After a 5am ride up to Dochu La this morning, I was energised for a day of religion. OK. There’s very little connection there, but I did feel like heading into a bookstore for a look at some books on Bhuddism. I chose a couple of titles to help me overcome guilt at having lived in Bhutan for almost 18 months and still having little idea what it’s all about. The first book is called ‘The Wisdom of Bhudda’ which seems to be a basic grounding in who the Bhudda was and the ideas he presents as the path to enlightenment. I’ll need this to be ready for the next step.
The second book is called ‘Ritual and Devotion in Bhuddism’ and is the main cultural reason I’m interested. The main discussion point I got shushed for the other night was on Bhuddism. David, a volunteer on a tourist length assignment, asked us if any of us felt we were becoming more Bhuddist because of our time here and I claimed the opposite. Before I arrived, I respected Bhuddism as being the least religious of all religions. I thought it was more of a philosophy than a religion and that intrigued me. But in Bhutan it seems to be a set of superstitions. Old people spend their day chanting and spinning prayer wheels. The population, whether they believe it or not, are bound by the astrological predictions of the monk body. And every few weeks someone in the neighbourhood has a puja ceremony to purify the land, the house or the year.
I’m told that all these rituals have a deeper significance than I can see with my western mind, just as I misinterpret Bhuddists when they speak of the gods. Perhaps this book will help me bridge that gap.