Bazaar International

Faces of Bhutan-Spirits and Humans (Sept 2010-Sept 2011 issue)

The theme for this year’s edition of the Faces of Bhutan is spirits and humans. The Bhutanese have always lived side by side with spirits, sharing territories, natural resources, and relationships as members of the same hidden land. We are surrounded by rocks, hills, streams, lakes and mountains that are believed to be the abodes of spirits. As a result, some of our actions, especially ones related to the environment, are guided by the unwritten rules of the spirits.

Today, the citadels of the spirits are coming under increasing pressures from modern development. Mining, road construction, lumbering, and many other modern activities have scarred and desecrated the homes of the spirits. However, considering that much of our natural environment is virgin, we would like to believe that the spirits have not abandoned their ancestral territories.

Therefore, to celebrate our thousands of years of relationship with the spirits and to bring insight into the world of spirits, Bhutan Observer has invited a galaxy of scholars, writers, researchers, and academics to contribute to its yearly magazine, Faces of Bhutan.

Featuring stories by some of Bhutan’s best writers, this magazine introduces the rich Bhutanese stories about spirits and human encounters with spirits to a mass market audience for the first time.