Page 48 - BHUTAN 2007

is in Bhutan. Missing from the ambiance is noise! No honking horns, no loud
radios, TVs, or music played in public places. No raised voices. Very little

mechanical aural disturbances because there is not much traffic. Only four

flights a day (and that only in good weather when the clouds or fogs do not

hang too low in the Paro Valley). No one talking too loudly into a cell phone

(though there are many of these devices in use). Instead, you hear the wind
soughing in the trees, the ravens croaking from the skies overhead, the rain

tapping on the roofs, a woodpecker hammering at a trunk, rivers rushing

through their rocky beds, waterfalls tumbling, crashing, tinkling down the

rock faces, prayer wheels lightly grinding on their axles, prayer flags flapping

in the breezes or, most amazing of all, complete silence. And then you find
yourself speaking more softly, or maybe even refraining from speech at all,

just listening and really hearing the Quiet Country.

The big exception to the quietude of the cities was the night-time incessant

barking of the dogs. Most dogs in Bhutan are not owned by anyone in

particular. They run the streets at will and at all hours. Buddhists are

concerned with the natural environment so the dogs are cared for in a
community fashion. People put food out for them and they are rounded up

once a year for rabies vaccination paid for by the government. The people

are even paid a bounty when they bring a dog in for its inoculation.

However, the dogs show no gratitude for this general concern; they bark

and howl all through the night in solos, duets, trios and even whole
choruses of sound. How the city folk sleep through those concerts we are

not sure, but surely they do get used to the disturbance. We were not in the

cities long enough for that adjustment to happen for us.

THE WARM AND COURTEOUS PEOPLE

The Bhutanese are a courteous and considerate people to one another as

well as to Western tourists (though that politesse doesn’t seem to extend to

the Indian road workers). In the shops, clerks respond with quiet attention