Let there be a National Literary Award in Bhutan
Most
of the foreigners who visited the Bhutan as tourists and volunteers
attempt to write the books on Bhutan describing its culture and
environment. Bhutan perhaps gives them the peace and tranquility that
are conducive to cultivate their creative juices. On other hand, the
Bhutanese writers find it hard to find the readers for their works,
forget the recognition. Many people have written the books either in
national language or English language just to gather dusts on the
bookshelf of local bookstores across the country. Of two genres, the
fiction and non-fiction, the non-fictions seem to do little better. The
non-fiction books are, at least, referred to by some curious foreigners
and some local graduates attempting the civil service examinations. Unlike its twin brother non-fiction, the fiction books hardly sell in Bhutan.
Visit
to any bookstore in the capital. Select a book by Bhutanese author and
secretly mark it. After three months, you will see that same book on
same shelf waiting lazily for you to buy. Besides non-favourable
Bhutanese reading habits, the cost of the books also drive away some
interested readers especially school-going children. The books are
charged for quality of papers rather than the quality of content. The
cost of a novella of fifty something pages by some unknown authors will
be more than ngultrum 250.
If
you go back to history, Bhutan has produced some outstanding writers
like Penchen Tenzin Chogyal and monk Monk Ngawang who hagiographically
chronicled lives and times of religious leaders and temporal leaders
like Zhabdrung, Tenzin Rabgay, local feudal kings etc. Even today,
Bhutan has some of the outstanding authors like Karma Ura, Sonam Kinga
and some others who indulged in non-fiction and Kuenzang Choden, Gopilal
Archarya and others who write quality fiction. Apart from known
authors, there are also struggling and budding writers who are either
waiting for some publishers or just wishing the some magic happens so
that their books in the bookstore doesn't gather dust.
It
is high time now that Bhutan institute the literature award to
recognize the talents of Bhutanese writers. No doubt, there have been
few awards for authors in recognition of literary works, but those
awards were either from the State or government for some research which
may not be completely based on merits of literature per se. Likewise,
Dzongkha Development Commission also gave away few prizes for essays and
books in national language but the award misses essence of literary in
parts or whole.
In
2001, Bhutan instituted the National Film Awards to recognize the best
works in the film. Since then, Bhutanese film industry has come a long
way. The awards may be flawed since the juries are not educated in
films, it at least gives the industry a sort of recognition that they
deserve. In 2009, the government of Bhutan instituted the controversial
journalist's awards that many criticized, yet there is at least
recognition from the states for their roles and contributions for
promoting the media.
Literary
work is also the important form of media besides journalistic and
visual media that will contribute to the growth of the informed and
educated nation. The institution of literature award will go a long way
boosting the morale of the enthusiastic but demoralized bunch of
writers. The unregistered Writers Association of Bhutan which as of now
only exists in website can play a major role in instituting the literary
award at the national level. Even the government can also initiate the
award which can be controversial as it happens most of the time. But
then, some recognition is always better than non-recognition even if it
is controversial one.
I
write this with the hope that the budding writers get platform to
showcase their talents. I write this with the hope that the young
talents are recognized for their abilities and creativities. I scribbled
this with the hope that these useless scribbles of mine may one day
turned into the biggest reality of author's recognition.
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