Bhutan wired for TV launch

CALCUTTA, MAY 25: On June 2, the world's last Shangri-La will fade into legend, taken over by the all-encompassing reach of the Informati...

CALCUTTA, MAY 25: On June 2, the world8217;s last Shangri-La will fade into legend, taken over by the all-encompassing reach of the Information Age as Bhutan enters the world of television and the Internet. That milestone will coincide with another, the silver jubilee of King Jigme Singye Wangchuk8217;s accession.

The introduction of television is deeply symbolic; reports from Thimphu say the country is readying itself for a real cultural revolution. 8220;There8217;s a festive mood everywhere. Houses are being re-painted, streets lined with festoons and people traversing the mountains to reach here on time to witness the country8217;s historic turnaround,8221; an excited Sonam Tsong, executive director of the Bhutan Broadcasting Service, told The Indian Express from Thimphu.

Tsong8217;s problems are carried home. 8220;All my relatives from across the country want to be in my house at the time. I have even opened my garage to keep them, but they won8217;t mind. They8217;ll take anything to be here that day.8221;

Kinley Dorjee, theusually obliging editor of the kingdom8217;s only newspaper, the weekly Kuensel, has a word of warning. 8220;The entire international media will be here. I may not be of much help. So get in touch with officials at the External Affairs Ministry immediately if you don8217;t want to miss out on history-making in the Himalayas.8221;

If that sounds like a bit of hype, the Bhutanese are perfectly entitled to it. For not only did Bhutan ban television, it viewed it with distaste and distrust; it was the great corruptor that would destroy the kingdom8217;s jealously guarded Driglam Namja the traditional Buddhist Way of life that was reintroduced by the King in the early 1990s.

Dish antennas remain illegal to this day. Only in recent years has officialdom begun to look the other way when people in Thimphu put up dishes to see World Cup soccer or cricket.

Tsong admits that people are worried about the impending culture shock, and so caution is currently the buzz word. The BBS, which will run the nationaltelevision channel, has decided on a three-hour programme on June 2 and 3 in the native Dzongkha and in English. Subsequently, select programmes from foreign channels would be telecast. So don8217;t bother checking the Baywatch listings.

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Unlike the radio service, also run by the BBS, television will not reach the Nepali-speaking people in southern Bhutan. 8220;This has nothing to do with the problems with Nepali-speaking people several hundred thousands of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese have been living in refugee camps in Nepal following a crackdown by the security forces on the democracy movements of the early 1990s. The telecast will initially be confined to Thimphu8221;, the official said.

That Bhutan was slowly but surely emerging from the shadows was signalled last July when King Wanchuk proclaimed his historic kasho8217; royal edict, surrendering many of his powers to the council of ministers. It was hailed as a political revolution. Now comes the first hint of an information-cum- cultural revolution.Together, the two revolutions mark the Dragon kingdom8217;s hesitant entry into the new millennium.