July 7, 2024, Second Day of Bhutan Visit, Kolpu Gewog (Nabji, Kolpu, Nimshong)
Hello. Today is the second day of Sunim’s visit to Bhutan. He spent the entire day in Kolpu Gewog, checking the results of the pilot project and engaging in conversations with the residents.
After completing the morning prayer and meditation, breakfast was served at the lodging at 5:20 AM. During the meal, the day’s itinerary was shared, and at 6 AM, Sunim departed from Trongsa for Kolpu Gewog.
Along the way, there were several places where large boulders had fallen and blocked the road. This is due to the current rainy season, which causes frequent landslides.
The vehicle barely managed to pass through the road, avoiding the fallen rocks. During the journey, a local JTS activist contacted Sunim.
“We received a call from a Zhemgang official saying that due to continuous landslides, it’s difficult to determine if we can travel from Zhemgang to Bardo Gewog today. It seems you might need to stay in Zhemgang tonight and assess the situation tomorrow morning to see if you can reach Bardo Gewog. We can go as far as Khomshar Chiwog, but Langdurbi is currently inaccessible.”
Fortunately, Sunim’s vehicle arrived safely at Kolpu Gewog at 8:50 AM without any incidents. The first stop was to inspect the newly constructed irrigation canal in Nabji Chiwog.
Nabji Chiwog: Inspecting the Results of the Irrigation Canal Construction
The inspection began from the uppermost part where the water from the source meets the paddy fields. The irrigation canal, built through the cooperation of residents over the past month, was flowing with abundant water.


A bright smile spread across Sunim’s face.

Sunim followed the cement-built irrigation canal down to the lower paddy fields. Two months ago, during the previous visit, there was significant water leakage due to the indistinct boundary between the canal and the fields. Now, with the new canal in place, water flowed abundantly without any leakage.

After inspecting the newly constructed irrigation canal, Sunim headed to the temple in Nabji Chiwog. All the villagers had gathered in front of the temple, waiting for Sunim.


After paying respects at the temple, Sunim came out to the courtyard to engage in conversation with the villagers. He began by commending the villagers for their hard work on the irrigation canal project.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Please raise your hand if you participated in the irrigation canal construction, even once.”
Almost everyone raised their hands.

“Now that you’ve done the work, do you find it manageable?”
“If you continue to support us, we’d like to keep going.”
“Wasn’t it difficult?”
“It was challenging, but since it’s essential for our village, we’ll continue if you provide support.”

“Let’s give a round of applause for everyone who worked hard. And when we were told it couldn’t be done due to time constraints, Chokpa said he would try, and that’s how we started. Let’s applaud for Chokpa. Also, let’s give a round of applause to Gup who supervised the entire project.”
Everyone gave each other a big round of applause.

Sunim then proposed that we should cultivate our own village.

“We should approach this with the mindset of ‘Let’s build our own village.’ While the government should construct the irrigation canal from the distant water source to the village, we should build the canals within our village. It’s hard work, but don’t you feel good seeing the water flow through the canal you’ve built? That’s why you all need to rebuild the entire irrigation system for the whole Nabji village.
Why a Crooked Irrigation Canal is Far More Valuable
Nabji village is a sacred place, isn’t it? In the future, many people will come here on pilgrimages. We need to cultivate our village so that when tourists walk around, they’ll say, ‘This is the best place to live in Bhutan.’ We should make them feel that ‘Living here is much better than in Thimphu.’ Nabji village has good air, clear water, and truly beautiful scenery. I’ve traveled all over the world, but this place has the best scenery. So, you should be proud to have been born and raised in Nabji village. Of course, life might be a bit inconvenient because of poverty. But it’s not because you committed many sins in your past life that you were born poor. It’s not because God is punishing you either. Your life depends on how you live it. Buddha’s teaching is that our destiny is not predetermined, but that we can shape our destiny based on our actions. Let’s plan for the next five years to completely transform our village. We should rebuild the irrigation canals, improve the roads, and enhance the village overall to make it a better place for us to live. Men should work hard in winter instead of just drinking and idling. Can you all do this together?”
“Yes! We’ll do anything if you support us.”

“This movement of ‘Let’s build our own village’ is called the Saemaul Movement in Korea. It’s about creating a new village together. In the past, didn’t everyone in Bhutan work together in their villages? But these days, it seems that individualism is creeping in, perhaps because capitalism has reached even here. The Fourth King of Bhutan said, ‘Human happiness cannot be measured by material quantity. The standard of human well-being is happiness of the mind.’
Of course, if a construction company had built the irrigation canal, it would have been much better than what we’ve made. But you wouldn’t feel the same sense of pride and satisfaction when you see the water flowing as you do now. Even if the irrigation canal is a bit crooked, it feels better because we made it ourselves. That’s why I think the crooked irrigation canal you’ve built is far more valuable than one perfectly constructed by a company.

Chokba was afraid that Sunim would scold him for constructing the irrigation canal incorrectly. However, Sunim didn’t see it that way. Instead, he said, “Next time, we’ll provide more materials like boards, so you can build it better. If needed, we can bring in an expert for a few days to teach you how to do it. But for a first attempt, you did well. If we provide materials for other projects, will you continue? Or is it too hard, and you don’t want to do it anymore?”
“We want to continue.”

The villagers laughed loudly and expressed their joy.

“I’ve been traveling to various countries and couldn’t prepare gifts. Instead, I’ll give each of you a simple gift.”
“Sunim, we’re already grateful for your support to the village. You don’t need to give us any gifts.”
Sunim distributed a bar of soap to each villager. The villagers received the soap with both hands, treating it as something precious.

Finally, Dorji Sunim offered a prayer of blessing for the villagers.

After the prayer, Sunim took a commemorative photo with the villagers and departed from Nabji Chiwog.

Inspecting the Road Paving Project Results in Korphu Chiwog
Next, Sunim headed to Korphu Chiwog. To get there from Nabji Chiwog, he had to descend the mountain and then climb up again. As he drove along the winding mountain road, he came across sections where the villagers had done road paving work.

These sections were always dangerous for vehicles due to steep slopes and eroded ground. Although the entire road wasn’t paved, the villagers had volunteered to work on the six most dangerous sections, and JTS provided the materials. Four of these sections had been completed.
Sunim got out of the car and walked up the road to inspect how the paving had been finished.

“You’ve done well. However, when paving roads, you should place boards on both sides to separate the road from the drainage. Otherwise, the road will get damaged. I can see some areas where the cement wasn’t mixed well and has eroded. Next time, it would be good to bring in an expert for consultation. But for your first attempt, you’ve done very well.”

Upon arriving at the village, they first paid respects at the temple. After leaving the temple, they headed to the community hall where the villagers had gathered.



First, Sunim encouraged the villagers who had worked hard on the road paving project.

“Thank you all for your hard work on the road construction. You did very well. Was it difficult?”
“It was fulfilling and enjoyable.”

“Isn’t it nice now that the road is paved? Even though it’s the rainy season, cars can easily drive up. This is how we should build our village ourselves. The government can’t do everything for us.”

How Long Will You Wait for the Government to Do It?
Currently, the King and government of Bhutan are doing their best for you. They have built and paved roads up to the gewog. However, they couldn’t pave all the way to the chiwog due to lack of funds. If you wait for 5 or 10 years, the government will pave it. But are you going to just wait until then? Or will we make an effort to create what we need? That’s our choice. What will you do? Is it better to just wait until the government does it? Or is it better for us to make what we need?”
“We will make it ourselves!”
The villagers freely shared their thoughts on the construction work they had done this time.

“I have a car, but before the road construction, it was difficult to move around. The car would get damaged a lot, and I couldn’t refuse people who asked for rides. They were relatives and villagers, so I couldn’t ignore them, and it was always awkward. Through this project, we built the road together, and all those worries are gone now.”
“As Sunim said, working together was fulfilling. It had been a long time since all the villagers gathered to work together, and thanks to Sunim’s support, we were able to work together, which was very satisfying. Thank you, Sunim.”
The villagers pleaded for renovation work, saying that the temple was very old. Sunim smiled and replied.
The Temple Is Very Old, Can’t We Fix It First?

“How much do you know about the Buddha? Do you think he lived in such a nice house? Or do you know that he lived under trees or in caves while practicing?”
“The Buddha lived under trees or in caves.”
“Do people live in houses or under trees?”
“People live in houses.”
“Then should we build houses for people to live in first? Or should we build temples for the Buddha first?”
“But the wood in the temple is too old and needs to be replaced.”

“There are people in the village who don’t have houses, and some whose houses are falling apart. Since people need to live in houses, let’s build houses for people first. Don’t worry about the Buddha, he can live under a tree. (Laughs)

Of course, I’m not someone who builds houses for people without homes. If you all agree that ‘we must build a house for that person who doesn’t have one,’ I will only provide the materials. As a monk, I don’t support individuals. However, if you all agree that ‘someone in our village doesn’t have a house, let’s gather our strength and build one for them,’ I can provide the materials. So you need to be willing to work for a few days. If you agree that ‘that’s a poor house that needs repairs,’ a few people from the village should be willing to help. If people don’t help after making a proposal, I won’t provide materials anymore. But if you work together well to build that house, I’ll support building another one. In short, it’s about ‘doing my own work, and doing our work together.’ If we live life this way, joy arises. We’re doing this work now to create such joy. Do you understand?”
“Yes!”

After the conversation, the Bhutanese sunims offered a blessing prayer. After the prayer, Sunim gave a bar of soap to each villager as a gift.

After taking a group photo, Sunim left the village hall and headed to the house of the lama who guards this village’s temple.


Sunim had lunch together at the lama’s house, where they had prepared food with great care.



After finishing the meal and giving an offering to the lama, Sunim left Kolpu Chiwog and headed towards Nimshong Chiwog. It rained heavily on and off.

In the meantime, there was another landslide, and a large rock was blocking the road. Everyone got out of the car and rolled the rock with all their might. Nine strong men, including Sunim, used all their strength to barely push the rock to the side.


Nimshong Chiwog, Checking the Results of Building Houses for the Poor
Sunim safely arrived at Nimshong Chiwog at 2 PM. First, he visited the poor house that was scheduled for living environment improvement. The family had made stairs on the dirt road for Sunim’s group. As soon as Sunim entered the newly renovated house, he offered a Bhutanese-style blessing prayer.




After the prayer, the grandmother who owned the house expressed her gratitude. Her son had fallen ill while building the house and had to go to his sister’s house, leaving the house half-built.

“There were no walls or windows, but now we have new walls and windows. Thank you.”
Sunim encouraged Gup, who had overseen the construction, for his hard work.

“It’s most difficult to get residents to participate in building individual houses. For roads, schools, or irrigation channels, people are more willing to participate because they see it as work for the public good. It’s also difficult for JTS to support this because if we build the houses too well, those who already have houses might think, ‘It’s better not to have a house at all.’ But we can’t build them too poorly either. So you’ve done a very difficult task. It’s only possible if we think of it not as an individual’s work, but as work for all of us.”
Gup replied.

“This house truly belonged to a poor person, so all the villagers thought we should build the house for them. That’s why resident participation was possible.”
“You did very well. This is the first house built in Kolpu Gewog. As it’s a sample, please finish it well. It’s really fortunate that you managed to put the roof on before the rainy season.”
The grandmother never stopped smiling throughout the construction, they said. She repeatedly thanked Sunim as he was leaving.

Sunim climbed the mountain again, breathing heavily.

“Oh my, I’m out of breath.”
We all moved to the temple of Nimshong Chiwog. Villagers were gathered in front of the temple. Sunim blessed the villagers by placing his hand on their heads, then paid respects at the temple.


From 3 PM, he had time to talk with the residents of Nimshong Chiwog. The residents said that rice planting hadn’t gone well.

“I heard that in other places, the rain was appropriate and rice planting went well. Why didn’t it go well here?”
“We can’t farm because there’s no water in the fields.”

Sunim suggested that Nimshong Chiwog should look for other methods rather than rice farming.

“I understand that you have lingering attachments because you used to farm rice there in the past. However, when I surveyed the area, I found that those fields on the mountainside are not suitable for rice farming. Even if we spend a lot of money to build irrigation channels, it might become abandoned after farming for just a few years. Then all the effort put in would be wasted. For Nangji Chiwog and Kolpu Chiwog, the land was suitable for farming, so irrigation channels were necessary. But unlike those places, this area is not suitable for rice farming. No matter how much your ancestors passed down the land, what can we do if it’s not suitable? In my opinion, it would be better to turn that land into fields and fence them. No matter how precious we hold our parents, we have to bury them when they pass away, right? Similarly, even if you inherited the land, if it’s not useful now, we need to find other alternatives.
We can consider three options. First, we can just give up. Second, we can do field farming instead of rice farming. If we do field farming, we need to put up fences. But who can continue to farm rice on a mountainside? There are no young people, and it seems difficult for the elderly to farm. It’s too hard for the elderly to climb up and down. Despite many difficulties, if you still want to farm that land somehow, we can support building irrigation channels. But in my opinion, there’s a high possibility that it will become abandoned land in just 10 years.”

In Nimsong Chiwog, residents collaborated to build houses for the poor. Sunim encouraged the hardworking residents.

“We visited the completed house of a family with a sick patient today. When we last visited, the house was in poor condition, half-built. But thanks to everyone’s help, the house has now taken proper shape. It’s not easy to help build someone else’s house when it’s difficult enough to repair your own. It’s even more challenging during the busy farming season. Nevertheless, you all helped for days, resulting in the construction of a good house. Thank you.
There was a reason why that house was in such poor condition. The wife had to care for her sick husband, so there was no one to take responsibility for building the house. They had no choice but to abandon the construction. Thanks to your combined efforts, the house has been well-built, comfortable for living.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Sunim. If you hadn’t come to our village, such a house would never have been completed. We would be grateful if you could support other poor households in the future as well.”

After the conversation, Sunim gave a bar of soap to each villager as a gift.

Then, the Bhutanese monks offered a blessing prayer.
Meeting with Kolpu Gewog Village Leaders
After all the villagers returned home, Sunim held a meeting with the Kolpu Gewog village leaders: Chokpa, Mangmi, and Gup. They took time to evaluate the pilot projects carried out in each village before the busy farming season.

First, Sunim encouraged the hardworking Chokpas and explained JTS’s principles.

“We’ve conducted a pilot project in each village. Thank you all for your hard work. Based on this, I’d like us to plan what we’ll do over the next five years to transform the entire village.
Fundamentally, I believe people should live independently. There’s no need to interfere or help with others’ lives. This is because all animals in nature live on their own. However, in the case of humans, young children can’t live by themselves, so parents need to help them. Similarly, there are people who can’t live on their own. When someone absolutely cannot live alone, we should help. And for public matters, not individual ones – that is, for village affairs – we can work together. That’s the basic principle. It’s not about a foreign NGO coming to help, but about working together.
With these principles in mind, I’d like you to share what problems you encountered and what positive aspects you found while conducting this pilot project.”
Then, Sunim listened to the Chokpas’ impressions. The Chokpa from Napji Chiwog, who worked with residents on building an irrigation canal, spoke first.
How Was It Building Irrigation Canals, Paving Roads, and Constructing Houses?

“With rice planting approaching, there was too little time to complete the irrigation canal construction. It wasn’t easy for men to find time as they had to work in the fields.”
The Chokpa from Kolpu Chiwog, who worked with residents on road paving, also shared his thoughts.

“The farming season overlapped with the road paving project, so residents had a hard time making time for it. We plan to continue the unfinished parts next week. We thought that despite any difficulties, we should certainly do this since Sunim is providing such support. It’s not Sunim’s road, it’s our road, so we should build it. Everyone agreed, so we cooperated well and there were no major problems.”
Sunim smiled and said:

“Anyway, it’s good that we’ve done a little test. Now, when the farming season ends, you’ll have more free time. Will you try building irrigation canals in the fall? Are the residents willing to work together?”
“Yes, everyone wants to do it.”
The Chokpa from Nimsong Chiwog, who worked with residents on building houses for the poor, also shared his thoughts.

“As it was our first time building houses, we lacked both experience and skills. Just having stones wasn’t enough to build a house. We had to go buy equipment, people who agreed to come couldn’t make it due to other commitments, and it was difficult to gather every day during the farming season. Today is the 26th day of construction, and it seems we’ll need another week to finish.”
After listening to the Chokpas’ impressions, Sunim discussed the remaining tasks.

“In the future, what will be most well-received by villagers is making their homes clean and convenient. This is especially preferred by women. Building roads or irrigation canals is good, but it doesn’t directly impact personal lives, right? However, repairing houses is closer to personal life. We’ve done a sample house repair in Langdelbi, and now we need to expand this to each village.
Future Tasks for Sustainable Development
We’ve done pilot projects: irrigation canal construction in Napji Chiwog, building a new house in Nimsong Chiwog, road paving in Kolpu Chiwog, and interior house repairs in Langdelbi Chiwog. I suggest you record videos of these projects and share them, or visit each other’s sites. We should start planning now for what to do after the rainy season ends.

We need to build houses for the homeless, repair houses for the poor, construct irrigation canals, secure water sources, and fence fields. We also need to repair schools and treat elderly people with poor eyesight or hearing. We should improve problematic roads within our village. We can’t do everything at once, so we need to prioritize and tackle one task at a time.
We haven’t properly researched yet what to do to increase residents’ income in the future. We need to study many things to improve residents’ lives, such as what crops to grow, what fruit trees to plant, whether to raise chickens for egg production or cows for milk, how to sell products, and how to process them if we do primary processing. It would be good to find effective methods through various experiments.”
Sunim greatly encouraged the Chokpas who had worked the hardest and gave each of them a bar of soap and toothpaste as gifts. Then, they all took a commemorative photo together.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Sunim got back in the car and moved to Zhemgang.
Dialogue with Zhemgang Governor on Sustainable Development
After driving for 1 hour and 20 minutes along mountain roads, they safely arrived in Zhemgang. As they entered the guesthouse, the Zhemgang Governor warmly welcomed Sunim. Sunim mentioned that the road conditions on the way were very poor.

“I expected it to be dangerous due to many landslides during the rainy season, but it was really dangerous when we actually came.”
“During the monsoon season, we never know when the road might collapse.”
The Governor shared a story about an elementary school student who died on the road because it collapsed while being transported to the hospital after eating a poisonous mushroom.
First, Sunim shared the results of the pilot project conducted in Kolpu Gewog over the past month and his impressions from today’s direct inspection.

“We conducted several pilot projects in Kolpu Gewog before the farming season. The residents directly worked on building irrigation canals, paving a section of unpaved road, and constructing a house for a homeless family.
This time, we hurriedly experimented just before rice planting. Originally, we planned to proceed for a month and a half, but because the Bhutanese government was late in creating bank accounts, we couldn’t proceed for a month and only managed to do a little experiment in two weeks.
However, even with this small experiment, we learned a lot about future improvements. The residents participated more enthusiastically than expected and everyone was happy. Gup, Mangmi, and Chokpa were all very worried about whether the residents would participate, making it extremely difficult to start, but once we did, the residents participated enthusiastically. They say that because it wasn’t a government project but Sunim helping us, the residents worked even harder. I asked the villagers this question:
‘Would you rather wait 5 or 10 years for the government to do everything, or do what we can now?’
And all the residents said they wanted to do it now.” (Laughs)

As the discussion progressed, several challenges were anticipated due to JTS’s volunteer principles. Even with village cooperation, heavy machinery like excavators and dump trucks would be needed initially, and paying operators conflicted with JTS’s volunteer policy. Dr. Tashi suggested:
Why Not Make an Exception to the Volunteer Principle?
“JTS’s principle of operating solely with volunteers has its advantages, but it can also create difficulties. Volunteering simply means not employing people. For example, if I were to hire an excavator operator, I would become their employer rather than a monk. As a practitioner, I cannot be responsible for someone’s livelihood as an employer. This would go against the Buddha’s teachings because it creates an unequal relationship. One becomes an employee, and the other becomes a boss.

That’s why JTS only does as much work as volunteers can handle and doesn’t aspire to do more. We are not of the secular world. This is why I emphasize to residents that they should only do as much as they can themselves. It’s more important for residents to feel satisfaction through the process of improving their own neighborhood than to have perfectly constructed roads or irrigation channels.
This time, although the residents worked hard, they were extremely happy. Even though the irrigation channel wasn’t perfectly made and was a bit crooked, they were overjoyed to see water flowing through it. They were also delighted when cars could easily drive up the newly paved road, which had always been difficult on the unpaved surface.
My goal for this project is to increase the happiness of the residents. To achieve this, it’s important to use the construction of irrigation channels and roads as a means to bring out people’s initiative. We’re helping them become self-reliant rather than dependent on others. Through this, we aim to further develop the concept of GNH (Gross National Happiness).
The reason I’m not expanding this project nationwide yet is that we don’t know if it will succeed or fail. Once we’ve tested it and proven its potential for success to some degree, we plan to expand it into a national project. The next five years of this project will be a new experiment. We didn’t include this pilot project in the government’s plans because it’s still in the experimental stage.

I’ve heard that the people of Zhemgang have the least cooperative spirit. If the method of residents cooperating succeeds here, it becomes possible for all of Bhutan. Most people say this experiment will fail. They say we’re talking about old times in this capitalist era. But I think this is how we should live in the future. Bhutan used to live like that in the past, right? Everyone lived that way before, so there’s no reason we can’t live like that now.
Village Development Method Where Government and JTS Complement Each Other
So I will experiment first. Of course, we can’t do big projects, only small ones that residents can handle. For example, in Nangji Chiwog, water was brought from the source to the village through a large pipe for 4km. The government did that work at great expense. But the problem is that the government provides no support for irrigating individual fields from there. So I suggested to the residents that we work together to build cement waterways to bring water into each farmland. This way, the work done by the government and JTS can complement each other. In Komsar Chiwog too, pipes came from the water source to the village, but no one did the work of irrigating the farmland. So we had residents participate in irrigating their own fields. It would be good if we could complement like this, with large budget parts done as government projects, and things like irrigating individual fields done as JTS projects.
And for places where facilities are already in place but need repair due to damage, we’re trying to enable village residents to make repairs themselves. This is because it takes a long time if you request repairs from the government. Direct repairs don’t cost much and can be done quickly. In this way, if we supplement the shortcomings of government projects or support blind spots, the entire project can proceed very efficiently.
The Governor of Zhemgang expressed concerns about Sunim’s proposed project, mentioning that young people are leaving for cities from every village, and agriculture’s contribution to Bhutan’s economy is gradually decreasing.
Is It Necessary to Invest in Agriculture with Low Economic Efficiency?

Sunim replied.
“We cannot evaluate human life solely on economic terms. Currently, agriculture is indeed a declining industry. However, we need to support these people who have farmed all their lives to gradually transition out of farming. Even if productivity is low, we should provide support so that people’s lives don’t suddenly become desolate. This is because people are the most precious.

In terms of economic efficiency, agriculture can be considered inefficient. However, farmers have done this all their lives, so we can’t immediately educate them to do other work. Therefore, the state should protect these people so they can maintain their way of life until the end of their days. From this perspective, we need to invest in rural areas as well.
Moreover, food security can’t be judged solely on economic terms. To prepare for times when the nation faces crisis, we need to secure at least a few months’ worth of food. While agriculture may be inefficient economically, from a food security perspective, a certain level of investment is necessary.
The reason I’m suggesting opening the border with India is because India’s economy is growing rapidly. When people become wealthy, they first buy cars and houses, but after a while, they prioritize health above all. Therefore, if we can supply organic food produced in Zhemgang to India’s wealthy class, it can become economically viable. Currently, agricultural products produced in India are cheaper, so we lack competitiveness. That’s why we need to research methods to maintain freshness and distribute quickly, targeting the wealthy class.”
As Sunim conversed, the Governor’s face brightened. Sunim said with a smile:

“For the development of Zhemgang, I hope you, Governor, will work hard, and I will work hard to increase the happiness of the residents.”
Sunim concluded the conversation, agreeing to diligently pursue a sustainable development project together. It was almost 9 PM.

Sunim had dinner with the Governor at the lodging and wrapped up the day’s schedule.
Tomorrow morning, he plans to move to Bardo Gewog to participate in rice planting and have conversations with residents in the fields. In the afternoon, he will move to Komsar Chiwog to have discussions with the residents there.