Beyond The Sky And The Earth Part 5

For a moment, I think Mrs. Joy has got to him, but no-the good news is that the King is coming to Pema Gatshel! He will be here today! This very afternoon!

"Really?" I ask, painting Yeshey Dorji's infected chin with gentian violet. "Will he come to the school? Will we get to meet him?"

Mr. Iyya a.s.sures me that he will, and we will. He has met the King before, he says. The King is knowing Mr. Iyya very well, yes very well. He stops abruptly, looking stricken. "What is it, Mr. Iyya?" I ask. He says he must write a poem for the visit of His Majesty to our humble valley. "An epic poem!" he exclaims. "In the style of Homer!"

He'd better get moving, I think to myself, if he's going to finish it by this afternoon.

The headmaster comes in. Yes, he says, the King is on tour and will come to Pema Gatshel, no one knows for sure when, but cla.s.ses are canceled in order to prepare.

From the cla.s.s VIII history book, which I have been reading during library duty, I know that the King, Jigme Singye w.a.n.gchuck, a.s.sumed the throne upon the death of his father in 1972. He was seventeen, the youngest ruling monarch in the world. Throughout his reign, he has made frequent tours of the country to explain government policy and discuss development plans, and is by all accounts a well-loved ruler.

The history of Bhutan before the monarchy is extremely difficult to follow. Before the 1600s, there was no central authority in Bhutan. Each valley was ruled by its own king or clan leader. In 1616, Ngaw.a.n.g Namgyel, a Tibetan abbot, was engaged in a serious clerical dispute in ,his monastery when the protective deity of Bhutan appeared to him in a dream in the form of a raven flying south. The abbot left Tibet and crossed the high Himalayan pa.s.ses into northwestern Bhutan, where he quickly established himself as an extraordinary leader. After defeating various invading Tibetan armies and unifying the valleys of Bhutan under one central administration, Ngaw.a.n.g Namgyel became the supreme ruler of the country, and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Shabdrung, Shabdrung, which means "at whose feet one submits." His legacy is evident everywhere in Bhutan today, from the country's legal code to its many dzongs, fortress-monasteries which represented a combination of political and religious power. which means "at whose feet one submits." His legacy is evident everywhere in Bhutan today, from the country's legal code to its many dzongs, fortress-monasteries which represented a combination of political and religious power.

Before his death, the Shabdrung devised a dual system of government to look after both secular and spiritual affairs. The country's monastic body was governed by an elected leader called the Je Khenpo, Je Khenpo, and administrative and political affairs were managed by a temporal ruler, known as the and administrative and political affairs were managed by a temporal ruler, known as the Desi Desi, with a number of local governors, called penlops, penlops, working under him. The Shabdrung's reincarnations were supposed to be the supreme head of both systems. working under him. The Shabdrung's reincarnations were supposed to be the supreme head of both systems.

Over the years, however, this system floundered. The penlops became all-powerful, appointing and dismissing Desis and Je Khenpos as they wished, and political rivalries led to great internal instability. The history book lists a series of conflicts, ranging from court intrigue (one of the most interesting cases involved a smallpox-infested silk gho sent as a present to a political rival), dzong-burnings and kidnappings (especially of wives), to multiple a.s.sa.s.sinations and outright civil war. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, one person, Ugyen w.a.n.gchuck, the Tongsa Penlop, emerged out of this turmoil as a powerful figure, bringing the penlops under his increasingly centralized authority. In 1907, penlops, lamas, and people's representatives gathered at Punakha and voted to establish a hereditary monarchy, electing Ugyen w.a.n.gchuck "Druk Gyalpo," the Precious King of the Dragon People.

Strangely, the Shabdrung's reincarnations disappear from the history text shortly after this without a word of explanation. When I asked Mr. Dorji, the history teacher, about this several weeks ago, he looked uncomfortable for a moment, and then said that the Shabdrung's current incarnation lives in India. "Was he born there?" I asked. Mr. Dorji shook his head. "He was born here, but now ... he lives there." It was clear that I was not going to get any more out of him.

Preparations for the royal visit are exhaustive. I am asked to help Mr. Sharma supervise the cleaning of the yard. Mr. Sharma walks back and forth with a stick, shouting incoherently as the kids converge on the playing field, picking up paper, twigs, leaves, bits of cloth. He comes rus.h.i.+ng over to me. "No. NO!" he says, gesturing for me to drop the litter I have picked up. "They will do it! "

"I'll help them," I tell him. "Then it will get done faster."

This does not go over well with Mr. Sharma. "It sets a bad example," he says.

"Really? I think it demonstrates the dignity of labor."

This offends Mr. Sharma, who says that he is a Brahmin, and this is not his work.

Elsewhere, the straggly flower garden in front of the school is being weeded and lined with stones and the stones themselves are being whitewashed. Some teachers are putting together a wall magazine of students' essays and drawings. Cla.s.srooms and hostels are swept out, water is poured over steps, branches are lopped off trees. The tip-top poet is nowhere to be seen.

Jane appears with a group of selected teachers and students from the other villages of the district for the royal visit. We go to the tea stall for momos and sit there all evening, talking quietly in the candlelight. Jane explains protocol to me: the entire village will line up along the road, and when the royal convoy pa.s.ses, everyone will bow. The Bhutanese are not supposed to look directly at the King, and will keep their eyes lowered in deference. "Can we look at him?" I ask. I have seen pictures: every shop and house has one, draped with a white scarf. He is a handsome man. Jane thinks it is okay to sneak in a few looks.

We order a "peg" each of Bhutanese whiskey and orange squash, a sickeningly sweet syrup, and the combination turns out to be so awful that we have to dilute it with water from the plastic jug on the table.

"Let's just hope the whiskey will kill whatever else is in the water," Jane says. I stare down at my cup: for once, I hadn't thought about germs.

Several drinks later, we hear thunder rumble in the next valley. Jane tells me that Bhutan is called Land of the Thunder Dragon after the Drukpa Kargyue branch of Buddhism practiced here. When the religion was established in the twelfth century, the founder heard the thunder dragon roar, and named his school Druk-dragon. We listen to the dragon approach. It climbs a ridge in the south, the thunder becoming sharper as it gets closer. Suddenly the storm is above us, breaking open, pouring down. Neither of us has an umbrella or a flashlight. "Let's wait it out," I suggest. "The storms here are always over so quickly." We wait and wait and wait, but the dragon stays right here, thunder cracking over our heads, rain roaring on the tin roof. Karma, the woman behind the counter, is falling asleep. We decide to go. Outside, we are soaked instantly. Jane says she is just waiting to step off the mountain and go sliding down to Gypsum. I say I am just waiting for lightning to strike us both dead. We slip in the mud and cling to each other, laughing hysterically. Jane says she is just waiting to see me open that Canadian combination lock in the dark. Somehow I do and we fall into the apartment, s.h.i.+vering, hiccuping, laughing still, and drink hot, weak tea. My skin feels cool and clean when I crawl into bed, and I fall asleep listening to the storm fade into the next valley.

I wake up with nausea and a bloated stomach. A hangover, I think, but when I sit up, I belch and taste rotten eggs. "Jane, are you sick?" I call out.

"What, you mean a hangover?" she calls back.

"No..."

She opens the bedroom door. "You look awful. Does it taste like eggs gone bad?"

"Yes."

"Then it's giardia. Do you feel well enough to get up?"

I do not, but I am not going to miss the King's visit.

I wear a kira purchased from a woman who came to my door last week, a series of brilliantly colored stripes worked in wool on a cotton background. Jane reminds me to bring my raichu, raichu, the narrow, red ceremonial scarf that women wear over their left shoulders when meeting a high-ranking official. Men wear a the narrow, red ceremonial scarf that women wear over their left shoulders when meeting a high-ranking official. Men wear a kabney, kabney, a broad scarf of cream-colored raw silk, draped diagonally across the body. At the school, the students are gathered on the playing field, ghos and kiras neat, hair sleeked back with water, faces s.h.i.+ning. The cla.s.s VIII girls come to adjust our kiras and help us fold our raichus properly. They show us how to bow when the King pa.s.ses. The higher the rank, they explain, the lower the bow. For a Dzongda, you would touch your knee with the fringed end of your raichu or kabney "For our His Majesty, you must touch the ground," they say. This is very important. This is called a broad scarf of cream-colored raw silk, draped diagonally across the body. At the school, the students are gathered on the playing field, ghos and kiras neat, hair sleeked back with water, faces s.h.i.+ning. The cla.s.s VIII girls come to adjust our kiras and help us fold our raichus properly. They show us how to bow when the King pa.s.ses. The higher the rank, they explain, the lower the bow. For a Dzongda, you would touch your knee with the fringed end of your raichu or kabney "For our His Majesty, you must touch the ground," they say. This is very important. This is called driglam namzha. driglam namzha. They bow gracefully. Jane and I need more practice. I hope I do not fall on my face in front of the King. They bow gracefully. Jane and I need more practice. I hope I do not fall on my face in front of the King.

An hour later, we are still standing around outside. Preparations are still not complete, and the headmaster looks grim as he checks the school compound. Then the Dzongda shows up and the activity intensifies. He asks the headmaster why there is no gate. The headmaster says he was told not to make a gate. The Dzongda says of course they have to make a gate! Now! Cla.s.s VIII boys! Hurry! Bamboo poles are brought from somewhere and tied together, and slowly the skeleton of a gate materializes at the entrance of the school. The students bring armloads of pine branches to drape over the frame. The rest of the school is lined up, practicing driglam namzha. I ask Jane what this term means exactly, and she says she doesn't think it can be directly translated. "Some people say etiquette, some people say rules and regulations, or discipline, or law. From what I understand, it's a collection of rules governing behavior and social interaction. How to serve tea to your superiors, how to sit or stand in the presence of royalty, the proper way to wear national dress, that kind of thing." I sit on the school steps, exhausted already, listening to my insides rumbling and heaving; I put my head down on my knees and fall into a thin, unhappy sleep.

When I open my eyes again, teachers are shouting contradictory orders at the students who are rus.h.i.+ng to and fro, colliding into each other in a farcical attempt to obey each new command. All students line up on the playing field! All students return to your hostels! All students a.s.semble in the dining hall! You, cla.s.s VIII girls, bring water and clean these stairs! Cla.s.s VIII girls, stay where you are! Cla.s.s VIII girls, why you are just standing there? Go to the road! Where are you going? Who told you to go to the road? Go to the road, we are walking down to Gypsum!

This last order is reinforced by the Dzongda. Yes, we will go to Gypsum. We will all walk down, everyone, now! I go inside to use the staff toilet, and on my way out, stop to look at the wall magazine. I particularly like a poem by a cla.s.s VIII student describing the temporary beauty of life: Despite all these colorful sceneries, wonders, Nothing remains, No matter the floodgates of our joy.

One board, set apart, contains Mr. Iyya's epic poem. It begins with the sun rising to the zenith of its glory and continues through vales and dales of peace and happiness, with many a rus.h.i.+ng river and gamboling lamb, until it reaches this, our humble valley, where "the King's golden face shone like the purple sun yonder over these eastern hills! O! Bridal Bower of Bliss." I am still laughing weakly when Jane comes to find me, and we set off down the road to Gypsum, arguing over the reference to the bridal bower of bliss. Jane says that Mr. Iyya is making an allusion to the King's marriage last year to four sisters. I say Mr. Iyya is insane and therefore it is best to make no connections between the poem and the external world.

At Gypsum, we are given Gold Spot pop. "No Natural Ingredients!" the bottle proudly proclaims. The fizz settles my stomach. Then a truck pulls up and we are told to get in. We have been called back up to Pema Gatshel. "What on earth," I mutter to Jane.

She laughs. "I don't know! But let's not miss the ride up."

At the school, the gate is being dismantled. I don't even bother to ask why. Someone shouts, and everyone rushes to line up. There is a glint of silver on the road above town-a vehicle! No, it is nothing. After thirty minutes, the lines begin to dissolve, and everyone goes back to milling around in the school yard. At 4:30, we are called again. A vehicle, the pilot jeep, is coming down the road. I stand nervously with Jane, fretting with my raichu, squirming in my kira. The pilot vehicle approaches. We can see several other cars behind it, mostly dark blue landcruisers. Horns and drums sound from the dzong, and I am excited. The pilot car drives by, and suddenly I am looking down and bowing deeply like everyone else. When I straighten up, I see the last of the cars disappearing down the road to Gypsum. And then, after a full day of preparing, putting up and taking down gates and practicing to meet the King, we are sent home.

The next day, we sit in a large tent made out of heavy white canvas with blue lotus flowers painted on the roof. Jane and I are in the second row. The air is hot, heavy, and motionless but I am glad to be sitting down after another full morning of lining up, falling out, milling around, standing about. A man in military dress enters the tent, signaling everyone to rise. The King walks to the front of the tent, followed by an entourage of government officials and bodyguards. He is taller than the average Bhutanese, and as handsome as his pictures, with sculpted cheekbones and a Cupid's-bow mouth; he is wearing a simple checked gho and traditional felt boots. I glance around furtively: everyone's head is bowed. The King takes his seat in front of a low carved table. We sit, and he begins to speak in Dzongkha in a stem, sober voice.

My stomach is still in motion, and I press my hands over it. Please G.o.d do not let me have to get up in the middle of his speech. I look sideways at Jane, who is looking up, so I look up, too. We are caught, staring outright, and lower our eyes again. A great wave of sleepiness settles over me. When I wake up, I am looking at the roof. My head is thrown back and my mouth is open. How long have I been asleep? I am mortified.

Students stand to ask carefully rehea.r.s.ed questions, which the King answers, and then the meeting is over. "Jane," I whisper, "I fell asleep ! "

"I know," she says.

"Did I snore?" I ask.

"Well, not exactly," she says. What the h.e.l.l does that mean? Either I was snoring in front of the King of Bhutan or I was not! There is no time to discuss it. We are served suja and desi, desi, sweet, saffron-colored rice with raisins and bits of cashews, and then the teachers are called outside. sweet, saffron-colored rice with raisins and bits of cashews, and then the teachers are called outside.

The King thanks the staff in English for our work, a.s.suring us that it is of utmost importance because Bhutan's future depends on the education of her children. The Bhutanese teachers look awed, almost rigid with veneration. For the last two days, I have wanted to laugh at the frantic preparations, but now I see this is no laughing matter for the Bhutanese. This is their King. King. I don't even know what that means. Although the monarchy is less than a century old, the culture of obedience, hierarchy and loyalty is much older (take the Shabdrung's name, for example-"at whose feet one submits"). Centuries of history have gone into forming the reverence on the faces of my Bhutanese colleagues. Having been raised in a culture in which authority is always suspect, I am a stranger here where it is still considered sacred. I don't even know what that means. Although the monarchy is less than a century old, the culture of obedience, hierarchy and loyalty is much older (take the Shabdrung's name, for example-"at whose feet one submits"). Centuries of history have gone into forming the reverence on the faces of my Bhutanese colleagues. Having been raised in a culture in which authority is always suspect, I am a stranger here where it is still considered sacred.

On his way out, the King stops in front of Jane and me and shakes our hands. He asks in a kindly voice if everything is all right and if we are enjoying our time in Bhutan. We tell him we are. Then he is gone. We see the convoy of cars winding its way up and out of the Pema Gatshel valley. The King's license plate says BHUTAN.

Back at the school, I find the headmaster and the Dzongkha lopens shaking their heads in dismay. The headmaster explains: "His Majesty asked me if Mr. Iyya understood Dzongkha, and I said no. I didn't know why he was asking. Now Lopen here is telling that Iyya was looking at His Majesty all through the speech! Smiling and nodding through the whole speech as if he understood! "

I do not mention my own serious breach of protocol. "Did His Majesty have time to read Mr. Iyya's poem?" I ask.

The headmaster smacks his hand to his forehead. "I hope not," he says, and we both break into laughter.

Entrance

Just off the headmaster's office is a closet which contains the school's ancient, manual ditto machine. Using it is almost as much trouble as copying everything by hand: the copy fluid leaks, the machine chews the paper and swallows it, the handle jams after every third copy. I tried to operate it myself this morning, and now Dorji w.a.n.gdi is pulling out shreds of wet, inky paper from the machine's jaws. I stand around uselessly in the headmaster's office which contains a desk, a heavy, old, oily typewriter, grey metal filing cabinets, and a globe. I put one finger on Bhutan and another on Lake Superior, amazed at how far away I am from home, half the world away. I have come as far as I can. In fact, if I go any farther, I will be on my way back.

Dorji emerges from the ditto room, hands smudged black. "Sorry, sir," he tells me. "Today no."

"Oh well," I shrug. "What to do?"

I shouldn't have tried to do it myself, but I was feeling particularly able after fixing my leaking roof. Yesterday, I had climbed into the rafters and placed an empty coffee can over every waterstain on the wooden beams. Early this morning, when it began to rain, I sat up in bed, listening with great satisfaction to the sound of water dripping into tin. The day before that, I had taken a few planks and bricks from a pile of building materials behind the school and built a low platform in the bathroom. I wasn't able to fix the drain, but at least I no longer have to stand in dirty water to bathe.

After school, I go up to the market to get my daily half-bottle of milk and a ball of cheese from Tshering, the woman who owns the last shop at the end of the road. The cow, a silent black and white bulk, is tethered to a pole just outside the shop. Today I give it a tentative pat. My kids find my fear of cows extremely funny. "Miss, you is not having cows at your village?" they ask when they see me making feeble shooing motions at cows on the road. "No, I am not having cows at my village," I say crossly. "Shoo! Shoo, cow, shoo! " They come to my rescue, swatting the cow's flank with a stick and hissing "Shhhht!"

The shop smells warmly of gra.s.s and manure and fresh milk. Tshering removes the bamboo covering from the metal bucket and fills my bottle with a hand-carved wooden ladle. Today I have to tell her that I cannot pay her. Once again, my salary has not come. The other teachers line up outside the headmaster's office on the last day of the month to receive their salaries in cash, but now, for the second time the headmaster says that my name is not on the payment list. The Education Department has not received my posting order yet, and the headmaster has no money to pay me. He has sent a message to Thimphu, he says, but it will take some time. I have finished the last of my ngultrum and yesterday went to the Bank of Bhutan (Pema Gatshel Branch) to cash a traveler's check. The sole bank employee in the bare room took the check and studied it, back and front, for a long moment, before shaking his head gravely and handing it back to me. I owe money for milk and cheese, and I need rice, coffee, chilies, soap, kerosene, everything.

"Ama Tshering," I say. Tshering," I say. "Tiru mala." "Tiru mala." No money. No money.

The woman shrugs. "Dikpe, dikpe," "Dikpe, dikpe," she says. she says. "Ome bile." "Ome bile." You can give it later. I go down to Sangay Chhoden's shop, where I tell her mother my story and she nods sympathetically and gives me tea and the same answer. She doesn't even bother to write down the amount I owe her. I walk back home, partly relieved, partly still worried. Even though no one seems particularly alarmed or surprised that I have no money, I feel terrible buying things on credit here. I know that my students think I am immeasurably wealthy. Miss, how many cars your mother is having ? How much money your father is making? You can give it later. I go down to Sangay Chhoden's shop, where I tell her mother my story and she nods sympathetically and gives me tea and the same answer. She doesn't even bother to write down the amount I owe her. I walk back home, partly relieved, partly still worried. Even though no one seems particularly alarmed or surprised that I have no money, I feel terrible buying things on credit here. I know that my students think I am immeasurably wealthy. Miss, how many cars your mother is having ? How much money your father is making? Zai! Yallama! Zai! Yallama! Miss, you is very very rich. I try to explain: in Canada, that is not rich. In Canada, my family is an average family, like your family. But this is an obscene lie. I am appallingly rich in comparison. Miss, you is very very rich. I try to explain: in Canada, that is not rich. In Canada, my family is an average family, like your family. But this is an obscene lie. I am appallingly rich in comparison.

I am also appallingly wasteful. Last weekend, they came to visit while I was cleaning up, and watched anxiously as I piled garbage into a box until Karma Dorji finally burst out, "Miss! You is throwing? " Yes, I said, looking down at the empty beer bottles and sc.r.a.p paper. "Miss, we are taking, okay?" he asked. I said of course they could take it, and remembered the roomful of stuff left behind by the last Canadians. I had not yet figured out how to dispose of the bottles, plastic containers, and tin cans in there. It took me several weeks just to figure out how to take care of my own garbage, after realizing with a shock one morning that no one was going to come along with a truck to clear it away. I had to go through my overflowing bucket and separate what could be burned, what could be composted, what could not be thrown out after all. The more complex and developed a society becomes, I think, the less responsibility individuals have to take for their actions. As long as I could lug my garbage out to the curb two mornings a week in Toronto, what did I care what happened to it. But here, we are made to see the consequences of our consumption.

"Most of it's rubbish," I told the kids, leading them into the room off the kitchen. Except I could see right away it wasn't. The bottles could be stopped with cloth plugs, the empty tins could be measuring cups and plant holders, the lengths of string and wire, the paper, the cardboard boxes, the torn plastic sheeting-all of it was useful, valuable. I felt ashamed, watching them pulling open the boxes excitedly, jubilantly waving a plastic jug with a broken handle, a squashed soccer ball, an empty shampoo bottle. They quarreled over a French-English board game with all its cards and pieces missing. "Miss, you is throwing?" they asked in disbelief. I nodded. What would they do with it? With the squashed soccer ball? They looked so pleased when they left, telling me over and over, "Miss, I am very happy to you," that I wanted to cry.

It occurs to me now that in Sharchhop, the same word is used for both "thrown out" and "lost," and there is no distinction between "to need" and "to desire." If something is thrown out, it is lost to further use, and if you want something here, you probably also need it. When I study my Sharchhop book, I wonder who is richer, who poorer. English has so many words that do not exist in Sharchhop, but they are mostly nouns, mostly things: machine, airplane, wrist.w.a.tch. Sharchhop, on the other hand, reveals a culture of material economy but abundant, intricate familial ties and social relations. People cannot afford to make a distinction between need and desire, but they have separate words for older brother, younger sister, father's brother's sons, mother's sister's daughters. And there are two sets of words: a common set for everyday use and an honorific one to show respect. There are three words for gift: a gift given to a person higher in rank, a gift to someone lower, and a gift between equals.

In the village, few written records are kept, but everyone knows who is related to whom, why that person left the village, what inauspicious signs shone down as they set out, what illnesses and misfortunes befell them after, what offerings were made, what consolation followed. Here the world is still small enough that knowledge is possible without surnames, records, certificates of birth and death. The world is that small, and yet it seems vaster to me, bigger and older and more complex than my world in Canada, where there is an official version of every life and death, and history is lopped and fitted and trimmed into chapters, and we read it once or twice and forget. It is written down; there is no need to remember. There is no need to remember, hence we forget. Whereas here history is told so that it can be remembered, it is remembered because it is told. The Sharchhop word for "history" translates into "to tell the old stories."

Back at home, I collect my two buckets of rainwater from below the eaves. The tap water has been off for two days, but the rain has been plentiful. I am managing. In the evening, I am surprised by the sound of a vehicle outside my window. A white hi-lux has wedged itself in front of the building, and boxes, crates and tins are being unloaded onto the muddy ground. My Australian neighbor, I think, and it is. He knocks on the door later, a man with tufts of greying hair standing on end and a big grin. He introduces himself as Trevor and starts handing things over. He has brought my tin and a note from Sasha, bread from Thimphu, Swiss-made cheese from b.u.mthang, peaches and plums from Tas.h.i.+gang, and letters from home that ended up at the field office. I start to help him cart his luggage up the stairs but he waves me away. "Go read your mail," he says kindly. I tear open the envelopes and read hungrily. Then I put my groceries away, arranging things carefully on the shelves. I feel immensely rich and unaccountably lucky, as if I had just won a lottery.

At my desk, I start a letter to Robert about the difference between arrival and entrance. Arrival is physical and happens all at once. The train pulls in, the plane touches down, you get out of the taxi with all your luggage. You can arrive in a place and never really enter it; you get there, look around, take a few pictures, make a few notes, send postcards home. When you travel like this, you think you know where you are, but, in fact, you have never left home. Entering takes longer. You cross over slowly, in bits and pieces. You begin to despair: will you ever get over? It is like awakening slowly, over a period of weeks. And then one morning, you open your eyes and you are finally here, really and truly here. You are just beginning to know where you are.

I write about all the things I have learned. Mustard oil must be heated until it smokes before you fry anything in it. Climbing a mudslide is easier barefoot. Water has a lower boiling point at high alt.i.tudes. Now I am knowing, as my students would say. All my former knowledge and accomplishments seem useless to me now-all the critical jargon I carry around in my head, tropes and modes and traces, thirteen definitions of irony, the death of the author, the anxiety of influence, there is nothing outside the text. So what? That doesn't help me in the least now. Let Jacques Derrida come here, I think. Let him stay up half the night scratching flea bites and then deconstruct the kerosene stove before breakfast. I have had to learn everything all over again, how to walk without falling headlong into bushes, how to clean rice, how to chop chilies without rubbing my hand in my eye and blinding myself. Eight year olds have had to take care of me. My ignorance amazes me.

Now when I long for the small comforts of my Canadian life, I remind myself that someday I will be home, longing perhaps for the misted view of mountains from my bedroom window, the smell of woodsmoke, a room lit by candlelight, the sound of rain moving into the valley. The rain has stopped, and the clouds are s.h.i.+fting to reveal a sharp, thin crescent moon and one bright star. It's the kind of moon you can climb into, a silver boat, a rocking chair. Robert, I write, I am just beginning to realize where I am.

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Movement Order Early in June, the rains set in, and were so constant that ... there generally fell a shower in some part or other of the twenty-four hours, and the tops of the hills were constantly involved in clouds.

-Samuel Davis in Bhutan, 1783

Rangthangwoong

The start of a three-day holiday, and I have a list of things to do: get rid of the rat in the kitchen without the aid of the trap that so horrified my students (oh miss, they told me, you is killing this rat, then you is coming back as rat for many lifes), fix the screens that let in a thousand flies a day (the same karmic rule applies to killing flies), bake bread using the old pot-in-the-pot-on-the-kerosene-stove method. But then Trevor knocks on my door to say that he is going up to Tas.h.i.+gang for the weekend and do I want to go. I stuff a toothbrush and a clean tee s.h.i.+rt into my jhola and race down the stairs to where the hi-lux is coughing up a cloud of gritty smoke.

Tas.h.i.+gang has grown somehow in two months, I think, as we pull into the center of town between a bus that is disgorging an endless stream of stiff-limbed, dazed pa.s.sengers and a truck loaded with crates. It seemed so small and medieval when we drove through in March. I took no account then of the tarmacked roads, the electricity wires, the number of buildings-bank, hospital, telephone exchange, barber, tailor, post office, hydropower cell, wireless station, school, police headquarters, petrol station, bars, bars-c.u.m-hotels. I didn't notice the hand-drawn AIDS poster on a shop wall. I didn't notice you could buy shoes in Tas.h.i.+gang. And shoe polish, playing cards, colored markers, curtain rings and hair dye. I didn't notice you could buy so many things you didn't actually need.

Two Westerners are sitting on a bench outside the Puen Soom, and although it has been months since I met them in Thimphu, I recognize them instantly. Leon, posted in Wamrong, and Tony from Khaling, are in the second year of their contracts. They are both tall and blond and very thin, but in their faded cotton clothes and rubber flip-flops, with colorful jholas at their feet, they do not seem out of place. They are reading and sipping gla.s.ses of murky liquid. Mud puppies, they inform me, sweet tea with a shot of Dragon Rum. Tomorrow they are going to visit Catherine, the Canadian teacher in Rangthangwoong, and they invite me to come along. I hesitate. I don't want to miss my ride back to Pema Gatshel with Trevor tomorrow, but when will I get another chance to go to what-was-it-called again? I decide to go.

Leon and Tony are staying with Kevin, another Canadian teacher posted in Tas.h.i.+gang. "Is there room for me, or should I stay in a hotel?" I ask.

"Which hotel would that be?" Leon asks, gesturing grandly at the bazaar. "Bedbug Inn? The Flea Seasons?"

"This is eastern Bhutan," Tony says. "Where there's a floor, there's room."

On the way up to Kevin's house, we stop at a bakery to buy soft, flat rounds of Tibetan bread. On one wall are somber black-and-white photographs of the four kings of Bhutan and a religious calendar from last year, the Year of the Earth Dragon. On the wall opposite is a poster of a scarlet-lipped, dagger-nailed Joan Collins. No one seems to mind the incongruity.

Kevin lives in a concrete block of a house furnished with the usual wooden benches and stiff chairs. We sit in the kitchen, drinking beer, peeling vegetables for dinner and sharing reports on the lateral road, the mail situation, and the state of everyone's health-who got what from where and what they did about it. I laugh until my throat hurts. A leech up the nose wouldn't have seemed so funny three months ago.

Outside, shadows collect under the eucalyptus trees and the air is filled with birdsong and the whistling of pressure cookers as neighbors prepare their evening meals. Inside, I find the electric lights harsh and strangely wasteful. I am used to having a circle of warm light only where I need it; I feel out of sync with the growing twilight outside and keep checking my watch. Leon and Tony have brought sleeping bags; I borrow a blanket from Kevin and lay some cus.h.i.+ons down on the floor. It is nine o'clock and Tas.h.i.+gang is still awake: Bhutanese folk music drifts up from the bazaar, a vehicle honks impatiently, trucks lumber up the road, a woman yells repeatedly for Sonam to come home. Eventually, the sounds begin to fade away, Sonam finally comes home and even the thriving metropolis of Tas.h.i.+gang goes to sleep.

The bus to Rangthangwoong turns out to be a truck. We squeeze ourselves into the open back and wait for the driver. People keep climbing in, and soon I must balance awkwardly on one foot until my other foot finds a tentative resting place on a sack of rice. The engine grunts and wheezes to life and the truck lurches off down to the river, over the bridge called Chazam, and onto a rough, dusty road. The landscape is dry and sun-bleached, with chir pine trees dotting the dry, rocky slopes, a complete contrast to the wet, dense green of the enclosed Pema Gatshel valley. I turn my face into the hot wind and the girl next to me smiles and admires my silver earrings. She looks about fifteen, and has a pretty, heart-shaped face. Her earrings are thick, hand-fas.h.i.+oned hoops of gold. "Yours are nicer," I tell her in Sharchhop. She shakes her head shyly. A group of students in their school ghos and kiras begins to sing. A man in a blue-striped gho, smelling strongly of arra, lurches against us when the truck turns a sharp corner and stops. We are at Duksam, two rows of crooked wooden shops along a narrow tarmacked road; several pa.s.sengers leap out, several more leap on.

When the bus starts up again, I notice the man in blue has pushed himself between me and the girl. He is singing loudly as he clamps his hand over the girl's breast. She looks away but there is no place for her to move. I cannot read her expression. I don't know what to do, if I should do anything. Part of me is thinking, this is not your culture. You've been here for a few short weeks, you don't even speak the language. You don't know what's going on here, who are you to interfere? The other part of me is thinking, it is perfectly clear what is going on here. It is not a matter of cultural differences. But it cannot be perfectly clear, perfectly clear, except to a Bhutanese, and I am profoundly unsure, paralyzed by this inner argument. Finally, I work my way between the man and the girl. When he tries to reach around me, I elbow away his hand, and he looks into my face, puzzled. I look straight back. The singing around us has stopped. The man grins and shrugs and turns away. I try to look at the girl, but she is looking straight ahead and will not meet my eye. I can only hope I have done the right thing. except to a Bhutanese, and I am profoundly unsure, paralyzed by this inner argument. Finally, I work my way between the man and the girl. When he tries to reach around me, I elbow away his hand, and he looks into my face, puzzled. I look straight back. The singing around us has stopped. The man grins and shrugs and turns away. I try to look at the girl, but she is looking straight ahead and will not meet my eye. I can only hope I have done the right thing.

Rangthangwoong is halfway up a mountain, a village scattered around three large houses with ground-floor shops. Catherine is dressed in a grey kira, but her bright auburn hair sets her apart in the crowd waiting for the bus. Her quarters, located above one of the shops, consist of a bed-sitting room and, across a communal hallway, a bathroom and kitchen. She has been here for two years already, and she is very excited because the landlord has just installed a tap in her kitchen. We go to admire it, turning it on and off, laughing at ourselves. Someone has brought her a bottle of fresh b.u.t.termilk, and she pours us each a cup and then we walk up to the ruins of a ninth-century castle. Sitting below, on a gra.s.sy knoll, Catherine points to a mountain at the end of the valley. "That's India," she says. "The town is Taw.a.n.g, in Arunachal Pradesh. At night, we can see the lights. My headmaster says you could walk there in one day." This, of course, is illegal, she adds. You would run into the army at the border. This is where the Indo-China war spilled over into Bhutan in 1962. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, India began to station troops along the northern frontier, including along Bhutan's northern borders. The brief war was the result of growing tension along the northeastern Indian border, with both China and India claiming the area as their own. The older people still talk about it, Catherine says, the sudden appearance of helicopters in the sky over a village that had never even seen a vehicle. They thought it was the end of the world.

An old man with a large goiter on his neck stops to offer us betel nut smeared with lime paste and wrapped in a green leaf. Leon accepts, saying he has been meaning to try it. We watch as he stuffs the whole thing into his mouth and chews. "How is it?" we ask.

"G.o.d-awful," he says, but keeps chewing. "It's supposed to give you a mild high."

After several minutes, he spits it out. "Are you high?" I ask.

"No, I'm nauseous. Are my teeth red?"

"Yes."

The sunlight has turned a warm, liquid gold. We look up and down the length of the river valley, watching the mountain ranges in the south opening one after the other like gates to a secret kingdom. I love how the landscape gives the impression of vast s.p.a.ce and intimacy at the same time: the thin brown line of a path wandering up an immense green mountainside, a plush hanging valley tucked between two steep hillsides, a village of three houses surrounded by dark forest, paddy fields flowing around an outcrop of rock, a white temple gleaming on a shadowy ridge. The human habitations nestle into the landscape; nothing is cut or cleared beyond what is required. Nothing is bigger than necessary. Every sign of human settlement repeats the mantra of contentment: "This is just enough."

We walk back to Catherine's place and cook rice, vegetable curry and dahl, talking about where to go for the first-term break. I had not thought of going anywhere. "Oh, you have to go somewhere," Leon tells me. There are a hundred possible destinations and combinations, other postings to visit, different routes to try out, all the old trading paths that people took before the lateral road was built. There are very old, holy temples to see, Tony wants to go to Dremitse on its own little hilltop, Catherine to Rangchikhar to meet a levitating lama. Two years suddenly seems a very short time. "What about the three-month winter break?" Tony says. "We could all walk from Lhuntse to b.u.mthang and spend Christmas at the Swiss Guest House."

"What a good idea!" I exclaim, thinking of bukharis and the smell of pine.

"I thought you were going home for Christmas," Leon says to me.

Yes, so I am. I had forgotten.

The lama who lives next door invites us to his room at dusk. The only light comes from the b.u.t.ter lamp on his altar. The lama is absorbed in his evening prayers, and we sit on the floor beside him and drink zim-chang, the good-night arra he has offered us. I am glad there is no need to speak. I want to absorb this moment in this room, the steady flame of the b.u.t.ter lamp, the composed faces of the Buddhas behind the altar, the contented silence of my friends, the great peaceful night settling all around us outside. I feel I could sit here forever. Back in Catherine's room, wrapped in a borrowed blanket, I lay under the window, cold and tired and happy. I study the stars sprayed across the sky and listen to the lama praying softly next door. I remember my arrival in Bhutan and how miserable I was, and all the other teachers who seemed inexplicably content. They were right all along, I think. This is the most remarkable place, after all.

The Vomit Comet

There is no transport from Rangthangwoong to Tas.h.i.+gang; we have to walk back. After a breakfast of fried rice and leftover curry, we set off down the mountainside to the main road which runs along the river valley. Leon and Tony go galloping off, surefooted through fields and rice paddies. I must fly along after them to keep up. As long as I don't think about where to put my foot next, I do not stumble. We are hot and sweaty by the time we reach the row of shops at Duksam, where there is hot tea, warm beer or unfiltered water to drink. We opt for the warm beer, which makes me sleepy, and then continue to trudge along the road. It is sixteen kilometers back to the bridge below Tas.h.i.+gang. There is no shade, and the sun is merciless. Below us, the river is a deliciously cool turquoise surge. Tony says the color indicates its origin: the turquoise comes from suspended particles of stone crushed by the grinding of a glacier. I long to climb down the bank and immerse myself in its blue-green chill.

The flat road is aerobically easy but endlessly tedious. We stop to talk to everyone we pa.s.s. Where are you going, where are you coming from. Gari mala Where are you going, where are you coming from. Gari mala-notruck. Leon and I become engaged in an inane conversation about soap operas, restaurants, and bad songs from the seventies to help pa.s.s the time. We pa.s.s the temple of Gomkhora, beside an enormous black rock near the river. "That's the rock Guru Rimpoche used to pin down a demon," Leon says. "He chased the demon all the way from Tibet. There's a really narrow tunnel down there in the rock that people squirm through. If they make it, it means their sins are cleared away." We stand for a moment, looking down toward the river. There is something completely satisfying about the whole spot. The temple is old but well kept, surrounded by neatly parceled rice paddies and shaded by large, fragrant eucalyptus trees. In the noontime light, everything s.h.i.+mmers but nothing moves except the river. There is no sign of any human activity and that feeling comes over me again, the feeling of being too recent and flimsy for the landscape I am in. I try to imagine who I would be if I had lived all my life here at this temple by the river. I wonder what I would want if I had grown up without ads telling me my heart's desires: to be thinner, richer, s.e.xier, look better, smell better, be all that I can be, have a faster car, a brighter smile, lighter hair, whiter whites, hurry now, don't miss out, take advantage of this special offer. If instead I had spent twenty-four years absorbing the silent weight of the mountains, the constant pull of the river, the sound of hot white light burning into black rocks. Leon and I become engaged in an inane conversation about soap operas, restaurants, and bad songs from the seventies to help pa.s.s the time. We pa.s.s the temple of Gomkhora, beside an enormous black rock near the river. "That's the rock Guru Rimpoche used to pin down a demon," Leon says. "He chased the demon all the way from Tibet. There's a really narrow tunnel down there in the rock that people squirm through. If they make it, it means their sins are cleared away." We stand for a moment, looking down toward the river. There is something completely satisfying about the whole spot. The temple is old but well kept, surrounded by neatly parceled rice paddies and shaded by large, fragrant eucalyptus trees. In the noontime light, everything s.h.i.+mmers but nothing moves except the river. There is no sign of any human activity and that feeling comes over me again, the feeling of being too recent and flimsy for the landscape I am in. I try to imagine who I would be if I had lived all my life here at this temple by the river. I wonder what I would want if I had grown up without ads telling me my heart's desires: to be thinner, richer, s.e.xier, look better, smell better, be all that I can be, have a faster car, a brighter smile, lighter hair, whiter whites, hurry now, don't miss out, take advantage of this special offer. If instead I had spent twenty-four years absorbing the silent weight of the mountains, the constant pull of the river, the sound of hot white light burning into black rocks.