News from CCO

• A Letter from Canada

  Sir, It has been 13 days since I left Bhutan, where I had lived and worked for two months as a student intern at NRTl, Lobesa. I'd made new friends during that time; I'd picked up new mannerisms and gained new insights into life. Now, as I sit in a tiny bedroom in a guesthouse in Bangkok, I cannot help but wonder how permanent these changes are. That Bhutan has changed me, I have no doubt. Strangers react differently to me in the street, as if they can sense I am no longer new to Asia. The Thai heat no longer oppresses me as it once did, and the constant din of noise outside my window no longer wakes me (any sensitivity to noise pollution having been trained out of me by the dogs of Thimphu). I weigh 20 pounds less. I've become accustomed to eating rice morning, noon and night, and the thought of eating more western foods - pizza and hot dogs, say - repulses me. My physical boundaries -the strengths and weaknesses that define me - have been altered. So too have I been altered psychologically. Being privy to the extreme selflessness and hospitality of the Bhutanese has instilled in me a desire to treat others likewise: to be more friendly, more polite and more accommodating. To be fair, Canadians are typically a polite bunch; just in a more private way. We are pleasant with strangers and neighbourly towards guests, but not to such a self-sacrificing degree as I saw in Lobesa. People gave us their time, their food, their work and their emotional investment without a second thought; they were accepting in ways I'm not sure I would have the patience to be. I can only hope I've developed the civility and altruism to share with others the kindness given me by my hosts at NRTl. The ever-present religiosity of Bhutan has had a similarly transformational impact on me. It has been an eye-opening experience, living in a country where religion plays such a prominent role in daily life: choetens, stupas, prayer wheels and monks are all common sights. I had the opportunity to visit lhakangs and monasteries, and prayed at Buddhist shrines all over the southwest districts of Bhutan. I participated in a number of hikes and camping trips, during which I were able to enjoy the solitude and natural beauty of Bhutan: ideal settings for quiet reflection and study. Perhaps the most striking feature of Bhutan's spiritual landscape was not the places, but the people: spirituality is accepted, fostered and respected in Bhutan, in ways that it is simply not in Canada. Bhutan's is a culture where religion is a part of life, and matters that some might call "superstitious" or "spiritually intangible" are not met with the same amount of cynicism as they would be in Canada. In reaction to this, I have taken to exploring religious texts with a greater sense of respect and a lesser sense of scepticism. Thanks to my visit to Bhutan, I have become more aware of my own culture and the trappings of my own country. A fish, as the saying goes, doesn't know he lives in water. I was aware Canada was a secular society; I knew it was individualistic and materialistic and democratic, but I didn't realize what impact these had on the nation as a whole (or me as an individual) until I saw how a communal, spiritual and monarchic social structure worked. Now that I've seen both sides, I hope to be able to bring some of Bhutan home to Canada the same way I brought some of Canada over to Bhutan. Christopher Colwell

  
  
  

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  Canadian Cooperation Office
  P.O. Box 201, Thimphu:
  PABX :00-975-2-322109,IELTS 00975-2-332615,
  Fax 00975-2-332614
  Email: canada@druknet.bt, cco@druknet.bt
  last update: 14 June 2004