Still adaptable
The utse, or central tower, is found in most district dzongs (central administrative fortresses). The use usually holds a series of chapels. This utse is in the center of the JSW School of Law complex, housing dean’s offices on the lower floors and a chapel on the top floor. The red stripe at the top indicates a religious building, requiring that it must always be circumambulated clockwise.
Kuzu zampo la, y’all!
After four weeks, I have largely adapted to the elevation (2600-2800 meters above sea level; 8500-9000 feet), time zone (13 hours ahead of California), food (lots of rice, lots of chilis), and culture (lots of etiquette).
It turns out I’m still adaptable, and more importantly, getting out of my comfort zone is invigorating.
Preparing for a religious ritual and welcome ceremony in the lhakhang (chapel) on the top floor of the utse
I am deeply grateful for the luxury of time during this trip that allows me to imbibe the embodied experience of living and working in a different culture without rushing around with a list checking off every essential tourist site.
I’ve reconnected with old friends and colleagues; made new friends; walked in the mountains at the end of most days; and reconnected to my love of the face-to-face university teaching after six years of online teaching.
JSW School of Law looking every bit the educational monastery-fortress, or dzong, with clouds pouring over the mountain behind.
A novelistic semi-doppelgänger?
When I arrived here a month ago, Miranda July’s book All Fours, a much-discussed book of the spring and summer, hailed as the “first great perimenopause novel,” was vivid in my mind.
The protagonist, a middle-aged creative professional living in California, finds herself treading water in the constant juggle that is family-career-home-friends-identity. She plans a road trip to New York but makes it only as far as a nearby suburb, where she explores personal reinvention (no spoilers here!).
As a lover of road trips and travel, I was frustrated with the protagonist for not continuing on her geographical journey. I worried that middle age meant I would experience a similar loss of external ambition. (One of) the novel’s point(s), of course, is that the inner journey is more significant than the external one.
Shaking up outer conditions can bring greater attention to internal dynamics. To that point, the kind and brilliant faculty, staff, and students, high elevation fresh air, lush green surroundings, and picturesque campus have been quite supportive for taking a mindful pause and contemplating the second half of life.
Sun, rain, and a tiny hermitage
Machig Labdrön, an 11th century Buddhist teacher and yogini, in an image from Wikipedia. By Unknown author - NAGostS-H4Xh4w at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21908298
Teachings from an ancient Buddhist yogini
I continue to encounter Machig Labdrön, an eleventh century female Buddhist teacher and yogini, who greeted me when my mind was full of doubt early in my stay. A temple associated with her is not far from where I’m staying; references to her keep popping up in my reading.
She is associated with cutting away ego attachments, including doubt and our own self-conceptions, which can come into sharper relief in a new context.
As Lopön Charlotte Z. Rotterdam writes in the Buddhist magazine Lion’s Roar,
Her teachings on severance (the literal translation of Chöd) are about cutting through the fundamentally mistaken notion of self-identity in which I set myself over and apart from all that is “not me.”
Machig Labdrön’s famous five teachings, focused on clearing away dualistic misperceptions, have provided rich food for thought:
1. Confess your hidden faults.
2. Approach what you find repulsive.
3. Help those you think you cannot help.
4. Anything you are attached to, give that.
5. Go to the places that scare you.
In this time of grave division the US, it occurs to me that #2 and #3 are wise teachings for balancing opposing the cruelty and incompetence of the current regime, with keeping an open heart and mind and avoiding falling into hatred. This does not mean we should accept the ongoing atrocities by any means — Buddhist teachers are known for being fiercely opposed to malice and ignorance — but avoiding the dualistic, us-against-them hatred may bring a broader perspective to the challenges the country faces.
Much of my anxiety about traveling here had to do with loosening my attachments to things that create ease and comfort at home, so #4 has also been quite relevant and provocative. I’m managing just fine without my favorite brand of oat milk — enjoying Thai soy milk — and am working on loosening the more significant attachments to ideas and pre-conceptions as well.
Mountains at sunset
Things I miss and those I don’t
Nonetheless, there are plenty of
Things I miss
My family & local friends
Pizza & salad
Drinking water from the tap
The smell of the ocean
Redwood trees
California wine
The view of Mount Tam
Long summer evenings
And plenty of
Things I don’t miss
The urgent pace of life
Congested traffic
Road rage
“No time”
Hours in front of the computer unpunctuated by activity or humanity
People always mediated by screens
The palpably-thick atmosphere of anxiety as the regime attempts to destroy democracy
Chest x-rays were part of the required medical checkup to receive a work permit. We’re inquiring where to go.
Legal now
After four visits to Thimphu, the capital city that is a 90-minute drive from the law school, I have a work permit that allows me to live and work here legally until Dec. 1.
The lengthy process was in distinct contrast to my earlier visits when work with an agency involved a verbal agreement, submission of passport details for a visa, and showing up in Paro.
The work permit process began with joining recent graduates and visiting laborers to stand in many long queues in a crowded wing of the hospital to collect and complete forms.
After submission and review of a complete medical history, a drug test kit must be purchased outside of the hospital. Blood and urine are taken for testing (apparently including checking for pregnancy). A chest x-ray and vision test completes the medical review.
The work permit process continues with a promise not to contravene the three pillars of Bhutan – the king, country or government, and the people, known as the Tsa Wa Sum (sum = three) – and concludes at Immigration with biometric data (finger and thumb prints) and a photo ID, one of the best Bhutan souvenirs ever, which sadly must be surrendered when I depart.
Paro Valley at Sunset
You too could work in Bhutan
Speaking of working in Bhutan, JSW School of Law is seeking visiting faculty to teach electives in the spring, and especially next fall, when they’ll be offering three electives for fourth and fifth year students.
Current faculty teaching in the areas of law and policy are invited to propose a course that fits into one of these areas of the curriculum:
Trade & Commercial Law (contracts, economics, insurance, bankruptcy, taxation, banking, etc.)
Information & Technology Law (privacy, data, AI, biotechnology, cyber law, health, info tech, etc.)
GNH, Law & Sustainability (environmental ethics, animal welfare, climate change, Buddhism, energy, etc. My elective fits in here).
International Politics, Relations & Law (human rights, humanitarian law, international relations, geopolitics, global peace & security, etc.)
In my experience, there’s quite a bit of latitude to propose a course that meets your interests and the School’s needs.
Benefits of teaching here include excellent students & colleagues, facilitation of the visa and work permit, accommodations on campus, an office, the possibility of taking meals in the dining hall with students or cooking for oneself, and access to laundry services. And of course the ability to live in and explore Bhutan!
This opportunity is best for someone who has a funded sabbatical or fellowship like a Fulbright.
Flexibility, adaptability, patience, and senses of humor and adventure are definitely required. The mountaintop monastery is a great place to think, write, hike, and mountain bike.
Please share with anyone who might be interested. I’m happy to answer questions and put potential visiting faculty in touch with the relevant people here.
May we not be too beholden to our pre-conceptions and attachments,
Tashi delek!
JSW School of Law at night. The dark windows at the center top are where my apartment is.