Hello World

After long break ---- Greetings to all !

A journey to Bidung

Bidung community, a photo taken from Bartsam by Brodie.

Bidung is a scattered village opposite Bartsam, in Tashigang Dzongkhag, at about 2400 m elevation. 

The Bidung temple (also ta dzong) sits on the slope, hidden from the other side of the same community by a huge hill covered by pine, oak and other high altitude plants. 

The rising of the early sun was shadowed by the hill until late morning. The temperature we experienced was below 0 degree centigrade in the morning and it rises to maximum of 13-14 degree centigrade at mid-day. 

The typical winter season in the village could be witnessed every morning as puddles of water turned into hard slippery ice, the shedding of the oak tree leaves in the afternoon, and the skeleton deciduous trees standing tall in the garden.

It takes roughly ten hours by bus to make it from Dewathang to Bidung. We travelled in a public mini bus which was quite old and not in good condition. We had to stop several times on the way to fix the bus. These unscheduled stops actually provided nice opportunities for our students to go out and enjoy the outside environment. The worst part, however, was when we got in an accident with a car. Luckily nothing happened to our students or the people in the other car.    

Bidung temple (Ta-dzong), in Tashigang: Photo Brodie

Almost all of our students were traveling for the first time away from the Institute. It has been a good opportunity for them to see the world beyond their restricted zone of the Institute. While there were a few students who felt traveling sickness most of them were normal and active. They were singing together and making fun of each other.

Looking left and right side with their eye brows raised through the transparent window of the mini bus and pointing to villages, birds and plants, I could tell they are really curious about the outside world.

They were curious to see the Melong Brak (Mirror cliff) which is considered a dangerous and very high cliff on the way to Tashigang from Samdrupjonkhar. They had heard from other people that many accidents take place in that area because the road is comparatively narrow and often has foggy weather.

Monks from Dewathang during Baza guru mantra recitation. Photo by Dawa

They also narrated the story that is behind the name of the river Neagra Ama Chu (roughly which means a river of the Indian mother). They said once an Indian lady was digging an hole to get water out of it and suddenly huge volume of water came out of it and the woman drowned. That was the beginning of the present river and hence how it got its name. They also narrated a story about Kholong chu.

We took our classes in a room of a traditional house that was reserved for us to stay during the mantra recitation ceremony. The two story house was filled with monks from our Shedra and lay people from another community. The room was not so convenient for teaching and learning because it was rectangular and the students sitting at the back seem far away and also the light was dim. We didn't have a white board, either, but we made the best of it, having conversation class, and had fun with them. 

We started our classes at 6 pm with Manjushri's prayer and three minutes of meditation. The classes went up to more than an hour every day. They were long and tiring days for all the monks because they have to be up by 5 am to go to the temple to start mantra recitation. They chant mantras until 4 to 5 pm followed by dinner and then class. Most of the young monks from Mustang group would often fall asleep during the class.

A MAIN RELIC IN CHOKYI GYATSHO INSTITUTE

Reception of terma

More than one hundred people from Dewathang and Samdrup Jongkhar gathered at Chokyi Gyatsho Institute late afternoon on January 12, 2014 to pay their respect to one of the five terma statues of Great Guru Padhmasambhava. The "increasing" terma will be kept as an important relic at the Institute. The other four types of terma are uncommon, pacifying, magnetising and subjugating. Khenpo Sonam Tashi said ''the increasing terma will bless us with longevity, property, fame, status, wisdom and other benefits.''

When asked about how to pray and wish for these things, Khenpo said ''one should pray to be reborn in the realm of Zangtopelri and become like Guru Rinpoche after we die.'' He continued, ''when we are alive we should wish for good health, property and any other wishes we have.''

People gathered for Marchang ceremony

The terma was taken to Bidung, in Tashigang Dzongkhag, last December during the one million recitations of the Baza Guru mantra, and later to Bartsam during the Peling empowerment ceremony. After that it was received in Dewathang as the main relic for the benefit of the Institute, the monks, the community,  the Bhutanese nation and the world.  

The agent was received in traditional procession by the Khenpos, lamas, lopens, monks of the Institute, and the lay people of Dewathang and Samdrup Jongkhar. The terma was put on display to the public for three days while there was ongoing recitation of one hundred thousand tshok pecha by the monks of the Institute. The three-day recitation of the tshok was concluded with a blessing from the terma on January 15th.  

Dawa
Lhomon Education

Increasing terma on display

Daily Meditation

On Saturday 7th December, 2013,  during the usual exchange of questions the students ask each other, Dema Gempo asked Leki Dorji, ''How do you meditate?''

In return, Leki said ''I sit on the cushion, keep my back straight, place my hands on the lap, touch my tongue to the upper palate, lower my gaze and concentrate on my breath.''

Each day, the twenty students with shaved heads and red robes sit on cushions they’ve made out of repurposed plastics, broken umbrella covers and worn out cloth, facing the small shrine and white board. The person in charge of the bell sits in the front of the room,  and strike it once, producing a sharp and high note to set the students into the world of sitting practice for three minutes.  This moment is cherished for being very silent and aware of each present moment.  The beauty of silent sitting is perceptible when we hear the trickling sound of water, the cheeping of tiny birds from the bushes, the whining of exhalation and inhalation, the slapping of the tree leaves, the tapping of footsteps, etc.

One can hear many common sounds when the class atmosphere is dominated with silence, which we usually fail to spot during most of our daily activities. All our senses become receptive and alert to their respective external stimuli. The very gentle air puffing over our cheeks, the pain in our knees, itching in the various parts of our body, back pain, the sensation of the cushions under our buttocks, and sensing the weight of our hands in our laps are some of the negligible feelings that go unrecognized most of the time, but which are recognized when we sit and practice. These are basic foundation which allow us to climb the ladder of mindful practice, and even to realize them at this small level are positive changes in the right direction.

Contemplative practice has been part of our class since the inception of our program. It is a practice that involves looking inside oneself and focusing one's awareness on the present moment. Our students anchor on their inhalation and exhalation while keeping their spines straight, slightly lowered gazes, hands on the knees, and tongues touching the upper palate. Self-awareness of our students begins with paying attention to their senses and nurturing the present moment.

The art of being mindful can be witnessed from the arrangement of slippers and shoes along the entrance door of the class every morning. It looks very neat and well set up. It also reminds one that the same practice can be done with other activities outside our classroom. The arrangement also portrays an end result of mindfulness as attractiveness, and provides a simple opportunity and platform to practice, thus widening the prospect of practices. Whenever student's are not being mindful out of forgetfulness, as a teacher one can always remind them. 

The practice of mindfulness has changed our students in some ways, compared to when they first began. When we introduced mindfulness to our students the biggest challenge was not being able to control our student's laughter and giggling. Most of them became easily distracted by their friend's little giggles, and I vividly remember having to restart our mindfulness sessions all the way from the beginning several times. Today, this habit is not common anymore with our students. That the students are now maintaining good physical posture is another positive change I have witnessed in our students. Most of them can sit straight and maintain the required posture. I have also seen a few students taking this same practice into their rooms, and finding time to do it privately. Often I hear students teasing each other for not being mindful when they make simple mistakes in their performances. I feel that the students can now sit and practice for longer durations than in the beginning. These are a few measurable observations and changes I have witnessed with my students. 

While the ultimate goals of meditation may remain beyond our imagination, the relative aims that induces us to practice mindfulness are to become aware of daily activities, calm our minds, control our thoughts, develop concentration levels, and to be creative. 

Our practice has been positive and helpful to our students. From time to time, we give further instructions, and have also asked the Khenpos to talk about mindfulness and mediation. These help to guide the students’ practice, so that it is done authentically and in the right way. 

Henceforth, our wish is to practice more and learn more about meditation.

Alice Project Visit

At the invitation of founders Valentino Giacomin and Luigina Di Biasi, I visited The Alice Project School in Sarnath, India for one week in March, 2013 in order to observe their teaching methods and receive training that can be transferred to our classroom here at Chokyi Gyatso Institute in Dewathang. The Alice Project is near the beautiful Buddhist ruin where Buddha first taught. Graced with an environment of green trees and plants, the school provides not only a home for many animals and birds, also a place for young children to discover their inner true self. The following is a brief reflection of my visit. 

"Ciao Aunty!" children in a corridor call out to Luigina. Ciao is Italian, for good morning/evening. Ciao! she replies immediately. She is like a mother, gently holding the hands of students, tugging their uniforms, hugging and kissing. She spends a couple of minutes talking with each student despite her busy schedule. She has an inspiring quality as a teacher, while she interacts with the children. Personally I feel, that teachers should have these values as a part and parcel of their intimacy. Her love and kindness to all the children with no discrimination has gained the children's love equally in turn and they have in fact strong familial relationships rather than mere teacher/students relationships. During own my schooling, teachers were teachers and students were students. There was a big gap between us, which created fear, confusion, hostility and lot more. Teachers were viewed as fearsome. I vividly remember jumping off a wall to escape their view. I learned some very important skills from Luigina about how to establish good relationships with children. Yet, I admit there is always a room to grow and learn more.

The Alice Project is a non-governmental organization that was formally authorized by the Indian government in 1994. Its purpose is to develop an integrated education through experiences and research. Luigina and Valention founded these schools one in Sarnath and another in Bodhgaya. Today these schools offer education to more the one thousand students. Recently another school had been opened for Chakma children in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Alice Project methodology is based on the concept of unity. There are no divisions by different nationalities, traditions, religions in an ideal multicultural and pluralistic society. Lack of unity is not only a social concern but it is also a personal concern in relation to ourselves. It's here that research for psychological unity starts, a unity that goes beyond division created by confusing mind.  

They schools are following the Indian state government syllabus for the traditional disciplines, which are taught according to western methodologies, plus an additional curriculum of their special educational programme- Yoga, concentration, art, mythology, comparative religion, moral science and ecology.

"Like Alice who embarked on a great adventure and did not lose herself in Wonderland (in the book by Lewis Carroll) but found an inner guide in the form of the White Rabbit. In a same way we should guide our students to discover their true self," says Luigina. "Our students need to be able to find their way in the world around them through understanding their internal world" she added. "Understanding the internal world needs experiences and we are providing those to our children," she added.

When asked about the inner world Luigina said, ''What is going on in yourself? What can we see? what are our thoughts? our feelings? Our emotions? What is our reality? We call all this our internal world, which cannot be separated from external reality.''

Today's education system is built on separation and on classification. In school we tell the children to look at a tree. The tree is divided into three parts - roots, trunks, leaves. Is it really that the trees are divided into three parts or they were long ago, some botanist took a pen and wrote down that the trees are divided into three parts-and the idea came to an existence. Now we tell students, this is a truth, go memorise it, if you don't, you will fail in your exam.

According to Luigina, this kind of knowledge is poison. It is not truth that the trees are divided into three parts. What is true is that we project what is in our mind. Everything we perceive outside comes from our filter, our thoughts, believes, cultures, religion, principles and an environment we are raised.

The first clang of a bell calls students' attention to take their seats on the carpet. They take out their shoes and slippers around the edge and sit in their respective lines. At once, hundreds of students begin their morning  prayes. They are dressed in sky blue shirts, dark purple pants or skirts, dangling purple ties from the middle of their chests for junior grades.  The girls wear long blue knee length skirts. The morning breeze through the green tall trees, plants and flowers fills the gathering. A pigeon on a 'Y' shaped branch listens to the melodies prayer and often in between a sparrow adds to the chorus with their chirps but it is dominated by a tune of hundreds below. 

After the prayer the students sit on the carpets cross legged. A teacher stands on the floor in front of the gathering with a small bell in his right hand. He shakes it vigorously so that the sound is audible at the rear. He speaks in Hindi through a microphone held in his left hand. ''Students, sit straight, close your eyes, think about an enemy whom you have hurt. Ask yourself why did you hurt him or her. Dissolve their harsh words and pay attention to your breath. Know that you are inhaling when you inhale and exhaling when you exhale. Visualise 'OM' in your mind.'' Then in an ascending tone they chant OM...OM...OM... three times. Thus, a day begins with looking into the Internal world of self.

Being a Buddhist myself, born and raised in a society where Gross National Happiness concept was created, exploring the nature of mind and discovering its inner most quality has become a basic reliable foundation. Meditation can be a universal path of internalizing into one's own unexplored working of a mind. I realized that simple daily contemplative practices in school are very important from an early age. The education we give to our children must bring benefit throughout the individual's life and even in their next life, which I think is possible through training our mind-meditation or whatever we call it. If taken into consideration meditation would provide a unique platform for our young and unspoiled minds to discover the mind system at earliest possible. At times meditation becomes investigational lab for our children to become mind scientists. The production of hundreds and hundreds of mind scientists could begin from schools and one example could be Alice Project.

At the school, there is always some time reserved during the assembly hour to sing together in unison. Most of the songs are praises to god, value embedded and peace related. One of the songs was sung in many different languages (Hindi, English, Italian, African, Bhutanese et al). ''We will be in peace...'' followed by rhythmic claps. ''Bless the lord my Soul...''. I learned that singing songs together gives an opportunity for students to join as one, respect each other, learn and visualize the value images, work with tunes and compose their own songs.

I learned, that to cultivate the seed of a pure and good mind one should have an inspiring  environment as a fertile land and that must be constantly encouraged in our children's daily practices. At Alice Project there was a Tara temple which was dedicated to an universal peace; the long life of H.H. the Dalai Lama; Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshey, the gurus who inspired the Alice Project. There, the students from the Alice Project recite the prayer to Tara taking turns. The cosmic female energy is generated constantly by 24 hours uninterrupted recitation of her prayer. Many lamas have blessed the temple.

Yoga is a science of a body and a mind. I learned that there is an important relationship between yoga and meditation. Both the practices basically help in the development of children's concentration, calming the mind, and right growth of the body. To provide an opportunities for students to practice and learn yoga, the school has a separate yoga room and makes schedule for all the classes.

I observed several yoga classes and every time they begin with motivational prayer and meditation for few minutes. They dedicate their learning and again mediate for few minutes to end the session.

I am very impressed with the wonderful learning environment- training in tolerance and respect for all the religions, stress on interdependence, all so peaceful, friendly and happy. I feel very strongly that meditation would help our students to become better person in their life. As a part of pilgrimage I also went to see Alice school in Bodhgaya it was an inspiring school. I met with Valentino and he shared about the concern of western education system. He said  Bhutan has rich indigenous culture and tradition and it must be preserved and catered through education. If our education system goes wrong the story would be same as the crisis of ladhak and Nepal. So be careful with your education system he warns.

With this I would like to thank Valentino and Luigina for warm reception and great learning experiences you provided for me. Thank you so much for everything and my warm regards goes to you, your teachers, and to the students. 

A Journey Along The River

Burbling river of Khoma flowing down swiftly

Through the wide bank of the valley

Splashing as it moves over the rock

Curves gently through the forest and

Swerves along the base of mighty mountains

Sometime it murmurs as we move little away from it

Ripples its sound as we come closer to  

A journey along the river

As if to big mission of tracking the sources

Climbing up the rugged steeps and down the valleys

Moving at snail's pace through the trails crafted on the cliff

Sliding down the slippery track

hopping over the rocks and logs on the marshy path

harmonizing body gravity over the bridges

A journey along the river

Babbling brooks from one distance to another   

On the way are arteries to the river

Well set up on timely location

Was divine miraculous to benefit beings

To quench the burning thirst of the voyage

One bends down to sip up refreshing water

Which cools and reenergize ones boat like body

To sail its every step closer to the destination

A journey along the river 

Birds tweeting from the tops of the tall tress

Bees buzzing among the wild flowers

Butterflies fluttering around the natural flowers

Wind whispering gently through the grasses

Cicada screaming its shrill droning noise

Deer barking its sharp explosive cry

Gentle breeze whistling over the mount

Stamping pattern of the feet against the ground

A journey along the river   

Faintness in sunset

twilight over the gigantic mount of Himalayas

facing directly to the great temple of Chokyi

with last veneration until, same time

it glows in faint rosiness, that rang a bell

'A day near to graveyard'

down to the base of mighty mount

the unbroken cries of Himalayan river

descending, steadily through the vales

of beautiful laden branches and fragrance

disappears with the melodic rhythm, nothing is everlasting

Over the ascending peak of mighty mount

the dark dense clustered clouds

transform the blue vast sky into a gloomy

that drizzle down over the hamlet of Dewathang

this altering natural phenomenon, reminds of  uncertainty

A recent news of a woman's death, is an example

to our last entrance through which

no one shall prove supremacy

it was you and me who talked about her death

sooner or later they shall talk about my graveyard.

Moving shadow on the floor

flickering rays through the aperture of leaves and branches

on the ground I shall sway

with rhythm of breeze from the south

I shall continue until you too

Ecology Close to...

As I was walking and enjoying the environment one early morning- a couple of brown feather birds, the size of an average parrot with its sharp yellow beak, often scratches the dried grey ground with its claw and pick for a grain. Through the open space of a court yard, up on a leafless branch of a tall tree, a pigeon perched, scanning its feather with its beak.

Another Pigeon flew through the space of crooked branch and rest near the other. 

Then it takes three to four short steps closer and with swollen feather puts its beak over the neck of other in lovely manner. A pair of little sparrow in a playful manner, from the corner of a red building flew down at an angle of 45 degree on the blue painted wooden railing, that goes higher along the edges of climbing staircase. A squirrel with round bulging eye and a thick bushy tail climbs up the trunk, through the branches and over the leaves. They make sharp cheerful squeak. A lizard crawl down the wall of a building. The other many unrecognisable birds twitter from the corner, top, behind, beside and above. 

At an arm length distance from the wall of class building, from the tall and titling huge rubber tree hangs numerous long roots like silky hair. The early faint light from the sun cast down the dull shadows of leaves and branches on the concrete balcony of class nine. It is an environment that has ecology close to its heart.

Stupa

There is a majestic and inspiring stupa in the middle of the school building surrounded by ashok and rubber trees. The golden prayer wheels are equally framed around the stupa at the height of a metre from the ground and rotate on its axis with carved mantras on it. Positioned on the wooden table adorned with red artificial flowers and green natural flowers, are seven offering bowels and one butter lamp flickering its light in the gentle breeze, lined up in straight is offered as the morning routine of the students who live in the campus. On the other side of the stupa sheltered under the trees and plants, a line of wooden tables with metal legs and benches are arranged for the students to take meal. It's evening 7 o'clock and time for a dinner. Students sit on the bench with steel plate full of white rice and yellow potato curry over it. The metal spoon are dug into the rice and students salivate while waiting for other friends. Once everybody gathered around the meal table, they stand up from the benches, close their eye, fold their hand into lotus shape and began to offer their food to God.

Alice

A story I read in a "Wise Rabbit" book

"In an ancient time, a prince was born to a rich king. Many astrologers forecasted that he would be a great king. The prince grew up. Strangely, one day when the boy was two years old, his maid servants rushed to see something which the prince did not understand. The prince also ran out. He ran and ran. He came to a village of poor peasants.

There, just near a flat land, he fell into a puddle of mud and cow dung and he soiled his clothes. He began to cry. A peasant who was passing by noticed him. He thought he was an abandoned child, so he felt pity on him and decided to take him to his house. The prince's new home was a small shack, located on a farm. The poor peasant did not search for the child's real parents, because he had to toil day and night to maintain his big family. Neither did his family members make any effort to inquire about Ranjeet's origin and they also ignored the king's messenger who informed the people about the missing prince.

Time past and years elapsed. The boy grew up. The boy did not remember his days in the palace. He had adapted himself to the new surrounding and his new parents.

Because his parents were poor on several occasions he had to go hungry and beg. The boy would have grown up without knowing of his Royal origin. He would have lived as the son of a poor peasant, in misery and poverty, begging for food and clothes.

We are like this beggar prince, not knowing our true heritage, we have inadvertently assumed a false-self in a new environment of suffering. The Alice Project, a place nearby beautiful the Buddhist ruin in Sarnath, laden with green trees and plants, provides not only a home for many animals and birds, also a place for young children to discover their royal heritage and to return to the palace of real self."

"Like Alice who embarked on a great adventure and did not lose herself in Wonderland - a place inside-but found an inner guide (in the form of the White Rabbit). In a same way we should guide our students to discover their true self," says Luigina De Biasi, co-founder of Alice Project. "Our students need to be able to find their way in the world around them through understanding their internal world" she added. "Understanding the internal world needs experiences and we are providing those to our children," she added.

A visit to Alice Project, Universal Education

The Alice Project, a place nearby beautiful the Buddhist ruin in Sarnath, laden with green trees and plants, provides not only a home for many animals and birds, also a place for young children to discover their inner true self. The following paragraphs are the brief reflection of a weeklong visit to it.  

Chiao Aunty! children in a corridor call out to Luigina- It is an Italian language to say, good morning/evening. Chiao!, she replies immediately. She is like a mother, holding the hands of students in gentle, tugging their uniforms, hugging and kissing. She spends couple of minutes talking with each student despite her busy schedule. She has an inspiring quality as a teacher, that I have discovered while she was interacting with the children. Personally I feel, that the teachers should have these values as a part and parcel. Her love and kindness to all the children with no discrimination has gained the children's love equally in turn and they have in fact strong family relationship rather than a teacher and students. I know during my schooling teacher is teacher and student is student. There was a big gap between teachers and students, which created fear, confusion, unfriendly and lot more. Teachers are viewed as fearsome, that I once vividly remember jumping off the wall to escape their sight. I am sure I learned very important skill from her about how to establish good relationship with children. Yet, I admit there is always a room to grow and learn more.     

Alice project is a non-governmental organization that is formally authorized by the Indian government in 1994. Its purpose is to develop an integrated education through experiences and researches. So two schools were founded: one in Sarnath and another one in Bodhgaya. Today these schools offer education to more the one thousand students. Recently another school had been opened for Chakma children in Arunachal Pradesh. Alice project methodology is based on the concept of unity. There are no division due to different nationality, tradition, religion in a multicultural and pluralistic society. It is not only a social concern but it is also a personal concern of the relation with ourselves. It's here that a  research for psychological unity starts, a unity that goes beyond division created by confusing mind.  

They are following the state government syllabus for the traditional disciplines, which are taught according to western methodologies, plus the curriculum of their special educational programme- Yoga, concentration, art, mythology, comparative religion, moral science and ecology.

"Like Alice who embarked on a great adventure and did not lose herself in Wonderland - a place inside-but found an inner guide (in the form of the White Rabbit). In a same way we should guide our students to discover their true self," says Luigina De Biasi, co-founder of Alice Project. "Our students need to be able to find their way in the world around them through understanding their internal world" she added. "Understanding the internal world needs experiences and we are providing those to our children," she added.

When asked about the inner world Luigina said, 'What is going on in yourself? What can we see? what are our thoughts? our feelings? our emotions? what is our reality? we call all this our internal world, which cannot be separated from external reality.'

Today's education system is built on separation and on classification. In school we tell the children to look at a tree. The tree is divided into three parts - roots, trunks, leaves. Is it really that the trees are divided into three parts or they were long ago, some botanist took a pen and wrote down that the trees are divided into three parts-and the idea came to an existence. Now we tell students, this is a truth, go memorise it, if you don't, you will fail in your exam.

According to Luigina, this kind of knowledge is poison. It is not truth that the trees are divided into three parts. What is true is that we project what is in our mind. Everything we perceive outside comes from our filter- our thoughts, believes, cultures, religion, principles and an environment we are raised.

The first bang of a bell calls their attention to take their seats on the plastic carpet. They take out their shoes and slippers around the rim of plastic carpet and sit in their respective lines. At once, hundreds of heads dressed in sky blue shirts, dark purple pants and skirts, dangling purple ties from the middle of their chests for junior grades. long blue knee length skirt with its two sides tore apart appearing upside down 'V' shape which looks like a night outfit and a white long flat strip of cloth decorated in 'V' shape over the breast and shoulder. The morning breeze from the green tall trees, plants and flowers fill the gathering. A pigeon, on the 'Y' shaped branch listens to the melodies prayer and often in between sparrow chorus their chirps but it was dominated by a tune of hundred below. After the prayer they sit on the plastic carpets cross legged. A teacher stands on the floor in front of the gathering with a small bell on his right hand.  He shakes it vigorously so that the sound of a bell is audible at the rear. He speaks in Hindi language through a microphone held on his left hand ''Students, sit straight, close your eyes, think about an enemy to whom you hurt. Ask yourself why did you hurt him or her. Dissolve their harsh words and pay attention to your breath. Know that you are inhaling when you inhale and exhaling when you exhale. Visualise 'OM' in your mind.'' Then in an ascending tone they chant OM...OM...OM... three times. Thus, a day begins with looking into the Internal world of self.

Being a Buddhist myself, and born and brought up in a society where Gross National Happiness concept gave birth to. To me exploring the nature of a mind and discovering its inner most quality has become basic reliable foundation to qualify my background, while it can be universal path of internalizing into one's own unexplored working of a mind. I realized that simple daily contemplative practices in school are very important from an early age of human race. Because the education we give to our children must benefit throughout the individual's life and even in next life which I think is possible through training our mind-meditation or whatever we call it. If taken into consideration it would provide a unique platform for our young and unspoiled mind to discover the mind system at earliest possible. At times it becomes investigational lab to experiment the mind chemistry of our children to become mind scientists. Production of hundreds and hundreds of mind scientist should begin from schools and one example could be Alice project.

There is always sometime reserved from an assembly hour to sing together in union. Most of the songs are praise to god, value embedded and peace related. One of the songs which was sung in different languages (Hindi, English, Italian, African, Bhutanese etc) goes like this ''We will be in peace...'' followed by rhythmic claps. ''Bless the lord my Soul...'' is another inspiring song amongst many. I learned that singing songs together give opportunities for students to union as one, respect each other, learn and visualize the value images, work out  with tunes and compose their own songs.

I learned, that to cultivate the seed of a pure and good mind one should have an inspiring  environment as a fertile land and that must be constantly encouraged in our children's daily practices. Such a setting was a Tara temple which was dedicated to an universal peace; the long life of H.H. the Dalai Lama; Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshey- holy Gurus who inspired the Alice Project. There the students from the Alice project recite the prayer taking turns. The cosmic female energy is generated constantly by 24 hours uninterrupted recitation of her prayer. Many lamas have blessed the temple.

Yoga is a science of a body and a mind. I learned that there is an important relationship between yoga and meditation. Both the practices basically help in the development of children's concentration, calming the mind, and right growth of the body. To provide with an opportunities for students to practice and learn yoga the school has separate yoga room and made schedule for all the classes.

I observed several yoga classes and every time they begin with motivational prayer and meditation for few minutes. They dedicate their learning and again mediate for few minutes to end the session.

First ever National Seminar on Early Childhood Care and Development

The first ever National Seminar on Early Childhood Care and Development ended on 12^th November, 2012 at Paro College of Education. The focus of the seminar was on Holistic Early Childhood Care and Development: The first step in realizing Gross National Happiness.

     The seminar presented opportunities for participants to exchange constructive dialogues about ECCD knowledge and understanding of an importance of ECCD, it provided an avenue for different stakeholders in ECCD to share their work,  it was to educate an sensitize the policy makers and leaders and legislators in formalizing ECCD as a national education  agenda, and to bring together the local experts and experts in the region on a common plate form for sharing the best practices of ECCD.
      More than 200 participants’ including principals, DEOs, ADEOs from twenty dzongkhag, health workers, early learning centre facilitators from Paro and Thimphu, lecturers from two Education Colleges and student teachers of Paro College, attended the two days Seminar.
     The opening ceremony was graced by His Excellency, the Minister of Education, Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyel, on 11^th November, 2012 coinciding with the Birth Anniversary of His Majesty, the Fourth Druk Gyelpo, Jigme Singey Wangchuk and Children’s day. Also present were the Madam, Claire Van der Vaeren Resident coordinator of United Nation Development Programme, Mr. Eric Durpaire, Deputy Representative and the officiating Representative of UNICEF, Mr. Ghalley County Director  of save the children, Mr. Kinley Gyeltshen, Chief programme officer of ECCD and SEN Division, Managing Director of DAHE, and Directors of RIHS, PCE and SCE     His Excellency, in opening speech highlighted that, “The only viable wealth that we have is our people,  it is imperative to build our human capacity at all level, but the best place to begin is early childhood because this is where most mental and physical development takes place”      His Excellency further added that, “Children are our collective responsibility- involving the parents, state institutions, non-governmental and civil society organizations, the media, the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and volunteer groups- given the critical importance of children as the custodians of our future”.           

Mrs. Purushottani Bhanda, one of the participants from Yebilaptsa Hospital said “the seminar enhanced my knowledge on upbringing children from the day of conception to 8 years old”     Another participant, Mr. Kinley Penjor, from Sarpang Hospital said “It was quiet a relevant seminar from my professional perspective, as people like me are in the frontline interacting with children’s health needs, which includes all the aspect of physical, emotional and psychological”. He added “the seminar enhanced my knowledge and understanding on the importance of young child’s need”.  Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) refer to services provided to caregivers as well as children aged 0-8 years old. The services include pre-natal and neonatal health care, organized early stimulation and learning through early childhood care and development centres- private, community and workplace. ECCD is a fairly new concept in Bhutan. It all began when Royal Government of Bhutan allowed private entrepreneurs to establish private primary schools in late 1990’s. These private schools had nursery classes which catered to young children between ages 3-5 years.
     The seminar was organized by Paro College of Education with financial support from UNICEF, save the children, Ministry of Education and Royal University of Bhutan.