Critical Appreciation – Constructive Criticism

The Nepali version of Buddhism is penetrating in Bhutan in an apparent effort of the Bhutanese government to tighten the grip on the Hindus and to ward off the growing influence of Vishwa Hindu Federation. On 12 June 2019, a chaitya resembling Swayambhunath of Kathmandu valley was inaugurated in Damphu which is a heart of the Hindu culture and civilization in Bhutan. Hindu religion which is also linked to the Nepali language in Bhutan was for a couple of decades symbolised an anti-current entity of Drukpa-Buddhist bravado. His Holiness Je Khenpo Jigme Choedra, the head of the Buddhism in Bhutan, inaugurated the monastery. It was attended by the officers and people of Chirang district. In Bhutan, there has been a constant state pressure on minority Hindus to adopt Buddhism. The first session of the national assembly of Bhutan in 1953 had resolved to convert all the Bhutanese people who spoke Nepali and followed Hinduism into Dzongkha speaking and Buddhism following citizens. The states’ continuous effort led to an expulsion of unmalleable citizens into exile, in the 1990s. Thereafter the remaining Bhutanese population took up the Dzongkha language and soon became more proficient than the native speakers. The imposition of religion was not that easy. Decades of exercises, rules, policies, and lures to metamorphose the Hindus to Buddhists failed. The people rather resorted to Christianity for freedom of worship. No church exists in Bhutan. The constitution does not allow the acceptance of a religion that was not in practice in the country for the last fifty years. Christianity falls in that category. The number of Christian converts has grown tremendously. In the International Nepali Speaking Christian Pastors’ Conference held in Kathmandu last March, at least one hundred Bhutanese pastors were present. It was mentioned in the program that there are fifty to sixty thousand Jesus worshipers in Bhutan. They have no Church but there are no legal hassles congregating in private…