This blog posting is one that I’ve been procrastinating about since I returned from Bhutan. Mainly because I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to.The loss of so many lives in the bushfires in Victoria this week gives me impetus to write. We are all vulnerable to so many things in this life and the forces of nature regularly impact on our world. So many of us try to understand this with our particular beliefs and injecting meaning and purpose into our lives as we connect with other lives. All to ensure that our thinking and reactions to loss and change will give us strength when we need it – for ourselves and others.

This sense of connection to nature and others is revealing and close to you in Bhutan. It’s like a blanket touching your skin. Buddhism is the state religion there and their government/monarchy is entwined with Buddhism. Jamsho, pictured here, is a Bhutanese tour guide who showed us about the spiritual beliefs of his country. Although it’s completely unreasonable to judge an entire country on the few people you meet on a tour it is difficult not to take away something of what those few people give you as you glimpse another world. Jamsho gave me a new appreciation of the virtue of gentleness, inspired by Budddhism. This is a virtue that I’ve rarely come across in men and then only if you are very close to them. Jamsho readily shared his gentleness with everyone.

The unexpected aspects of Bhutanese culture and their unique natural environment are also reflected in their textiles. Pictured here is a textile worn over the left shoulder by women called a rachu. It is plain weave with discontinuous weft patterns interspersed over a strongly striped fabric. The stripes are basically ignored at each end and the rich weft patterning is executed regardless of their placement. This is a design technique that is rarely seen in the west. As we would probably feel the need to match the spacing between each of the stripes with the design so it didn’t look ‘feathered’. But the feathering has made it a delightful, playful textile which shouts out at life rather than retiring under symmetrical aesethics. This is why it is so refreshing to really look at textiles from other cultures as they have an interesting story to tell about themselves and their beliefs in life.

Active Travel are running two tours to Bhutan this year.

Photo: Courtesy Heather Kepski