Je Khenpo and the Blessing

Gedu Moelam Choemo

"To be blessed" means 'to be favored by God'. Blessings, therefore, are directly associated with God and come from God.

A blessing is very important to get rid off negative things from our souls and bodies. We are immersed in a culture filled with negative attitudes, offensive language, violence, and insolence. The very air we breathe can lead us to feel cursed or that something will wrong us, just because of the environment we are exposed to and the judgments others make against us. False judgments against us are like curses and can affect our health and break down our immune system. The potentially negative physical results of people who live under false judgments are extraordinary. We are not only under the curse of judgments placed on us by others, but we may also tend to judge ourselves harshly. When these self-criticisms are excessive, we need to recognize them as being like curses and break them with the authority of God. So when you consider how much people are bound up by judgments and curses, it's easy to see how desperately we all need blessing. This is what every lama would say in any kind of wang or blessing.

The Moelam Choemo in Gedu is a yearly religious congregation for a week, and the fact it happens once a year shows how important Moelam Choemo is. There is a kind of culture from different schools to sponsor something during this gathering. Like last year, Darla school gave a Tokha(lunch) to the public and the worshippers on 18/10/2016. But this year, I was taken by surprise, as the school was not given a day off for receiving blessings. I heard our Je Khenpo will conduct the last kind of ‘Tshewang’ blessing to the people here. Distant schools like Arikha, Pashikha and others called off their classes for the day, but it was SAD that Darla school (so near to Gedu) had a normal class. To tell the truth, there were grumbles especially from our faithful students and teachers' devotees. That normal class didn’t deter many from going to receive a blessing. The head of the school called an informal meeting saying that any teacher willing to go can go for the ‘wang’. And that was a real headache; almost all teachers went leaving few students behind in the classes. And that didn’t daunt students too; almost all students went saying that their parents were waiting for them. And a result, the school went haywire with few teachers and students. It was a pandemonium!! I really wonder why our school was not called off when other schools have. I also really wonder if we can promote religion (tradition and culture) when important functions like this take place and we are not allowed to attend it. I really wonder if this is the reason why Darla community has a large number of Christians. REASON!

Darla school changed its girls dress for second time in a year

Old red tego

A kira, woonju, tego, gho, or shoes and socks may not be the ingredients for my favorite outfit, but if I were given a choice, I wouldn't throw away the idea of school uniform. Wearing a uniform is a badge of pride, creates an identity for a school, and is an important part of being a school student.

Uniforms show that you are part of an organization. Wearing it says we're all in this together. Also, if you wear your uniform with pride, it means you are halfway there to being respectful.

Old Dress

I feel uniforms are great social equalizer. It discourages inappropriate dress, helps bolster school and academic pride, and is a no-brainer when you get dressed in the morning.

I was told by one of the parents in the morning, “My kids go to the school and uniforms were the best thing that happened. They don’t see friends having better clothes, and in the end, you can save a lot of money.”

I also feel that uniforms give students a sense of belonging to a particular school and create an identity for the school in the community.

New faded ash tego

Some people believe that a school uniform can improve learning by reducing distraction, sharpening focus on schoolwork and making the classroom a more serious environment, allowing students to perform better academically.

Perhaps most importantly, a uniform means students don't have to worry about peer pressure when it comes to their clothes. When everyone is dressed the same, worrying about what you look like isn't so important. There is no competition about being dressed in the latest trend, which would put a great deal of financial pressure on students and parents. Potential bullies have one less target for their insults; it's hard to make fun of what someone is wearing when you're dressed exactly the same.

In America, where a majority of schools do not have a uniform, roughly 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. This might not be directly linked to what they're wearing, but having a uniform can be a safety net for many students who might otherwise suffer from bullying. A strict uniform gives the impression that rules are strict too, perhaps helping maintain a sense of order at school.

New dress

The pros and cons of school uniforms

According to the proponents, school uniforms:
• Encourage discipline
• Help students resist peer pressure to buy trendy clothes
• Help identify intruders in the school
• Diminish economic and social barriers between students
• Increase a sense of belonging and school pride
• Improve attendance

Opponents contend that school uniforms:

• Violate a student’s right to freedom of expression
• Are simply a Band-Aid on the issue of school violence
• Make students a target for bullies from other schools
• Are a financial burden for poor families
• Are an unfair additional expense for parents who pay taxes for a free public education
• Are difficult to enforce in public schools

Darla school changed its girls' dress for the second time in a year. Starting from this July, our girls will be wearing ash-brown tego instead of bright red tego. A number of students have complained about the change, and there was a general opinion about this dress as really bad.

The red tego was lots of problems with many students and some teachers and parents against it. It was only due to a few persons in the school, that the red tego was to be red. Many thought it was not good. There were many reasons saying against the bright red colour. Though symbolically confident and bright, it had more negatives than its good ones. The red was so intense to look at, as it affects the eyes, especially, teachers who had to see tegos. I also heard that it attracted bulls, leeches as they were plentiful in Darla.

The tego was chosen by our school girls before the first term, and they like it now. One of the students said, "I like uniforms because everyone is same and no one can be left out by the way they are dressed. Our new tego looks smarter, which is good."

New Principal
With the change of the tego came the change of principal. Mr. Tshochu was replaced by a new principal Mr. Tshering. The former principal went to Gedu HSS, and the latter came after his studies. Till now I have worked under seven principals, and I found Mr. Tshochu to be the best of all. Though, he was also a little crooked, and who says humans are not crooked. Everyone is. Everyone was a little bit un-human and they would lack civic sense sometimes. When I have time now, I would like to list down some good and lousy leaders:

Lack of Transparency; we(i) can tell when someone is not being completely honest. There’s rarely a reason not to be entirely transparent with everyone, every time. But we appreciate an understanding of all. Lack of transparency can result in a lack of trust.
Egoistic; the best leaders are ones who accept blame when things go wrong and give credit to their team when things go right. In order to be a true visionary leader, you need to let go of your ego and focus on your people because without them you would be nowhere.

They don’t have enough confidence to lead at their level. The boss I worked in Tsirang at the start couldn’t decide because he had no faith in his decisions.

They’re arrogant, assuming they always know what’s best. It takes confidence to lead. It also takes humility. Many leaders think they’re confident when they’re really just pigheaded and proud.

They’re disorganized. I’ve worked with some hard-driving, capable leaders who hamstrung themselves by never getting organized. I had one leader like this, who ran after ladies and bother little about school. The first thing I would do if I were boss fired him.

They over-promise and under-deliver. This one affects more than just politicians. People leading up in an organization often do this because they are trying to impress those above them, failing to realize that by under-delivering they are shooting themselves in the foot. And people at the top fall into the trap by overusing promises as a way to ensure team loyalty. I see most leaders in Bhutan are like that – sycophancy.

They don’t articulate a clear vision. No one wants to follow in the dark. It’s impossible to motivate people who feel in a fog.

They don’t enroll others in their initiatives. Some leaders just expect people will follow them just because of their position. Wrong. If a leader can’t enroll others, failure looms.

They don’t hold people accountable—especially themselves. If a leader avoids responsibility and won’t hold their team accountable, they’ll shipwreck the organization. Accountability is essential.

Nobody is born with any given skill, we learn through observation and by copying others (our role-models). You might get some valuable info from reading books on this subject, but I remember an old saying, scribbled on the cover of a book I read in my teens: “Life is not learned from books, but by living it.”

While meeting great leaders has always been a wonderful experience, it is the bad ones that really enforce the true values of leadership. I’ve been lucky in this sense, as I got the chance to meet some of the worst leaders you can possibly imagine. Leaders who fail to keep up risk being clueless, close-minded, and arrogant. A lack of knowledge leads to indecision and fear and can cause employees to quickly lose trust in their leader.