A Bhutanese Christmas

While all of you in North America and Europe have been engulfed in the Yuletide season of lights, bell-ringers, carols, and rampant consumerism since Thanksgiving (or, these days, since Halloween), we here in Bhutan have been going about our day-to-day lives. In Bhutan – being a heavily Buddhist country (almost 80% of the population and the official religion of the state) and the rest of the population being Nepali Hindu – Christmas is, of course, not celebrated. There is a small small Christian minority (<1% of the population), but no official churches to speak of in Bhutan. The absence of the Christmas craziness that holds December hostage in the United States was certainly different and didn't make it feel like Christmas to us, but at the same time it was a little refreshing to have Christmas out at arm's-length rather than right in your face.

Nonetheless, Emily and I found our own ways to celebrate Christmas with old and new traditions and with a blend of Bhutanese and American cultures.

It began to feel like Christmas time when we received a care package from my mom that contained some of the delights of home that are absent here: Reese's peanut butter cups, M&Ms, mixed nuts, a chocolate orange (a Christmas Eve tradition in my family), homemade snickerdoodle cookies (also a Christmas tradition in my family), and many other things. Included in our package were a few Christmas decorations that my mom threw in on a whim. We also received several Christmas cards in the past few weeks from both our parents and from Emily's cousin Jenny. That was really nice!

Our Christmas decorations. Safe to say that Shiva, Ganesha, and Buddha don't usually sit
above Christmas stockings.  

Christmas Eve, for both the Schuelka's and the Brandl-Salutz's, is a time for a wide assortment of snacks and holiday treats. We replicated that as best we could here, although many many substitutions had to be made. For example, one of my favorite things around Christmas is the ranch-flavored chex mix that my family makes and is consumed without abandon by my sister and I. Since zero of the ingredients that go into that mix can be found here (crispix cereal, cheez-its, pretzels, and dry ranch seasoning), that beloved snack had to be forgotten this year. Instead we made things like peanut masala (a new favorite that will find its way to Christmas Eve in the States) and had things like nimbu pudina flavored crackers and a favorite Indian mix called Chanachur. As you can see below, we also had some familiar things like popcorn, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, sweets that my mom sent us, and amazing tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole courtesy of Salsa Fiesta in Thimphu – the only Mexican restaurant in Bhutan. Emily also made hot toddies with Bhutanese whiskey.

Our Christmas Eve spread. 

Our friend Samir came over to enjoy the snacks and to watch some Christmas movies. We watched a new episode of The Office that we downloaded from iTunes called "Dwight's Christmas" (very funny) and then watched Bad Santa, a movie that is a tradition with my sister and I and the perfect anti-Christmas-schmaltz movie. We all enjoyed that and had a good time together.

The next morning we woke up early to skype with our families (our Christmas Day, their Christmas Eve, since Bhutan is 12 hours ahead of Minnesota). In what is becoming all too frequent here, we lost our internet and phones in mid-morning for the rest of the day, so we were glad that we were able to talk with our families for a little while at least. We made a big brunch and listened to Bach's "Christmas Oratorio." We didn't exchange any presents, but we did buy a very nice tea set when we were in Darjeeling and shipped it to ourselves via Emily's parents' house. We are considering that our Christmas gift to ourselves.

Christmas brunch.

In the afternoon we watched It's a Wonderful Life (a cliche, sure, but also a fantastic movie) and then we headed into Thimphu. We had tea at the Taj Tashi hotel – the gigantic five-star hotel in the middle of Thimphu (and also where I had my birthday dinner). The Taj, catering almost exclusively to wealthy Euro-North American tourists, was decked out for Christmas. These were the only Christmas decorations that we saw in Thimphu. Apparently, the Bhutanese government had issued 5 permits to cut down trees for Christmas. Not sure where they all went, but at least several of them went to the Taj and I would guess the rest went to other five-star resorts. 

The entrance to the Taj. 

Impressive ginger bread house in the Taj lobby.

The Taj lobby. 

Having Christmas tea. Notice the nutcracker! 

For Christmas dinner, we went to the Bhutanese Folk Heritage Museum Restaurant, which serves up some of the best and most authentic Bhutanese food here (and for a fantastic price, compared to the Taj Hotel). Emily and I were invited by Bonnie and Mike, two American volunteers at the hospital. We were joined by other doctors and health care workers that were here through Health Volunteers Overseas. Unlike all of you, who probably had your Christmas hams and turkeys with all the rich, buttery side dishes, our Christmas meal consisted of ara (Bhutanese moonshine, essentially), pork livers, momos, dried beef, ema datse (chilies and cheese), steamed turnip leaves, buckwheat pancakes, and red rice among the many dishes. It was all quite good and, needless to say, a very unique Christmas dinner! 

My Christmas meal, served in traditional Bhutanese wooden bowls that fit together to keep food fresh. 

After dinner, we had a white elephant gift exchange, which was a lot of fun and there were a lot of goofy presents to be had!

One of the great gifts we ended up with was a toy yak.
Here he is enjoying some ara. 

Yak's getting a little tipsy. He found his way into our other great present,
this odd and strangely alluring tiger mug. 

Purvi and Nipun and their golden plastic Buddha. 

Norman ends up with one of  our gifts, a notebook that reads,
"Easy to writing, you will share your happy to me!"

Me and my tiger mug. 

After the gift exchange, and enjoying each other's company, it was time to go and the restaurant called taxis for us. The restaurant manager came up to Emily and I and meekly told us that there was a taxi that was headed up towards RTC, but it had been transporting meat and smelled. She asked us if this would be okay for us. I have to admit that part of me was revolted (having walked past many a Bhutanese meat shop with an aroma that will make you gag) but part of me was also intrigued. What a funny story to tell about what came to be known as the "meat taxi!" Unfortunately for the story – but probably fortunately for us – the taxi smelled more of lemon-scented cleaner than anything as it was obvious that they had dumped a whole bunch in the taxi after hauling around meat. Emily and I packed in the taxi, already filled with the taxi driver, his brother, and his father, and off we sped into the cold and dark Bhutanese night. Merry Christmas!

Since the semester got out in early December, the campus has been a ghost town with almost the entirety of the faculty gone to go back to their homes (Bhutanese, Indians and Americans alike) and a lot of the staff taking vacations as well. Right now, Samir and the two of us are the only ones living on campus (whereas there are usually 600 – students, staff, and faculty). Our other friends Chris and Liz were going to be around, but then decided to go to Thailand.

It is getting much colder, with RTC always being colder than down in the Thimphu valley. Besides electrical, internet, and phone outages, we can now add water to the list as the pipes keep freezing. We are now forced to leave a faucet on all the time to keep the water flowing in the pipes so it won't freeze. What a waste of water! This is apparently common practice in Bhutan. Between the electric heaters, zero insulation in the buildings, and the always-running water, Bhutan in the winter is an incredible inefficient place. We are now reduced to wearing long underwear along with several layers, gloves, and winter hats inside of our apartment.

In 10 days we will be off to Thailand and Malaysia, where the temperatures will be in the high 80s and the humidity will be high. It will be a very different feeling than now! We're looking forward to it...

An empty campus, but full of fantastic views.