15 Days blessing begins.

Over Changyu Bridge: Devotees return
to the wang venue after
lunch break yesterday

Dechhog Khorlo Dompai: By the time the dawn broke, and the light shone on to the first day of the Chakrasamvara (Dechhog Khorlo Dompai) wang in Punakha yesterday, thousands of people had already filled the Thangzona wangkhang.

Devotees, who had come to attend the wang, had started walking into the venue, which could accommodate more than 50,000 people, as early as 3am.

“I’m seeing such a huge congregation for the first time in my life,” Ap Kado from Wangduephodrang, said.

Police and desuups were positioned at entry and exit points at the Mochhu bazam and the Changyul bridge to control and manage the crowd.

“I thought the Mochhu bazam might collapse, when people rushed at one go,” a desuup said.

During lunch break, the entry and exit points were jammed by the crowd.  After being pushed in all directions, amid screaming women and children, devotees took more than an hour to get to the wangkhang.

“If such a rush persists, there’s a high chance of stampede at the bridges,” Kezang from Punakha said.

A smog of dust filled the air, despite having sprinkled water on the ground.

Vehicular traffic, however, had eased, despite seeing a jam for last two days.  There were designated parking spots for private vehicles.

The wang committee’s chairman, lopen Samten Dorji of Zhung dratsang, said more than 50,000 people could have turned up for the first day of the wang.

Meanwhile, monks and patrons offered prayers to His Holiness the Je Khenpo, who presided over the Chakrasamvara blessings.  His Holiness also talked to the devotees on the benefits and merits of the wang.

At the opening, cabinet ministers, led by the prime minister, Jigmi Y Thinley, attended the morning session of the wang.

Commitment shy capital city?

International Anti-Corruption Day: In the last 10 days, only 289 Thimphu residents turned up to pledge their commitment against corruption in the book that the Anti-Corruption Commission kept open only in Thimphu since it observed the international anti-corruption day on December 10.

The book, which has a capacity for 3,000, has so far recorded pledges from 194 males and 95 females from Thimphu. The commission’s program coordinator Karma Rinzin, said the pledge book was kept open at the clock tower square and the ACC office.

“We advised our staff not to force anyone to sign on the book, since we wanted to see how many would turn up voluntarily,” he said.

However, the turnout has not been encouraging and to analyse or draw any conclusions, based on the small figure, would be difficult, he said. “Therefore, we’re planning to extend and keep the book open for public, until the pages are filled,” he said. “But the book will be kept at the lobby of ACC office.”

Karma Rinzin said the idea of the pledge book was to see how serious and concerned people were about fighting corruption. “Once we get quite a number of people, we’ll be able to come up with measures to help prevent corruption in the country,” he said.

Of the total 289 people, who pledged so far, the highest are civil servants at 84, followed by public at 80, 65 students, 43 business people and 17 from civil society organisations. “On an average, 29 people came forward to pledge their commitment every day,” he said.

Deadline Further Deferred.

               Global tenders for three bridges en route are still to be taken on

The Chukha Damchu bypass on the Thimphu-Phuentsholing highway that will reduce road distance by more than 20 km, and cut travel time by an hour, may be open to traffic only by mid 2014.
Officials of Project DANTAK, which is doing the realignment, said the bypass requires building three bridges, but the global tenders for their construction are yet to be accepted, because bidders have asked for more time.
This could delay completion of the bypass, which was initially expected by the end of next year, by another six months, a spokesman for DANTAK said.  It might take another two to three months to award the work for constructing the bridges, the spokesperson said.
Work on the 29 km bypass began in 2010, with a completion date by March 2013.  But the deadline got pushed to 2013 end, because of the challenges posed by extremely rocky terrain.
Project DANTAK’s chief engineer, Brigadier S Radhakrishnan, said constructing three bridges, which are 80 to 100'm long, would take some time, although road construction would be completed by end of 2013.
Brigadier S Radhakrishnan said the construction of all three bridges would be awarded to one contractor.
Works and human settlement secretary Dasho (Dr) Sonam Tenzin, who visited the construction site on December 15, said there has been good progress.
He said Project DANTAK had divided the whole 29 km stretch into six sections, and that work was being done at all sections.
In the first 2.1 km section, the whole construction, along with surfacing and permanent work, had been completed, and in the five other sections, formation cutting, surfacing work and permanent work were being executed simultaneously.
Brigadier S Radhakrishnan said they had to divide the stretch into different sections to deploy more equipment, as progress of work depended on it. “With more additional points, we deployed more machinery to execute formation cutting, surfacing and permanent works simultaneously,” he said.
According to DANTAK officials more than 20 of its workers have died so far working on the bypass which, when completed, will no longer require traffic to ascend to Chapcha, drive down to Bunakha and again climb up to Tshimakoti.

Mayan apocalypse: End of the world, or a new beginning?

Selections from the Mayan calendarOne in 10 of us is said to be anxious that 21 December marks the end of the world. The Ancient Mayans predicted this doomsday, and the press is eating it up. But where are all the believers?

That the world will end in 2012 is the most widely-disseminated doomsday tale in human history, thanks to the internet, Hollywood and an ever-eager press corps.

Recent hurricanes, unrest in the Middle East, solar flares, mystery planets about to collide with us - all "proof" of what the ancient Mayans knew would come to pass on 21 December 2012.

According to a Reuters global poll, one in 10 of us is feeling some anxiety about this date.

Russians have been so worried that the Minister of Emergency Situations issued a denial that the world would end.

Authorities in the village of Bugarach in the South of France have barred access to a mountain where some believe a UFO will rescue them.

And survivalists in America - many of whom use the term "prepper" - have been busy preparing for all manner of cataclysm.

So I set out to find people who believe 21/12/12 is D-Day.

It was harder than I imagined, despite seeking out preppers, bunker builders, and even a Mayan shaman.

Eventually I turned to Morandir Armson, a scholar of the New Age and Esoterica at the University of Sydney, Australia.

"If you told me there were more than 5,000 people who genuinely believed the end of the world was coming rather than just having vague fears about it, I'd be surprised," he says.

Armson adds that those people are probably "in the wilds of Idaho, heavily armed, and won't talk to journalists anyway".

The heightened fear around this date is, in his view and that of other experts, almost entirely due to the internet. More specifically they blame the blogosphere.

It is not how the whole 2012 phenomenon started.

In 1987, Jose Arguelles, a man who devoted much of his life to studying the Mayan Calendar, organised what was called the Harmonic Convergence, a sort of post-hippy Woodstock. It attracted tens of thousands around the globe.

he event was an attempt to "create a moment of meditation and connection to the sacred sites around the earth," says Daniel Pinchbeck, author of 2012: The Year of the Mayan Prophecy.

It was also the beginning of what many in the loosely-defined New Age movement regard as a process in the transformation of our consciousness - a transformation that goes into full effect at the end of this year.

Pinchbeck calls 21/12/12 the "hinge point" of the emergence of a new, more enlightened age - not an ending point for all civilisation.

"It is quite clear that the Mayan system envisages a new cycle of the calendar beginning on the 22 December 2012," says Graham Hancock, author of Fingerprints of the Gods, and something of a rock star in the world of ancient mysteries enthusiasts.

He says the ancient Mayan culture was a shamanic one. Those who left us the calendar were visionaries who were providing clues to this ending of one cycle and the beginning of another.

That is not to say that New Agers do not see catastrophic events as necessary in some way to this new birth.

In fact they tend to embrace eastern faiths and native cultures with their cyclical views of time. In these visions, the world has been and will be destroyed - to some degree - and we start anew.

Accordingly, some believe the Mayans were sending us a warning for 2012.

"We may see a lot of destruction," says Pinchbeck. He points to Hurricane Sandy, which recently hit his home city of New York.

Many, including the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, linked that hurricane to global warming, which tends to be seen by New Agers as the main threat to our planet.

However the New Age movement is full of optimists. Crucially, they say we have a choice in how this story ends.

"We do not have to step over the edge of the abyss into darkness and destruction," Hancock says, calling this point in time a "cusp moment."

"It's up to us. It's totally up to us."

Morandir Armson, the Australian scholar, says the belief that 2012 marks a positive shift is one also shared by UFO groups, such as the Ashtar Command and the Ground Crew. These groups have no headquarters but for internet sites.

He says they refer to themselves as "lightworkers" who believe a fleet of alien space ships hover around our solar system.

"By doing good works on earth [they believe] you can speed up the consciousness of our humanity," says Armson.

In many ways, they emphasise the more positive aspects of the traditional Christian Apocalypse. The fire-and-brimstone part gets downplayed in favour of the glorious Kingdom to come.

Some 20% of Americans believe we are in the end times, and that they will see the return of Jesus Christ in their lifetime.

This month marks Advent in the Christian Calendar, during which Christians are encouraged to read from the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic vision of St John the Divine.

"It's full of gory and grotesque detail of how the wicked are going to be punished," says Ted Harrison, author of Apocalypse When: Why We Want to Believe there Will Be No Tomorrow.

The twenty-first of December, however, is not on the biblical calendar and few, if any, believers in the traditional Book of Revelation are attached to this date.

The supposed date of the coming apocolypse, 21 December, also marks the Winter Solstice, symbolic in many cultures of the end of darkness and the renewal of the light.

It might, suggests Harrison, focus our minds on how we have been treating the planet and those on it, and how we could mend our ways.

In this respect, he says, "It might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's one hope. A remote one, but it is one hope."

Decoding the Mayan calendar

The "Long Count" cycle of the Mayan calendar began in 3114 BCE and is widely accepted to end on 21/12/12 CE.

Except that in Simon Martin's view, everyone has got it wrong.

Martin is curator of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia's "Maya 2012" exhibition. He says the calendar is complex, and best thought of as a series of gear wheels.

He points out that at a Mayan site in Palenque, Mexico, there is an inscription describing an event that takes place in 4,722 of our era, "and that is the turning of an even bigger cycle", he says.

He adds that technically this is also not the start of a new cycle.

In 3114 BCE the calendar reset to zero with the turning of the 13th bak'tun (which is a smaller, 400 year cycle). This time, however, it does not reset to zero but merely goes on to the 14th bak'tun.

"The Mayan Calendar is a weird and wonderful thing," he says.

News from BBC By Jane Little

Bad News for applicants.

Australian Endeavour Award: Bhutanese, who applied for the Australian Endeavour Award scholarship, and waited for more than six months, were disappointed to learn that they were not awarded the scholarship.

The Endeavour Award scholarship results for postgraduate award that included masters and PhD, Endeavour Research Fellowship and Endeavour VET awards were declared on the evening of December 17.  As of last evening, applicants were trying to find out if anyone had been awarded the scholarship, but had not come across anyone who had.

It is estimated that at least 2,000 Bhutanese had applied for the scholarships to study in Australia, which has become the top destination, besides India, for higher education and other reasons.

A media consultant of a private firm, who applied for a PhD scholarship, said he received calls from people, asking him if he was awarded the scholarship. “I seriously feel that the Australian government had to cut down the 2013 intake, because of fund constraints, or diverted the fund to some needy scholarship,” he said.

Comments on Sydney-based Macquire University’s online news for the international community also says applicants from Bangladesh and India also did not get the scholarships.

Officials from Australian high commission in Delhi refuted claims that no one from Bhutan got the Endeavour Award.

The head of education section, Dr Peter, said, while they do not have the authority to give details of how many Bhutanese applied and how many were awarded the scholarship, some Bhutanese have got the scholarship. “It’s an international merit-based scholarship, and this year’s scholarship was highly competitive,” he said.

Dr Peter also said there was no policy change as such, and that the scholarship was across the Asian region.

Some Bhutanese applicants said the letter of regret they received stated the fund for the scholarship had been reduced and the scholarship was highly competitive.

An unsuccessful applicant questioned why the letter, stating he didn’t get through, was dated October 24, but was received only last morning.

Some applicants said that not getting the award was not such a disappointment, because it was their third time trying.

A few applicants have not yet received confirmation on whether they have got the scholarship or not.

His Majesty's address to the Nation on the 105th National Day in celebrations in Thimphu.

On the occasion of the 105th National Day, it gives me much happiness to address our People of the 20 dzongkhags.

This National Day is of special significance.  The powers offered by our People to the King in 1907, after hundred years of nation building, were returned in 2008 to our People by the Druk Gyalpo.  It was in that year that we held the first elections under democracy and adopted the Constitution.  Today, we are nearing the end of the term of the first Parliament we elected in 2008, and the culmination of the tenth and largest 5-year plan.  So much work lies ahead and such immense responsibilities rest on our shoulders as we approach 2013.

Yet, with capable and dedicated citizens, who have great love for our country, with the guidance of the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, and with the ever-stronger bonds between People and King, I have great confidence that we shall achieve our goals.

Our People of Bhutan are unique.  We have a sense of family, community and brotherhood that inspires us to come together in times of need.  I have seen this following natural disasters and, most recently, in the way in which all Bhutanese came forward to offer whatever little we could afford to rebuild the historic treasure, Wangduephodrang Dzong.

In other nations, difficult moments in their history are met with strife, violence and conflict, as people sacrifice national interest in order to achieve individual ambitions.  In Bhutan, such acts and events have never occurred.  Our way of life, our heritage, loyalty and values remain strong in the hearts of our People and our People stand ready, even in times of great personal hardship, to place Nation above Self.  I am so proud of our People and offer my deep gratitude for the love you have shown for your nation.

It is during times of prosperity and success that we must remind ourselves of the work that lies ahead.  We have made a good start in our transition to democracy, but much remains to be done.  Our nation has seen great socio-economic growth, but it is more important that we have growth with equity.  We must raise, with all our effort, the less fortunate so that they may, at the earliest, begin to partake in the opportunities brought by modernisation and progress.  The government has provided education to our youth.  But for the nation to prosper for all time, a sound education must be succeeded by access to the right jobs and responsibilities, so that our youth may bloom as individuals and, at the same time, serve their nation well.  The recent Rupee shortage is a serious problem.  I feel it is a reminder that, as a nation, we must exercise our traditional sense of caution, and work even harder, as we address the challenges of the time.  For, no matter what challenges lie ahead, it is only the Bhutanese citizen, who can protect and safeguard Bhutan.

Today, the most important duty for us is the 2013 elections to Parliament.  I would like to say that we – all of us – are new to this democratic transition.  We have all equally acquired four and a half years of experience in democracy.  Experience comes with participation, so I urge you all to come forward as candidates, members of parties and voters for 2013.

Remember, achieving democracy is not the goal.  The real fruits of our efforts should be that democracy brings greater unity, harmony and prosperity to our nation.  Democracy must be able to fulfill the aspirations of our People.

Many hundreds of years ago, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal unified the nation, established the dual system and laid the foundations on which a unique Bhutan was born.  This new nation was then further strengthened over the course of history by fifty-four Desis and generations of Bhutanese.  The last hundred years, the Wangchuck dynasty further strengthened the foundations laid by the Zhabdrung, and handed over a special nation to our People in 2008.  All of this was possible because our People have lived as one small family, true to the ideals of the Zhabdrung and the foundations of a unique and special Bhutanese identity.

As we approach the elections of 2013, we must therefore keep in mind these foundations of our nation and prevent all ethnic, religious or political divisions in our small nation.  We must participate in democracy with the spirit of harmony and fraternity.  In 2008, our democratic transition and the wholehearted participation by the people, including the 80% voter turnout, were lauded by the world.  I urge you all to exercise your right to vote – it comes but once in 5 years – for it is an act of great benefit to the nation.

With the Blessings of the Triple Gem and our Guardian Deities and the good fortune of our People, I am confident we will conduct the second elections under democracy successfully in 2013.

For me, I hold sacred the endeavours begun by my father, the Fourth Druk Gyalpo.  I have committed myself to bringing to fruition all the noble endeavours begun in his 34 years of service and sacrifice.  I also hold sacred my duty to ensure the success of democracy, and I shall work to lay the strongest foundations for a vibrant democracy within my reign.

Above all, I believe that the Golden Throne is not a Throne of wealth, power and prestige.  The Golden Throne of Bhutan is a unique Throne of Destiny to serve our People and Nation.

As King since 2006 I have always served with complete dedication and integrity.  Sometimes I may have erred.  Yet, you, my people, have given me even more love and support and placed your complete faith and trust in me.  To our People of the 20 dzongkhags, I offer my heartfelt gratitude, and I pledge that I shall give everything to be of service to you and Bhutan.

In this land, blessed by Guru Padmasambhava, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal and our Fourth Druk Gyalpo, I pray that there shall be everlasting peace, prosperity and happiness.

Working group to explore economic areas of cooperation

Haryana’s chief minister
 (first from right) takes a tour of the
 National Assembly hall

Haryana State Govt. Delegation: A working group, comprising officials from the ministry of economic affairs and the Haryana state government, has started discussions on the possibility of Bhutan selling hydropower to the Indian state.

A MoU was signed on December 15 between the economic affairs secretary Dasho Sonam Tshering and Haryana’s principal secretary of industry YS Malik yesterday, in presence of economic affairs minister Khandu Wangchuk and Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the convention centre in Thimphu.

The working group will also look into other economic areas of cooperation, such as agriculture, livestock, urban planning and infrastructure development.

“With huge power shortage that risks its investment and industry, Haryana state government have requested us to work together to meet their power demand,” lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk said, adding that the ministry is planning to work with them soon. “Haryana state has a robust economy, and economic co-operation with them would benefit the local economy.”

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, during the MoU signing, said the signing is a watershed event, and has laid foundation for a relationship that is responsive to each others interests, a relationship that is consultative, and ensures participative and mutually beneficial cooperation. “It provides us the roadmap for future interactions and cooperation,” the chief minister said.

In July this year, when northern India was hit by one of the worst power failures, Haryana, being one of the states, saw millions wake up to no electricity.  Water supply, hospital services, rail and road operations were severely disrupted, along with the business activities.

The peak power demand in Haryana is more than 7,385MW and, with rising urban and industrial demand power supply in the state, mostly from its thermal plants, is insufficient.

The chief minister, during the signing of MoU, also committed 35 scholarships to Bhutan over a period of five years in Haryana University, five for bachelor’s of science and two in bachelor’s in veterinary science.  This will be formalised before the end of February next year.

The delegation from India, led by Haryana chief minister, who were invited by the prime minister, met with Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley yesterday, and also called on agriculture minister Pema Gyamtsho.

The delegation left the country yesterday.