Bhutan Pavilion

Update 8/21/08

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Folklife Festival page

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I am devoting this weekend to the Bhutan pavilion at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which runs through next week. Kunzang Choden said that Bhutanese people were formerly shy but now they are proud. I would argue that they are still shy. A yak herder at the pavilion was asked to do his traditional dance, and he sang very quietly (almost inaudible) while taking baby steps. I also got to see a traditional "black hat dance", a dancing meditation comparable to whirling dervishes-- but the monk was so shy at performing before a foreign audience he only danced for 10 seconds.

They also were unaccustomed to our expectations of entertainment which I found comfortingly realistic. For example, a little monastery was set up where monks chanted 10 hours a day. Inside, you could see the monks were pretty worn out by the heat and were fanning themselves and taking breaks from chanting by drinking lemonade. It was likely disillusioning to some tourists. But the paintings on the wall were fantastic! I asked a monk if they were handmade and he didn't seem to understand-- he said they were normal monastery decorations. Eventually he told me they were handmade, but insisted it was nothing special. I have pictures but I can't upload them right now.

There were some characters, who deserve shout outs. Mainly, an old grandpa playing the announcer for the yak herder, who was completely unfunny (he made jokes about shooting the President... golf clap) but had such confidence and extroversion that he made everyone laugh anyway just by making it sound like he was telling the world's best joke ("MAYBE... the FBI come question us! HA! 'WHO FIRE THAT GUN? WHO FIRE?'"). I'm sure he was an expert Bhutanese standup comedian.

A demonstration of Bhutanese food and hospitality was made. The former cultural minister of Bhutan came to the food pavilion and sat down in front of the bowls like one normally entering a house. They prepared food for him like they were sharing a meal with a visitor. Then a real visitor came-- a young man wearing a devil mask with a wool pigtail, who clearly was uninvited and was leaning on the woman making the food. It was very funny because the announcer had just explained that all guests in Bhutan are "uninvited" but they just drop by whenever. It seems the Bhutanese saw the fireplace and food and decided it would be only proper to drop by. Then the old grandpa came by too, completely interrupting the announcer with his loud voice and demanded he have some food as well. "Oh, these people do VERY GOOD! Give them a hand! [applause] First time in the world that people are given a hand for EATING! HA!" The grandpa was handed a microphone. "I don't need this! I am PLENTY LOUD! All you can hear me, right?" He was completely right, he was the only Bhutanese who did not need a microphone at all, even at the crowded pavilion. He then pointed out that there was no silverware or chopsticks in Bhutan, but soup and rice were eaten with your hands. He explained his tricky habit of drinking the soup from the bowl first. "That way, if your host finishes and sends you off... you wait for him to turn around, and dump your bowl in your robe, and you will hurry out the door with the food! But if you don't drink your soup first... you will dump your bowl in your robe... and spoil your robe!" (He told this much more engagingly than I relay it here, and many people were in tears from laughing even though it was very barely a joke.)

I also met a college friend and asked her to watch Wall-E with me. She wanted to see an Australian movie called Outback instead, which turned out to be a piece of crap. Well, there's always tomorrow.