Puja

Yesterday I was invited to the annual puja (a religious gathering) of the family that owns the house I live in. I've attended a few puja's since being here but I've never taken many pictures or really written about them. So I tried to take pictures of all the food - and there is a lot of food - the praying and the dancing. 

When we first arrived around 3:00 pm we were served suja and accompanying tea snacks. Suja is butter tea - butter, salt, and tea churned together. I really don't enjoy it but drink it when served at gatherings like this. Except for the popcorn ,the snacks are very standard for Bhutan: puffed rice, wheat things, and flattened maize kernels. 

This is a picture of my suja and a dish that is made from rice with boiled egg, oil, chili powder, and coriander.

After the rice dish I was given chunkay. This alcoholic dish is rice fermented with yeast with added bits of boiled egg. 

When families have pujas they request monks and lamas from local monasteries. The monks arrive the day before and prepare the family's alter room. The monks create the statues made of flour, water, and rice and paint them with water colors. All families have alter rooms in their houses but during pujas they give offerings of fruit, veggies, and junk food seen just behind the butter lamps. After the ceremony, it is believed that the food is blessed and that eating the food will bring blessings and long life. 

Across from the alter, the monks and lamas spend the entire day chanting in order to appease the local deities and drive away the demons.

And then there's this - my attempt to take a video but also not be annoying with my camera. So we have the view from my camera sitting on my lap as I scan the room. 

Along with the food, other items are blessed such as arra- the homemade alcohol. After it is blessed it is, naturally, served out of a human skull to insure blessings and long life.

I've told two people about the human skull and they had a LOT of questions. So to explain further - Bhutanese cremate their dead. After the cremation they go through the bones and look for skulls and thigh bones that are still intact. They use the thigh bones to make horns that the monks use to make music during ceremonies and the skulls are cut, painted, and turned into proper bowls. 

There are lots of preparations done for pujas. Sometimes people have to sacrifice their time, their money, and their cows. It makes you wonder if the white cow has any idea that she is resting under her friend's, or more likely family member's, bloody skin. 

The spread - rice along with many different versions of the unlucky cow who was alive just a few days before.

And the stove that it was all cooked on. 

And finally, while we may enjoy sweet deserts after dinner no Bhutanese meal would be complete without Doma - the beetle nut that give some of the Bhutanese their distinct red mouths. 

After dinner there were a few hours of traditional dancing. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the dancing which makes my mission to take pictures of the whole night feel unfulfilled.

While driving home after the puja around 9:00pm, it struck me how familiar this all feels. Not to say that it feels normal, because believe me I don't feel normal drinking out of human skulls or watching cow skin dry, but it feels familiar. And part of that is due to how welcoming everyone in Bhutan is, especially the family that owns my house. In a way, it was a little Thanksgiving celebration for me as it came the day before Thanksgiving - not that anyone in my village knows what Thanksgiving is.

Autumn

Things have been changing a lot for me. The last time that I posted was just after my parents visited. That was only a month ago but I was in a very different place then. School was still in full swing and the everyday routine carried us along until the king's birthday neared. After the three-day celebration in honor of the king's 60th birthday, exam prep started and everyone became focused on the end of the school year. 

Another way in which things are changing is my mindset. In the last few weeks I have purchased all of my plane and train tickets for my slow journey home in January. I don't leave Bhutan for five weeks and I don't reach home for two and a half months but planning my traveling has created an entirely different mindset for me. Now everything I do is done through the filter that I'm leaving soon and have to make the most of it. Of course in many ways this whole year has been that way, but now more so than ever. 

Bhutan is always beautiful, and as the seasons have changed I've grown to appreciate all of them. But now that we are making a full circle back to winter, I think I can say that autumn is by far the most beautiful in my eyes. The rice turns a golden brown and the rivers go back to being clear bright blue. Watching the rice as it was planted, transplanted, grown, harvested, and finally sucked has been fascinating. 

Rice fields in the village above my school. 

Sunday picnics by the river with Sebastian and Holly. 

The paddies are cut down, laid to dry, shaken to separate the rice, and then the stalks are put in haystacks. 

This view from a small monastery in the forest is called Jiligong - or Cat Place. 

All 500some people in my school made their way down to the village Lhakang where the Thromdre was hanging during the first day of birthday celebrations in honor of the king. 

The Thromdre - a hand-sewed silk tapestry only displayed on special occasions. 

In other news, here is a tidbit about school and academics for anyone interested in the school system of Bhutan, especially any potential BCF teachers. These are things that I did not know to expect when coming to Bhutan and it might help mentally prepare anyone thinking of teaching here. 

Everyone at every grade level takes district-written exams in Punakha. The exams, which teachers do not see before the students take them, range between one and a half to three hours long. The idea behind the district mandated exams is that it makes grades fair and equal across the district. But the curriculum standards for the students, in my opinion, are way too high and not having access to the test worries me. 

Coping for classwork and homework is a common practice here and is not yet regarded the same way that it is in the U.S. I can see that a year of relying on others for answers has left many students feeling very alone on their exams. During this year I tried to crack down on the coping habits in my class which resulted in some students not doing the work at all - one of the many ways that trying to implement "western" school standards felt like fighting an uphill battle. 

I've reflected a lot recently on academics because the time in nearing when I will have to submit my first set of grades for an academic year. And, likewise, will have to fail students for the first time. Students need to achieve 40 marks out of 100 for the year in order to pass. This is strikingly less than the 60% required in the U.S. but even so, a number of my class 4 students will have to repeat.