It's books, bands and Buddhism in Bhutan

Mountain Echoes, the country's annual literary festival, brings Pico Iyer, Amitav Ghosh, Tabu and Piyush Pandey to Thimphu for a 3-day cultural carnival
Seven years ago, Mountain Echoes, a gritty little literary festival put down roots in Thimphu, hoping to grow a forest of ideas. Over the years, writers, academics, diplomats, environmentalists, culinary and cultural artists attended the event from the subcontinent and farther, contributing to its creative canopy and setting off writing collaborations and literary enterprises that went beyond the stage.In this, its seventh year, Mountain Echoes returns on August 26, with the fruits of its labour, its attempts to reach deep and pull out new stories from the mountain kingdom.
Year One started tentatively with a lineup that featured more speakers from outside Bhutan than within; this year however, people from both sides of the Bhutanese border figure equally on the bill. They bring to the schedule a range as broad as the mountains itself – climate change, oral histories, detective fiction, noir, brand-building, mountaineering, identity, travel and stillness, digital libraries, and Buddhism, with a roll-call that includes Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Ashi Dori Wangmo Wangchuck, Pico Iyer, Amitav Ghosh, Tabu, Piyush Pandey, Graeme Simsion, Zac O’Yeah, and others.
Buddhism, incidentally, has a prominent place in this year’s schedule. “2016 is a special year for Bhutan,” says Siok Sian Dorji, Founder-Director of the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy and co-director of Mountain Echoes. “According to our astrology, it’s the year of the fire monkey that marks the birth year of the legendary Guru Rinpoche, who introduced Buddhism to Bhutan. Bhutanese are therefore more conscious of our spiritual heritage this year, and hence there are special sessions devoted to discussions on the Guru, as well as the Zhabdrung, who helped to unify Bhutan and created a nation state in the 1630s. We have our scholar monks and writers talk about these two great historical figures,” she says, adding that discussions on the two spiritual leaders will be a meaningful way to look at the historical trajectory of Bhutan.
The festival has been drawing greater numbers every year. Even the aisles and corridors of its venue, the Royal University of Bhutan are packed, says Namita Gokhale, one of the festival’s four co-directors. “Since that first year, when we had a glimmer of an idea, the festival has taken on a life of its own. People travel from across the place; we’ve had letters saying ‘roads are broken, what should we do?’” says Gokhale, pointing up how the event has anchored itself in the local cultural calendar.
Bhutan is entering a new phase of its evolution, she adds: “A traditional society entering the modern world, it’s an amazing place that keeps both sets of values distinct, and gets the best out of both. And Mountain Echoes is a festival that manages that balance,” she says.
So while you have His Eminence Gyalwa Dokhampa Jigme Pema Nyinjadh narrating stories from the life of Guru Rinpoche in one session, you have journalists Odd Harald Hauge and Ritu Kapur talk about the workings of online journalism in another. After monk-turned-poet, Agey Dregang discusses the origins of Bhutanese folk tales (in Dzongkha) with lecturer and editor, Dorji Gyeltshen, writers Zac O’Yeah and Anish Sarkar take the dais to talk noir. Then again, the festival’s music stage at the city square has folk songs and fusion by the Bhutanese band Yangchen & The Able, followed by fusion rock by The Indian Ocean, while workshops range from ‘writing in Dzonkha’, to yoga, to advertising, and brand-building.
In the past, several collaborations have come of the festival. Gokhale says many writers from Bhutan have since travelled to other festivals. Siok Sian Dorji says Mountain Echoes has prompted greater interest in reading and writing in the English language. “The past few years has seen an emergence of more writers of children's books in Bhutan,” she says.
However, for all the pre-festival buzz on Bhutanese writers groups on Twitter, nothing spells ‘assimilation’ better than the Dzongkha word for a local festival: ‘Tsechu’, what Mountain Echoes has now come to be locally called.