Bhutan as an independent nation is little known by the outside world. Sri
Lanka as a Buddhist island is rarely known by the Bhutanese.
For the few Bhutanese who traveled and for the few
Sri Lankan who by chance came to know about Bhutan, an agreement was reached
to allow our children to study medicine in three universities here in Lanka. It
was back then, when Bhutan was beginning to face crunches of doctor shortage.
Back then, they sent one or two students here to
study. And those few took awfully seven long years to come back and begin to
serve as GDMOs in various corners of the Himalayan kingdom.
Bhutan hardly has any trade or economic links with Sri
Lanka, except the diplomatic ties as SAARC-sisters though Bhutanese children
are taught about many worldly countries in their school curriculum of World
Geography. We were required to draw sheets of maps of those countries,
including Sri Lanka and submit the assignment. Of course, cleverer students
knew the capital of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, was Colombo.
I came to know Sri Lanka was a Buddhist state at the
16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu, when the president ended his keynote
speech by saying, “may the triple gem bless you.” Only then did I know how
oblivious I was about the rich repository of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, mostly
well-preserved intact in its ancient forms.
Not much to the knowledge of many, there have been a
number of Bhutanese who have traveled to Sri Lanka and studied Buddhism. The people
here are far religious and devoted for every full-moon day of the lunar month,
called as a poya, are a public and mercantile
holiday. Each poya day is observed by
making a visit, wearing white symbolizing purity, to temples, very much the
same throughout the island, where they offer flowers to the statues of Lord Buddha.
They do not offer money to the altar but do offer oil lamps very much the same
as the oil lamps used by the Lhotshampa’s during the diwali festivals. It must have been cultural influence common to
practices in South Asia.
This is only one part of conduct that shows veneration
to the Buddhist philosophy in Sri Lanka. And we the Bhutanese on the other
hand, are blessed with so many temples and monasteries near and far all across
the country. When people here in Sri Lanka ask, “How many temples do you have
in Bhutan,” I take pride in saying every mountaintop and every valley has a
monastery and a stupa. This is very much a part of our culture that needs its
value redeemed and significance upheld.
The temples here often broadcast the hymns and songs
loud and wide through speakers much similar the broadcast from nearby mosques,
most of them from recorded cassettes for monks can be rarely seen in towns. Known
as bikhu, monks reside in temples
faraway from town centres and study and learn very much like our gelongs. There is a distinct difference
in the uniform they wear. I am not here to lay out the technical differences between
these monks but it is always a heartening scene, often frequently seen, where
people provide due respect and honour to them. For instance, if you are
travelling in a public bus seated in the first two seats behind the driver, and
if a monk comes in, you must vacate and offer the seat to the monks. Accordingly,
even I and my friend offered the seats to the monks while we were returning
after a community visit. Similarly, women never associate or sit beside monks. This
may be a form of discrimination against women, some may argue, but for those
who understand the Sri Lankan culture, it is a mere form of respect for the
monks.
