Japanese monks are usually good in paintings. They practiced painting not to become famous artists but to build focus and gain concentration skills.  They found drawing and painting to be one of the best medium to get to higher levels of concentration. These days, especially teachers try every means to gain student’s attention in the classrooms.  One way could be indulging students in art activities that will bring in educational and personal benefits in long run. 

So to bring art as an important aspect of LME curriculum Dr. Yang Gyeltshen, a lead teacher has recently visited Trashiyangtse Zorig Chosum Institute to interact with Zorig Instructors and collect relevant materials for the development of LME curriculum Unit on Art and Culture. 

Organic Gardening Class

Forty-one monks of the Chokyi Gyatso Buddhist Institute in Dewathang, Samdrup Jongkhar, are taking part in organic gardening classes that aspire to teach sustainable nurturing of soil through practical activities.

The Organic Gardening class is part of Lhomon Education’s curriculum to provide opportunity to learn the basics of livelihood and give hands on experience.

Lhomon Education (LME) is a grassroots initiative to foster the development of innovative curricula designed specifically for Bhutanese students to integrate principles of Gross National Happiness effectively and practically.

Lhomon Society is helping teachers to create unique GNH-based curricula for use in a variety of educational environments.

Lhomon Education currently is a pilot program.

“Among many practical and concrete manifestations of GNH vision, the use of vegetable gardens is important to teach key dimensions of the science curriculum,” said Dawa, who is a resident teacher at the Buddhist Institute. “They learn about the elements necessary for healthy soil and ways of growing healthy food products without the use of chemical fertilizers.”

The Institute has created a garden to promote organic gardening and instill in the young minds the Bhutanese farming traditions, and its role, in the long run, to achieve food security and self-sufficiency in the country.

“The study guides the students toward a genuine and heartfelt stewardship of the earth and impart in them a deeper understanding of the interconnection and interdependence law of nature through practical means and not just through the books,” said Dawa. “Making their own composts using green and dry leaves, cow dung and urine functions as a means of teaching science, cultural history and literature, and other GNH principles and values which they’ll learn to uphold in the process.”

The students learn the basic aspects of organic gardening as part of their lessons, which is taught by a local farmer. The students engaged in the activity are encouraged to develop team work and cooperation rather than going for competition among their groups.

Dawa said that the students are their own architects in the garden, shaping their own beds, calculating, measuring, and designing them in whatever way they desire. He said the depth, width and the line that they keep track of while sowing seeds are an estimation and mathematical concept in itself.

“I prefer working in the garden as compared to sitting in the class than to just listening to the organic gardening from my teachers,” said 14-year-old monk Sonam Wangchuk. “I get to work with my friends as a team. Besides, I’ve learned to make compost and garbage enzyme. I also learned to do measurements for the compost shelter. I like practical gardening work.”

The smiles and satisfactions on the students’ face during the harvest period indicate their own appreciation of the hard work and hands on learning experience that is taking place.

Lhomon Education plans to encourage and educate the community and schools around to take up organic gardening by teaching them methods of composting and other related organic practices.

By Sonam Yangdon, a journalist; TheBhutanese  

Community Service

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”  Mother Teresa

On the 21^st of May, more than 100 students from Lhomon Education, Jigme Namgyel Engineering College and staff of Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative took part in collecting pebbles at Rekhey community.

The volunteer service started with the recitation of karma yoga prayer. The Karma Yoga is a practice to apply the supreme methods for refining our intentions and motivations to carry out any service selflessly for the greater benefit of all sentient beings. The volunteer group was briefed to perform the task as sincerely as possible with right mindset to accumulate merit and positive energy. The volunteer service has been a very much part of LME students to inculcate a sense of responsibility for the community and also to practice selflessness through karma yoga. It is also to provide oppourtunity for students to take up leadership role and to inspire other people that an individual can make a responsible difference in our community.

It was a tiring, yet satisfactory and fulfilling day in the service of our community.

A poem about wind --- Written by Senior LME students

The wind that blows from the south

We can’t see it but can feel it

The wind that blows from the south

Is a gentle and calm breeze

The wind that blows from the south

Goes into our ears and noses

The wind that blows from the south

Makes happy with cool and fresh feel

The wind that blows from the south

Carries chirping of birds 

The wind that blows from the south

Makes tall bamboo and tree dance

The wind that blows from the south

Helps bamboo leaves flutter and whistle

The wind that blows from the south

Makes white clouds move in the sky

The wind that blows from the south

Blows away dry and brown leaves

The wind that blows from the south

Makes dragonfly and butterfly hover on it wings

The wind that blows from the south

Makes a black eagle float on its wide wing  

A Bow Drill

How can one possibly make a fire in a situation where there is no fire ignition tool?  What if one is gone missing in a jungle where there is no settlement. Imagine how you would react to this situation where there is no matchstick or lighter? This situation is difficult for those who have not heard of ancient ways of making fire, however, it is not challenging for those who have little understanding of friction and its practical application in igniting fire during ancient time.

Making fire using scientific knowledge of friction may seem classical and not so fashionable these days, nevertheless, it is essentially an inherited wisdom that our humanity has survived and succeeded through many generations using it. In fact, we have to cherish this age old tradition that endured generations after generations.

To upkeep traditional and cultural practices intact, Lho Mon Education taught a lesson on how to make fire using a bow drill. The fire was very important paraphernalia for the survival of early people. Deprived of effortless modern tools those days, people had to come up with simple devices to help make fire easily. Bow drill is a simple machine to make fire rubbing two pieces of wood together. It is made using bamboo, wood, branches and string. The tool generates heat after vigorously rubbing and produces fire ember from which fire is lit. We also need some dry grasses and sawdust to turn fire ember into the flame. There are specific soft woods found in our locality (Dewathang) that were used particularly for this purpose, such as phrangshing (a soft local tree) and khartong mancha (special stone).

For students, it was fun trying to rub with their last muscle strength and often break into laughter with a fume of smoke from the tool. With patience and repeated effort, it was a fascinating moment for them to witness fire ember and finally make fire using dry grasses. The experience was not only learning how to make fire but it was a practical demo of how friction leads to fire and understand how early people had to take hardship.

This art of making fire may not be completely useful in present day especially in an era of abundant light equipment, however, it connects previous generations’ cultural practices to the present generation.

Farm as a classroom

Schools provide space for creative thinking and learning wholesome and healthy growth of our children, who are always inquisitive. Schools help children find meaning of their lives and prepare them to live their lives well as good human beings. Students are not in schools just to follow the mundane daily routine of completing the syllabus and passing the exams. Schools help children to find joy in knowing about and exploring the world - simple things like source of water, food, plastics, etc. Students learn through gradual exposure to external world and by connecting the inner self with the outside world. Students learn by doing things themselves.

Here with Lhomon Education (LME), we provide students the opportunity to learn and prepare themselves for their lives and to fulfil their daily needs through practical hands on experience. LME endeavours to make learning joyful to its students.

One of the activities carried out by the students is organic garden, through which we strive to close the gap between knowledge and practical aspect of learning. The garden becomes the classroom. Students make compost; terrace the land and plant vegetables. It is part of their lesson and taught by a local farmer, who does not have a teaching degree. Instead of competition, cooperation and team work amongst students is encouraged. Harvesting vegetables from their garden is a matter of great joy and satisfaction for the students. Learning is taking place simultaneously.

When I was student, we had to do agriculture every Saturday. We did not learn anything from it as we were all focused on production since it was a competition between houses and classes. Learning on the farm and from a farmer was unthinkable then. We must be reminded that students learn more when they are able to connect with the external world, otherwise what they are taught in class remains abstract and irrelevant. And in LME, students enjoy gardening and they do not focus on production. And, I learn more here than during my sixteen years of schooling.  

Small steps towards building mindful schools & communities

The 7 day mindfulness camp held at Chokyi Gyatso Institute Dewathang ended on 26th December, 2016. Its content included meditation, mindful offering of butter lamps, selection of local agriculture produced, waste minimization, cooking, eating & walking, karma yoga (work as practice) & sharing of experiences. SJI as mindful choices, universal human values as a skilful means (by Director, JNEC) & contemplative education (by Dr. Yang Gyeltshen, LME lead teacher) as being integral to mindful teaching-learning were also presented at the camp. Post camp school activities & experiences were shared by the participants of the 2nd camp. The participants proposed about 25 activities, which could possibly be implemented in schools. A platform for continued dialogue among participants, participants-SJI-CGI, etc. has been created.

The camp was resourced by Yangsid Drubgyud Tenzin. There were 43 camp attendees: 22 teachers, 9 lopens from CGI, 3 civil servants, 3 youth from Menchari village (GNH model village) & 6 from SJI. The camp is integral to SJI's education program (LME) conducted annually, primarily targeted for educators. Three camps have been conducted till date with over 100 attendees.

Alongside the camp, SJI focused on waste minimization and served only locally available produce. The 7 day camp produced only few plastic wastes like the wrappers of salt, sugar and atta flour. Compiling with mindfulness practice, the only waste generated in the kitchen of the mindfulness camp was 5 salt packets, 2 sugar packets and 4 packets of atta flour. In other words, only 11 plastics in 7 days. Even if we measure it will come around 150 gram only. If it was not prepared mindfully it would have produced tons of waste in a week which is against the philosophy of SJI and of course against GNH. The meals were all organic and nutritious.

Medicinal Herbs - losing its importance

Manchhhilu (Aconitum patulam)

Amartsala

As a child I lived in a remote place called Bhangtar under Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag. In those days when we had a cut on our body parts, our parents and elders would collect plants called lanyiru (a term in tshangla, a widely spoken dialect in East Bhutan) (botanical name: Rubia cordifolia.) The plant leaves were rubbed and squeezed to stop the bleeding. It would heal the wound. A plant named Juung in tshangla (botanical name: Curcuma longa) heals stomach ache and diarrhoea. People in the villages make use of these herbs to cure illnesses before the advent of modern medical service (though some people still have confidence in local medicine).  Today some elder people continue to use herbal medicine and cure others as well; one of them is meme Karchung, resident of Bangtsho village in Dewathang. He is known as a local doctor and the people of Dewathang go to him to treat certain illness such as stomach pain, fracture, wound, etc. There are few such people left and it has become very crucial for us to preserve this knowledge. LME students study about local herbal medicines with the help of meme Karchung. They have made field trips in the forest to study and recognize local herbs and also collect them.  

The following are some herbs collected by the students:

Botanical name	Local name	Uses
Adhatoda Vasica	Khatsirmo	Leaves are mixed and boiled together with Artemisia to cure wounds.
Rubia cordifolia	Lanyiru	Leaves are beaten and used to cure wounds.
Aconitum patulam	Manchhilu	Leaves to be boiled to wash the body to heal the wounds.
Enteda gigantea	Kolokpo Ru	Cures wound.
Phytolacca acinoso	Zalamathangru	Cures stomach-ache. We soak the tip of the creeper in the hot water and drink it.
Curcuma longa	Juung	Cures diarrhoea and stomach ache.
-----	Amartsala	Leaves are squeezed to stop the blood oozing and also to cure wounds.
-----	Kiling sey	Cures the cracks of the heel. Used as soap in the past and  also anti-leech.

Richness of nine traditional grains: Lebi (soya bean) to tofu

Ms. Pema Lhadon with students 

Students washing soya bean 

As a part of learning lesson under the topic, “Traditional Ecological Knowledge” the students learned about the nine traditional grains, domestically known as drunagu. One of the nine grains is soya bean or lebi in Sharchop (eastern dialect). This grain had appeared in the traditional folk tale of four greedy friends narrated by Meme Karchung, one of the older men in the Bangtsho community, Dewathang. The folk tale was about four friends who were very poor, had nothing to eat and had weakness in their body parts such as tiny neck, fragile leg, thin cheek and delicate chest. One day, when they went out looking for food, they found soya bean seeds. They were very greedy and wanted to eat all the soya bean seeds.

The story of soya bean continues with Ms. Pema Lhadon, an entrepreneur who visited Chokyi Gyatso Institute (CGI) to train its monks in tofu making in an effort to provide more nutritious food. It was opportune for our students to actively participate in seeing the relationship between classroom learning and application of that knowledge in our daily lives.

Pema said, “Soya bean has higher protein than meat (40% and 20% in meat), and carbohydrate with less fat. It contains small amount of all vitamins except potassium. Besides, soya bean is locally grown and it is free of chemicals, thus avoiding all health risks due to consumption of chemicals. It also contributes to local economy and prevents cash outflow”.

Students enjoying TOFU

We could understand the nutritional value of the traditional grain and its impact on our health. While few students seriously took down notes of what the expert was sharing and the process that was unfolding, rest of the students actively and joyfully engaged in the entire process of making tofu by cleaning dishes, rinsing the soaked soya bean, extracting milk out of ground soya bean, straining water from the warmed soya bean milk and of course relishing the final product (TOFU) with a great sense of pride, knowing well that it is good for their health. It helped broaden their outlook towards traditional grains as being important for food and nutrition sufficiency of our community.

Soya bean milk 

The process also involved learning the value of not wasting any part of the food. Distributing the soya bean paste that remained after the extraction of its milk, students were asked to concoct their own recipes from it.

Later in the evening fifteen different kinds of dishes were made by students, in groups and as individuals. Most of dishes were made using common daily Bhutanese ingredients, viz. chilli, salt, oil, onion and tomato. Bhutanese chilli pickle (eazay) was the most common dishes. One of the students had made porridge; another fried the paste with sugar. Adding different flavours like sweet, salt and spicy, students had tried their best to make their food delicious.

Learning was indeed a great joy for the students. CGI plans to give tofu twice a week. Monks will make it from our own soya bean! 

Dishes made out of soya bean paste