Celebrations

Everything on campus stopped for the week before the Rabney. Classes were completely suspended, bookshelves and couches were moved out of the library so it could be turned into a dining hall for the royal family, copy machines and garbage cans were removed from the hallways where the royals would pass, and no one was in their offices because they were all out doing last minute touch up to the campus.

The rain continued pretty much non-stop the whole week before hand, and the day before the Rabney saw torrents of rain flowing over all of the meticulous preparations and decorations. The day of, everyone was very nervous about whether the rain would stop long enough for the royal procession, the ceremonies, the entertainment, the lunch, the celebration of the campus.

 

But the night before the big celebration was the start of the cleansing ceremony. It began with many monks performing rituals in the altar room, which is the top floor of the utse, the main tower on campus. Afterwards they came down, some in masks and costumes, with drums and horns, and sticks of fire, and processed through the area around the utse, throwing fire “dust”. They then went into each of the buildings, dancing and chanting and spreading smoke and rocks (that I think had been blessed) through the halls and into each room that was open. We had left our room open, and came back later to find several rocks on the floor – I even found a rock in one of my shoes a few days later - I thought that was a good omen.

 

I hadn’t really understood how important this cleansing ceremony was. When the construction first began some years ago, there had been a ceremony then to move the spirits off of the land so that the construction could take place unimpeded. What was explained to me is that once a building is finished, the spirits will move in, thinking that it was built for them, and a cleansing ceremony is needed so that they know this is not their home and they need to move on. So some people were very excited for the Rabney to take place because they had been worried about living and working in buildings that had not yet been cleansed of spirits that didn’t belong. In fact, people in town were surprised when I told them that the campus hadn’t been consecrated yet, before the community moved into it, because it's not good to occupy a new house or building without cleansing it. 

 

So, for that and many other reasons, it was a relief to have the Rabney finally happen. 

The king father, His Royal Highness the Fourth King, rarely makes public appearances, so everyone was very excited that morning that he was going to be there. We caught a few glimpses of the flow of VVIPs and royals into the campus, making their way up the newly-paved road, lined with flags and banners.

 

The pageantry that heralded the entrance of the two kings onto campus, into the courtyard where everyone was gathered, was absolutely astonishing. I’ve never seen anything like it. All of the guests were lined around the edges of the amphitheater that in normal times is the center of the academic block, bordered on one side by the Hall of Reflection where a painting of the Buddha of Compassion takes up one huge wall, and the academic buildings on the other three. We stood for quite a while waiting, until finally, through the doorway to the Hall, came a parade of probably hundreds, many of them monks, dressed in costumes, wearing masks, blowing horns, blasting conch shells, hoisting flags, banging drums, singing, chanting, dancing, parading, gesturing, it went on and on. Deities, dignitaries, the country’s most important people, campus leaders, all accompanied by eerie-sounding horns and voices and drums - the procession seemed to never end. And finally came… two men. Dressed in lovely but unremarkable ghos, each walking on two feet, wearing yellow kabneys (sashes), the color of the king, which was how I knew they were the king and his father. I don’t know what I was expecting, but no crowns, no robes, no spun gold. Just, mortals. They climbed steps, sat down on (very ornate) chairs, drank tea. Just like the rest of us.

We were not allowed to take photos when the royal family was on campus, so I borrowed these next few from the JSW Facebook page. 

 

The King and King Father making their way up through the courtyard

The King Father the Fourth King, and his daughter Her Royal Highness, president of the law school

Somehow the chillups got caught in one of the photos :)

The kings are adored throughout the country. The king father in particular is revered at the law school, which is named after him, because it was his initiative to remove absolute power from the monarchy in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and he abdicated the throne that he had held since the age of 16 so that his son, the Fifth King, could follow through on the process of democratization. We were told repeatedly by people on campus that when the king comes to something, it never rains. In fact, the rain did slow to a drizzle during the time when the kings were on campus and activities were taking place – but I don’t know if that counts.

When we met with the princess, Her Royal Highness, last month, she told us a funny story about her father. He apparently spends a lot of time bicycle riding since he abdicated the throne – probably he couldn’t do that much during his years as king. Before the law school moved to its current campus, it was housed temporarily at a rented resort in the hills outside of the capital city, Thimphu. One day the king father was riding his bike through the hills around Thimphu and came across the campus, which he didn’t know was there. So he stopped to see the school. The guards at the gate, seeing this guy in bicycle garb and helmet, probably sweaty, didn’t recognize him and refused to let him in. It took a while to get it sorted out that he was, in fact, the former king, and just wanted to visit his daughter’s law school. Like any other parent who wants to see what their child is up to.

Preparing for the royalty to visit the campus meant that everything had to be perfect. Repainting rails and walls (unfortunately in the rain, so that the paint and varnish washed right off), sweeping roads of all semblance of dirt, razing worksheds so there would be no sign of imperfections. And apparently that also meant getting rid of the dogs. 

The campus has had several packs of dogs that live around the area. We had gotten to know many of them, as we would see them on our walks around campus and up the mountain, and they would sometimes hang out on the top of the hill under our windows. There was the red dog, very beautiful coppery color; the one with the injured front paw who we watched getting better and more and more able to walk; the black-and-white dog that stood out because there aren’t too many with markings like that; the large yellow one that had a few times been a little aggressive towards Jay but then never bothered us again; and all the others.

The day before the Rabney, a notice went out that we should inform staff if we saw dogs anywhere because they were being rounded up. As if. Huh, I would have hidden them if I could. Later a photo went out of two staff people carrying a dog in a net, along with a declaration that 16 dogs had been captured and relocated to a pound somewhere in Paro. I don’t know how badly broken up the dogs’ tribe was, or what happened to them after they got taken to the pens. I just know that the dogs I have gotten to know are now no longer around – I don’t see dogs on my walks around campus or up the mountain to Pangbisa or trotting past our windows, save for an occasional loner, each of whom looks like they are missing their tribe. I don’t know whether any of the royal family actually requested the dogs to be removed so as not to possibly mar the ceremony, or whether it was just that the school administration believed that that would be what they wanted. But the obsession with pleasing the royals seems to cause people to do things, like cleansing stray animals, which are inconsistent with what might be expected from a society framed around Buddhist tenets - and caring for all sentient beings is one of Buddhism's most basic underpinnings. 

 

Five days after the consecration came the graduation ceremony for the class that finished in the spring. Last year, which was the school’s first graduation, was a very big deal – the king came to that, along with the princess and other dignitaries. This year, it was the second graduating class, but since there had just been the ginormous celebration of the Rabney with all the royals, this time only the princess came, because she is the president of the school, along with the Chief Justice of the country. It actually was not clear who in fact was the honored guest. Because there had been so much focus on the consecration, no one really knew much about what was happening on graduation day. But it had been planned to follow up to the Rabney because the campus would not have to be cleaned and decorated a second time, and people who had come from out of the country for the consecration could attend graduation also. So it made sense, but everyone was quite tired.

 

But the graduation was so much fun, because it was a celebration of, and for, the students. The graduates and their families were front and center.

 

And it was sunny for them. 

I was in awe of the amazing clothing, especially the women's kiras

With some of our favorite students 

 

We have such admiration and hopes for the students who are coming out of this school. For us, it was a thrill to be able to celebrate them. 

But the current students are now struggling to make up for all of the time that was lost to the weeks of preparation and celebration. And the rhythm of the semester is lost, with everyone scrambling to get back on track, rescheduling classes, doubling up on time spent in class, trying to make up assignments and drag themselves to the end of the semester. It's a conundrum as to how this institution is trying to offer a premier level education while disrupting everything for so long for a celebration, albeit an important one.

And this is a bit of a window into how things function here, and what is deemed to be most important. 

The challenge to actually embedding the rule of law in Bhutan is getting people to acknowledge that the monarchy is not omnipotent and that rules will apply to everyone, no matter their connection to the royal family. Or to the king himself. We are facing that ourselves in our own country, whether a president (or former one) is subject to the rules of the law. But the struggle in the US is robust, and at the moment very real. Here, that reality is in its infancy. 

 

The longer we are here the more we understand about what is or is not possible.