The last afternoon in Kagtong -the day after the exhibition and celebration of local culture at the Kagtong Community Primary School- Sangay Nima, the student photographer of class 6 and her younger sister were inviting me and three other people (the LCD project manager, his son and a teacher of the school) to a tea in her traditional house. It is situated about 30 min walk away from school and lies a bit above on a wonderful spot surrounded by an orange orchard, maize fields, and the beautiful mountains of Lower Kheng.
Sangay told us that her mother was still busy working in the rice field; so she made fire by herself and prepared tea for all of us. While the water was heating over the fire, Sangay went outside twice: first time she brought a bangchung (woven basket) full with hazelnuts and second time she brought freshly picked oranges and a cucumber from the garden.
I was surprised and delighted to see with what social competence and naturalness Sangay was serving her guests. Later -as it already was getting dark outside- her mother was coming back from the field. In the meantime -beside serving us- Sangay had already prepared rice for her family's dinner.
Filled with gratefulness we said goodbye to Sangay and her family and left to reach back to the village before it was getting all dark.
Celebrating "Local Culture Day" at the Kagtong Community Primary School in Lower Kheng, 11. Nov. 2012 (4th King's Birthday)
About 300 people from Kagtong and surrounding villages came to see and enjoy -together with all students and teachers- a day of celebration of THEIR local culture at the Kagtong Community Primary School in Lower Kheng, Zhemgang.
The event was organised and funded by the "Leveraging and Preserving Bhutan's Cultural Diversity" (LCD) Project implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Bhutan with funding by the European Union. The LCD project has been active in Ngalatrong -as well as in three other regions and communities in the country- since 2010.
I conducted the Participatory Photo Documentation project at the school in 2011 and 2012, teaching the students about digital photography to explore and document the treasures of their local culture and traditional knowledge. A well received exhibition at the Tarayana Centre in May 2011 was showcasing "Life in Ngangla Through The Children's Eyes" to an interested urban public.
Now it were the people of Ngala Gewog themselves who came together to showcase and celebrate their local culture.
The architecture of traditional houses, various usage of different plants, a variety of religious rituals and celebrations, many stories and legends from the area, local songs and dances, all kind of handcrafted items and many more fascinating aspects of traditional knowledge and local culture were the subject of this special event. The exhibition showed -beside many handmade objects- around 250 photos mainly taken by the students of class 5 and 6. The students and teachers have also collected rich information about traditional rural life within the community and among the experts of the village. This information was now displayed to the public on well designed posters with informative texts and pictures.
The exhibition was visitied by Dasho Dzongda, the community members, and all students and teachers. All visitors were very excited and happy to get such a vast overview and lively and detailed insight into their fascinating local culture and rich traditional knowledge.
An impressive number of different dances and songs performed by the students and the villagers and a good tasty meal for all visitors contributed to the success of the day.
On the auspicious occasion of the first anniversary of the Royal Wedding in Bhutan (on October 13, 2012) the inaugural issue of "The Raven", a new monthly magazine was published.
Beginning of September I was asked if I could contribute a photo essay with accompanying text to the new publication and am now happy to see how my article "Kheng Colours - Students in the remote village of Kagtong explore and document life and culture in their village using modern digital Photography" became part of it.
You can download a pdf-version of the article when you click on the link below...
Download of the photo essay in The Raven magazine (Oct 2012) by Markus Wild
I'm happy to announce that the "HELVETAS' Taschenagenda 2013" (in German and French), respectively "New Internationalist's People Diary 2013" (in English) are on sale now. All the 25 photo portraits included are taken by me in Bhutan and Sikkim.
"The 2013 People Diary fits easily into your pocket or bag and has a soft, recycled leather cover and chunky feel. Durable and portable, this diary features attractive recycled leather binding, printed on recycled paper, colourful double-page spreads of high quality photo portraits of people from across the world and space for appointments, journals and note-keeping."
From the website of New Internationalist where you also can order the english version.
Alternatively you can also order it from Amazon.de
Helvetas Taschenagenda 2013
"Das Buch kann als einfache Taschenagenda, aber vor allem auch als persönliches Tagebuch oder für Reisenotizen benutzt werden. Wiederum mit 25 einmaligen farbigen Porträtphotos, in schwarzes rezykliertes Leder gebunden, ohne Spiralbindung, 9,5 x 15 cm, deutsch/französisch."
Auszug aus der HELVETAS Fair Trade Shop-Website wo eine zweisprachige Edition (deutsch-französisch) bestellt werden kann.
In this blog I would like to share some of the experiences that I get while living, working and travelling in between Bhutan and Switzerland.
Since 2005 when I came for the first time to Bhutan I have been fascinated by many things: the rich natural and cultural diversity of the country, its authenticity and uniqueness, the warmth and humbleness of the people, the situation of the country being in between age-old traditions and very modern developments.
Since 2010 I have been working as a culture and education specialist and photographer for HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Bhutan in a project on "Preserving and Leveraging Bhutan's Unique Cultural Diversity"; within this project I have been conducting a participatory photo documentation in four remote communities in Bhutan.
Beside my engagement in Bhutan I am also working as a teacher for Visual Arts in Switzerland.
I am grateful for any comments and feedback. :-)