Chapter 5: My Mother and My Daughter

This article is about the author’s view on a universal and yet a unique relationship between a seven year old girl and her 83-year-old grandmother. It describes the roles grandparents play in their grandchildren’s lives as a source of unconditional love, family values and tradition, a central safe haven, whilst the grandparents draw from the relationship the satisfaction of being important, of being wanted and loved and playing a part in a younger generation. The girl connects her to the contemporary world and makes her understand the dynamism of culture as time goes by. This article also touches on the roles of the elderly as being a key social capital in Bhutan especially in the form of community leadership, trust and cooperation among people. The main theme of the article is one family’s values and what each generation has to offer to the other in a Bhutanese context.