Yesterday morning a senior member of our Chat Group suggested to me the following, during our chat related to birds and animals becoming too familiar with the human population:
“You are a lover of nature …. educate religious persons to propagate. I was told Thimphu has no Olas (Large-billed Crow) because of poisoned Torms.”
It is rather eerie but it was as if some unseen force was steering me in some invisible ways. This morning, when I was headed to town, instead of using the shorter and newer road that is wider and better paved which would deliver me to Thimphu city faster, I opted to take the older and longer route that passed through Taba town. As I passed the forest between Taba and Lanjopakha, my attention was drawn to the following signboard erected on the shoulder of the road to my right. I stopped to take a closer look:
Thimphu Thromde's signboard at Taba
Underneath, in Dzongkha script, the signboard warned that dumping of other trash at the site was prohibited!
This has to be the height of religious fervorism! I mean Thimphu Thromde (Municipality) has actually allocated a special space for dumping of Torms! And they are categorical that littering by any other trash/garbage is prohibited. Imagine!!!!
I wondered – is it possible that there are other spaces around Thimphu where littering by Torms in designated places is legit? I drove to Motithang … and fair enough – there was one there too:
Thimphu Thromde's signboard at Motithang
A bunch of exquisitely constructed Torms dumped by the roadside at Memelakha
Some people had dumped some exquisite looking Torms by the road side about 500 Mtrs. before Memelakha Municipal Dump site! I was intrigued …. How come they came all the way to Memelakha but dumped the Torms few hundred meters before the city dump site? Why couldn't they have dumped them at the Dump Site just a few hundred meters above the road?
Then it hit me – the disposal of the Torms after the performance of the ritual is done with, is governed by some set rules – it cannot be done any which way you like. The direction in which the Torms can be disposed-off is determined by the monks or the Lam performing the ritual …. The location and the placement of the Torms is also pre-determined – you just do not dump them wherever it is convenient or wherever you please, or any place that some authorities command.
In other words, Thimphu Thromde cannot determine where the Torms can be disposed off!
