the exciting début of a new voice in travel writing. When she left for the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan in 1988, Zeppa was committing herself to two years of teaching and a daunting new experience. A week on a Caribbean beach had been her only previous trip outside Canada; Bhutan was on the other side of the world, one of the most isolated countries in the world known as the last Shangri-La, where little had changed in centuries and visits by foreigners were restricted. Clinging to her bags full of chocolate, hair conditioner and Immodium, she began the biggest challenge of her life, with no idea she would fall in love with the country and with a Bhutanese man, end up spending nine years in Bhutan, and begin a literary career with her account of this transformative journey. At her first posting in a remote village of eastern Bhutan, she is plunged into an overwhelmingly different culture with squalid Third World conditions and an impossible language. Her house has rats and fleas and she refuses to eat the local food, fearing the rampant deadly infections her overly protective grandfather warned her about. Gradually, however, her fear vanishes. She adjusts, begins to laugh, and is captivated by the pristine mountain scenery and the kind students in her grade 2 class. She also begins to discover for herself the spiritual serenity of Buddhism. A transfer to the government college of Sherubtse, where the housing conditions are comparatively luxurious and the students closer to her own age, gives her a deeper awareness of Bhutan’s challenges: the lack of personal privacy, the pressure to conform, and the political tensions. However, her connection to Bhutan intensifies when she falls in love with a student, Tshewang, and finds herself pregnant. After a brief sojourn in Canada to give birth to her son, Pema Dorji, she marries Tshewang and makes Bhutan her home for another four years. Zeppa’s personal essay about her culture shock on arriving in Bhutan won the 1996 CBC/Saturday Night literary competition and appeared in the magazine. She flew home to accept the prize, where people encouraged her to pursue her writing. Her letters from Bhutan also featured on CBC’s Morningside. The book that grew out of this has been published in Canada and the United States to ecstatic reviews, followed by British, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish editions. Although cultural differences finally separated Jamie and Tshewang in 1997 while she was writing the book and she returned to Canada, she will always feel at home in Bhutan. Zeppa shares her compelling insights into this land and culture, but Beyond the Sky and the Earth is more than a travel book. With rich, spellbinding prose and bright humour, it describes a personal journey in which Zeppa acquires a deeper understanding of what it means to leave one’s home behind, and undergoes a spiritual transformation.

Download or read book Bhutan Story written by T VIJAYAN BABU and published by Pencil. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the heart of the Himalayas, nestled between towering peaks and lush valleys, lies the enchanting kingdom of Bhutana land that beckons travelers with its timeless beauty, vibrant culture, and serene spirituality. "Bhutan Stories" is an immersive journey into this remarkable nation, guided by the experienced traveler, photographer, teacher, and devoted planter, T. Vijayan Babu. For twenty-eight years, Vijayan Babu has woven his life into the fabric of Bhutan. Through the lens of his camera and the depth of his words, he invites you to join him on an extraordinary adventure. "Bhutan Stories" is a tapestry of experiences, a symphony of photographs, and a window into the heart of this captivating land.

Download or read book The Kingdom at the Centre of the World written by Omair Ahmad and published by Rupa Publications. This book was released on 2013 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A small, sparsely populated kingdom at the eastern end of the Himalayas, Bhutan is often described as one of the most isolated countries on earth. In this unprecedented portrait an informed and insightful mix of political history and travel writing Omair Ahmad shows that the opposite, in fact, is true. Located at the intersection of several political, cultural and religious currents, Bhutan has been a part of, and been shaped by, some of the most transformative events in Asian and world history. Beginning with Padmasambhavas epic work to establish Buddhism in the Himalayas, The Kingdom at the Centre of the World tells the story of Bhutans emergence as an independent Buddhist nation in the seventeenth century under the Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who turned his back on Tibet; the exploits of Jigme Namgyal the Black Regent who united Bhutan and fought the armies of British India to a standstill; and the remarkable Wangchuk monarchs, who have ruled Bhutan since the beginning of the twentieth century. Alongside, the book also examines events around Bhutan that have affected it profoundly: the rise and fall of Tibet and the Mongol and British empires; the spread of Nepali-origin people across South Asia; Sikkims dramatic loss of sovereignty; and the conflicting territorial ambitions of India and China. Most fascinating of all, the book argues that it is in Bhutan more, perhaps, than in any other nation that alternative modes of governance and progress are being tested in an increasingly homogenized world. As it chooses Gross National Happiness (GNH) over Gross National Product (GNP), grapples with a complicated refugee crisis, experiments with a guided democracy and tries to retain its cultural heritage while it opens up to the world, Bhutan could have important lessons for us all

Download or read book Folktales of Bhutan written by Kunzang Choden and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti another dip into the library of the storytellers from the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.Folktales of Bhutan is a collection of thirty-eight folktales and legends and is a first attempt by a Bhutanese to record in English the oral tradition of this kingdom in the eastern Himalayas. All of the stories recounted here were heard by the author when she was a child living in Bumthang in the central part of Bhutan and are the ones that she passes on to her children today, in the spirit of the oral tradition.In Bhutan's centuries of self-imposed isolation brought about by both its geographically remote position and political considerations, the Bhutanese oral tradition evolved and thrived. The rugged and awesome terrain and the people's closeness to nature, together with their philosophy of karmic life cycles, an unquestioning belief in unseen co-inhabitants of the earth like spirits, ghosts and demons and the creative genius of the storytellers culminated in a remarkable repository of tales and legends which were passed on from one generation to the next.Each story has been aptly illustrated by a Bhutanese artist who combines the traditional Bhutanese/Buddhist iconographic stylized forms together with his own artistic perceptions.

Download or read book Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti written by Kunzang Choden and published by Proglen Trading Co., Ltd.. This book was released on 2013 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti is a collection of twenty-two stories set in four different regions of Bhutan. The presence of the yeti is ubiquitous to the kingdoms of the Himalayas, where beliefs and attitudes related to it go beyond scientific judgment and analysis. The Bhutanese consider the yeti, or the migoi, to be an essential part of the backdrop of their existence. Believed to possess supernatural powers enabling it to become invisible at will, the yeti often manifests itself in a tangible form and then suddenly vanishes, leaving behind nothing but an unexpected void. Folklore about the abominable snowman has existed for centuries; however, with the far-reaching impact of the media, the perpetuation of this oral tradition is threatened. This collection of stories is an attempt to document a vital tradition before it is wiped out entirely. The book is well illustrated and includes maps of the four regions.

Download or read book Crane Boy written by Diana Cohn and published by Cinco Puntos Press. This book was released on 2015-09-28 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every year, Kinga and his classmates wait for the black-necked cranes to return to the kingdom of Bhutan. The birds fly south over the highest mountains in the word to winter in the valley where Kinga lives, deep in the Himalayas. The cranes have been visiting the valley since ancient times, but every year, fewer cranes return. Kinga is concerned. "What can he do?," he wonders. He and his classmates approach the monks for permission to create and perform a dance to honor the cranes and to remind the Bhutanese people of their duty to care for them. The monks caution them to first watch the cranes to see how they move and learn from them. The children watch and practice. And practice some more until the big day when they perform before the king of Bhutan. Diana Cohn is an educator and writer with an active commitment to social justice work. She has published six picture books for children. Crane Boy was inspired by two visits to Bhutan and by her interest in how cultural traditions evolve and adapt over time. Youme is an author, illustrator, and community-based artist who has worked internationally in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Her first book Selavi: That is Life won the 2005 Jane Addams Peace Award. Pitch Black: Don't Be Skerd, a graphic novel she co-authored with Anthony Horton, was named one of YALSA's Top Ten Great Graphic Novels in 2009.

Download or read book Bhutan written by Francoise Pommaret and published by Odyssey Books & Maps. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the rooftop of the world, shoe-horned into the Grand Himalayas, Bhutanor Thunder Dragonis a fiercely independent kingdom. Isolated, charming, peaceful and religious, the Bhutanese are a pragmatic, sensitive people who take from the West what will benef

Download or read book A Hare Marked Moon written by David Lascelles and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-13 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 2004, David Lascelles invited a group of monks from Bhutan to build a stupa in the gardens of Harewood House in Yorkshire. It was a step into the unknown for the Bhutanese. They didn’t speak any English, had never travelled outside their own culture, had never flown in an airplane or seen the ocean. Theirs was one kind of journey, but the project was also another kind of voyage for David. It was an attempt to reconcile a deep interest in Buddhism with the 250 years that his family has lived at Harewood, the country house and estate – with its links to one of the darkest chapters in Britain’s colonial past – that he has loved, rejected, tried to make sense of and been haunted by all his life. In Buddhist thought, one of the functions of a stupa is to harmonise the environment in which it is built and subdue the chaotic forces at work there. Would this stupa have a similar effect, quelling the forces of Harewood’s past and harmonising the contradictions of its present? A Hare-Marked Moon tells the story behind the extraordinary meeting of cultures that resulted in the Harewood Stupa, interspersed with accounts of David’s travels in the Himalayas which delve into the rich and turbulent history of the region, and the beliefs that have shaped it.

Download or read book Tales in Colour and Other Stories written by Kunzang Choden and published by Zubaan. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These deceptively simple stories uncover both the complexity and irony of women’s lives in Bhutan today. They show how ordinary lives, choices and experiences are both remarkable and poignant. In ‘I am a Small Person’, a despised woman uses her femininity as a means to control a man; the young girl in ‘I Won’t ask Mother’ suddenly feels empowered and confident when she makes a decision without consulting her mother. All the stories take place in rural settings, to which creeping urbanisation brings gradual change, and tensions surface between the new and the old, or the traditional and the modern. For many rural women, being able to connect to the city and all its perceived power and glamour is a very real aspiration. This yearning is exemplified in ‘Look at her Belly Button,’ where a young woman effortlessly slips out of the role of a farmer to become a ‘real Bhutanese’ urbanite. Published by Zubaan.

Download or read book The Circle of Karma written by Kunzang Choden and published by Zubaan. This book was released on 2005 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Caught in the everyday reality of household life, fifteen-year-old Tsomo is suddenly called upon to travel when her mother dies. She makes her first journey to a faraway village to light the ritual butter lamps in her mother's memory. Beginning here, her travels take her to distant places, across Bhutan and into India. As she faces the world, a woman alone, Tsomo embarks on what becomes a life journey, in which she begins to find herself, and to grow as a person and a woman. The first novel by a woman to come out of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, The Circle of Karma, written in English, is rich in detailed descriptions of ritual life in Bhutan. The measured pace of its prose, the many nuances of the story, the different levels at which the narrative works, weave a complex tapestry of life in which the style and content are closely interwoven, each informing and enriching the other.

Download or read book Room in Your Heart written by Kitaabworld and published by Mascot Books. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "First published in India in 2011 by Young Zubaan"--Page facing title page.

Download or read book Sources for the History of Bhutan written by Michael Aris and published by Motilal Banarsidass. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The four works included in this collection have enjoyed a rather chequered career. They originally formed the second volume of the doctoral thesis Michael Aris submitted in 1978 to the University of London. They have been included because of their value as crucial source material on the formative era of Bhutanese history, as they cover the entire period leading to the full emergence of the Bhutanese theocracy. Their relative brevity as compared with the other major works relevant to this period further suggested the convenience of including them as a group of inter-related 'minor' texts. While the first two works in this collection have never before been available to modern scholars, and are indeed hardly known even in Bhutan, the next two (which include a text translated from Portuguese) have been partially known from the works of John Claude White (Sikkim and Bhutan-Twenty-one years on the North-East Frontier 1887-1908, London) and C. Wessels (Early Jesuit Travelers in Central Asia, The Hague 1924.