Lemme Limp (Imported Culture)

Lemming is a doomed conformist, who blindly follows others and brings destruction to all. Are we ambiguous? Are we easily influenced? If so, our rich cultural heritages will be invisible in the lives of Bhutanese in a while, and it will have acquired new forms and meanings that will implant it with contemporary importance.

Culture is important and it has become a pivotal approach for the county’s survival. Sikkim was not subjugated because of weak rulers, land, or religion, but because of its flimsy cultural resistance. Sikkim had a similar culture to that of brother India. So it was easy to put on their map. I think we survive because of diversity; we must maintain our unique diversity to live on happily and not necessarily import others to become one.

Many of our spiritual practitioners believe that the culture is the faith to the god. They pursue and peruse from far across the borders and what they practice would have cultural effects in our country. That’s why we mixed religion with traditions. Our culture was never and was ever a religion. The faith or belief to the god is little or no distinct to culture. The culture is our traditions, customs, and ways of life. Our civilizations, ethos, and philosophies are all our culture, but not the religion. We take care of culture, and by and by the religion has become a culture. Culture has dominated religion. It is not the real religion. Suppose our lifestyle; the ceremonials, rituals, and festivals are just our formal procedure, and I would like to say they are only religious convictions.

Ask anyone. “Does religion change?” the answer would be obvious “NO.” But inconsiderate thinkers may feel that religion changes. That is, as a result, our culture keeps on changing. We can’t really catch up with the culture. Different cultures will keep on trespassing in, owing to different times. What makes Bhutan Bhutanese? It’s our unique culture. It’s our unique citizens. It’s our ethos and values of our life. It’s our culture, not religion.

But in this globalized world, we have brought in many different cultures and practices. Bishwas Karma Puja was not a Buddhist culture for instance. The noisy loud Hindi music is never our way of musicking. We never decorated vehicles with appliqué clothes and sindoor on our Lhakhangs. We have a simple way of doing our own rituals, like sprinkling holy water, lighting incense sticks to the car or any object. What we called ‘Lhapsang.’

I am concerned with this, in Bhutan some think, embarking on development means embarking on other cultures and traditions. Especially our young people are inclined to exploit and expose to all other values and beliefs. Change doesn’t mean adapting to other cultures and losing one’s cultures.

Bhutanese Losars, mask dances, etc are gradually taken over by Christmas, Diwali, free dance styles and violence. Indian and Western films, songs, cultures have made our ways. They were never a mass culture of a Buddhist country like ours. These cultures have intercepted and became a serious norm nowadays. People talk of GNH, conserving traditions, culture, peace, and tranquility. I think being in what we have is the basic GNH of all. There is no need of adopting ideas in cultural and spiritual heritage simply because they come from developed and powerful countries. We have rich values in ourselves already.

These coming months are the month of festivals, crops are being harvested, Tshechus are coming up in many Dzongkahgs, Birth Anniversary of fourth king celebration, but nothing would be most enjoyable than Dausheri to many people. It is celebrated everywhere, in the school compound, in the street, in the village, everywhere. I remember people dancing to the Hindi music, getting drunk, and shaking like Shakira. Everyone would laugh, and all would enjoy. That was happiness. We get happiness from others’ values which are not our internal happiness. We are masala; mixtures of so many other items. We are interested to behave like others. But do Indians, Korean, English, etc dance our type of dances? They may not have heard about our traditional dances, forget about making them dance.

For a few weeks from now, a singing of Bailoram, Dausheri will almost knock you out from the peaceful sleep. The distant song of Dausheri would remind us of a picturesque scene from some sort of Ramayana film we watched. We barely would open our eyes, as it might be midnight. We would sleep thinking, ‘Why is Bhutan only India? And why is India not Bhutan?’

Note: This is the article I posted already in 2013. (http://saachad9.blogspot.com/2013/11/lemme-limp-imported-cultures.html). Little changes have been made.