Chapter 4: The Monastic Education

Bhutan is a small landlocked Kingdom tucked in the South Eastern slopes of the Great Himalayan region. With a surface area of 46,500 square kilo-metres, and a population of about 600,000, it would seem a comfortable place in terms of the density of population. However, it must be noted that only about 8 percent of the total land area can be used for settlement and agriculture on a sustainable basis. The geographical terrain of Bhutan is a complex knot of mountains, hills, spurs and valleys. Most settlements are, therefore, confined to low valleys and gentle slopes.

Needless to say, transportation has always been one of the greatest challenges for people to travel and to trade. Had it not been for the quest for knowledge and trade, the difficulties involved in travelling across rugged terrain would have kept the communities apart from each other. As it was, languages and dialects developed differently in different areas of the coun-try, a clear indicator of the isolation of many villages in the past. For example, the Lhop community in the south west of Bhutan spoke a language that, in essence, was closer to Dzongkha, but totally incomprehensive as you listened to it for the first time. A person’s name called Tsadaji was actually evolved from what could have been Tshewang Dorji. There are communities that spoke generally the same language but the accents were different, especially the names of materials unique to the area.