A reader of my blog commented as follows – after reading my earlier blog “Good Money Behind Bad Torms: I”
About superstition, religious practices and humanity. Your post is intriguing. Why are Torms poisonous to animals (thereby to also human beings)? And if so, why Dratshang and religious institutions have not cured and remedied to it? They hold responsibility for the damage and for not taking action. Thank You Yeshey for your investigation. Hope it draws the attention it requires.
Instead of responding to the reader individually, I decided to post my following response here so that others also have an understanding of the issues:
Most of the modern day Torms are no longer fashioned the traditional way. In the bygone era, Torms used to be sculpted using natural material that were safe, bio-degradable and environmentally friendly. The base materials were either kneaded dough of maize or wheat flour, or pounded clay, and decorated with natural fibres and colored with vegetable/mineral dyes or earth pigments. But these days, most of the Torms contain indestructible synthetic material and are dyed with toxic chemical paints that are harmful to the birds and animals that consume the Torms that are left out in the open spaces.
Around the world, problems of death of the wildlife caused by the use of chemicals, industrial/domestic paints, pesticides, pollutants in the water bodies etc. etc. have been reported. In some cases, extinction of entire species has been caused by the unmindful use of harmful modern materials.
Although it appears that the menace of the irresponsible celebration of Vishwakarma Puja has now been controlled to a large extent, Bhutan did go through a period of whole-sale dumping of the Torms/Effigies in our water bodies …. Please read at the following how it used to be done:
In truth, it is not just the Torms or the Vishwakarma Puja celebrations that must bear the blame for the defilement of our natural world – another unmindful practice that continue to cause even greater problems is the unfurling of the prayer flags.
Few KMs long prayer flags have been strung across the lush, green hilltop above Lungtenphu. It is my hope that those who are responsible for them had the good sense to use fabric of natural fibres and environmental friendly ink to print the prayers on the flags. Even if not, I hope those who are responsible (I get the feeling that it is a group or organization called GKOR - one cannot miss the four alphabets clearly standing out among the assemblage of prayer flags) for this act has the sense of responsibility to gather them up and dispose them off safely - before they cause the kind of problem they did in remote and far-flung places such as Laya and Lunana - as reported by VAST Bhutan.
The above is not the only case - just take a look at our green hillsides all around you --- they are poke-marked with similar prayer flags - thankfully not a profusion of colors as the ones in the above.
The problem has become so rampant that VAST Bhutan brought this to the attention of the nation through their “Lungta Art Festival 2026” early this year. Please read about it here:
At the most fundamental level, a religious act is supposed to be good for the soul, for the body and for the mind and, even more, for all the sentient beings of the world. But is that the case?
Bhutan’s urban literate are not even willing to forego the use of plastic shopping bags ….. I ask you:
What is the point of being literate if you are not educated?
