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Bhutan
- Ethnic Groups & People |
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Bhutan's People |
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Bhutan Information |
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Bhutanese
Beliefs
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Book
Review: Karma Pedey, Ta She Gha Chha: The Broken Saddle and Other Popular
Bhutanese Beliefs, DSB Publication, pp 152, Nu. 245
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| All
expectant mothers, beware of who touches your new born first since that
person's temperament and nature will influence the baby's. If your cat
keeps wiping its face with its paw, you can very well expect guests. And,
if a tooth of yours comes off in your dream, be warned of serious illness.
This
is what the Bhutanese have always believed and has been documented in Ta
She Ga Chha: The Broken Saddle and Other Popular Bhutanese Beliefs, the
latest book in the market.
Compiled
by Karma Pedey, a lecturer in English at the National Institute of Education,
Paro, the book contains some of the most popular beliefs of the Bhutanese
society. |
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All
societies are fraught with ancient, time-honoured beliefs and so is Bhutanese
society. Take for example, who hasn't heard this, that if a crow crows
on your rooftop it portends the news of death of someone you know.
"Popular
beliefs form an enduring set of beliefs around objects and situations demanding
an individual to respond in some preferential manners, attitudes and approaches,"
says Karma Pedey in her introduction.
Beliefs
are universal. Books like Dracula by Bram Stoker and films like The Brotherhood
of the Wolves and The House of the Spirits are based on popular community
beliefs. Even Sir James Frazer's seminal work The Golden Bough also has
a chapter dedicated to magic, charm, taboos and beliefs.
In
his foreword to Ta She Gha Chha, the director the Center for Educational
Research and Development, T S Powdyel, says that "the invention and fostering
of beliefs may be among the most intelligent ways found by the human race
to explain and sanction, confirm and contest, excuse or accuse the consequences
of their own actions and the happenings in the universe around them".
Karma
Pedey's book, compiled over three years, draws from the rich oral reservoir
of popular beliefs of the collective consciousness of the Bhutanese. The
chapters are categorised under broad themes.
Ta
She Ga Chha would make a good reading for both young and old, and especially
school children who are more and more subjected to the impulses of rationality,
skepticism and cynicism by the day.
Meanwhile,
next time a bee hovers over your head better don't get irritated and chase
it away. It is just doing its duty: intimating some good news about your
loved ones.
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| This
article was contributed by Gopilal Acharya, KUENSEL, Bhutan's national
newspaper |
| Information on Bhutan |
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