It’s taken a few days to get up the courage to write this as it’s not a view I want people to have of Bhutan, but it’s real. One of my old students, who now works for Marie, has a brother in intensive care. Marie went to see him the other day and just made it out without fainting, but that has as much to do with the hospital conditions as the patient’s condition. He’d gone to play pool in town in the early evening and the police found him in the street at 11pm with his head bashed in with what might have been a cricket bat. They took him to the hospital where he’s been in a coma since.
Bhutan is meant to be a country full of friendly, compassionate people devoted to Buddhism. It is, though I don’t think most people understand Buddhism much better than me. But there are regular reports of this kind of violence – in fact there were 6 patients in similar condition (not necessarily all from beatings) in the same critical care room. I see two big questions. Does it happen more here than in other countries? And is this new since Bhutan opened up, created money and started receiving TV and internet?
In my mind, it happens more here than elsewhere on a per capita basis, but I think it’s an illusion. It’s probably just because it’s a small community so we hear about these incidents more than we would in other countries. As to it being new, I doubt there’s a clear answer. RENEW is seeing more cases of domestic violence all the time, but they believe that the victims are more likely to come forward now and the same might be true for the lesser cases of street violence. There is also undoubtedly a new element caused by the materialist motives that are finding there way in from the outside world.
Japan managed the transition from fuedal to industrial society without losing too many of their values or heavy crime, but they destroyed much of their nature in the rush. Bhutan is trying to do the same in a shorter time and it will be interesting to see how well they manage it.