A book that speaks to the reader with eloquence and elegance 

As we reflect on 2024, we are reminded of how  the power of the human mind continues to drive  remarkable achievements. Highlights include  AlphaFold’s groundbreaking contributions to  biological research and drug discovery, Japan’s  successful launch of the Smart Lander for  Investigating the Moon (SLIM), NASA’s  Perseverance rover uncovering potential evidence  of ancient microbial life on Mars, and OpenAI’s Sora advancing AI-driven content creation to new  heights.

In the realm of letters, 2024 witnessed the release of numerous exceptional books. Some of these  brought significant news for Asia. Notably, South  Korean author Han Kang made history as the first  Asian woman to receive the Nobel Prize for  Literature, a moment of immense pride and  inspiration. In the fields of science and education,  Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the  Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of  Mental Illness made a remarkable contribution,  delving into the effects of digital screens on young  people’s mental health. Salman Rushdie’s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, a deeply personal  autobiographical work, is sure to be read for decades to come.

Closer to home, the Indian subcontinent witnessed the publication, launch, and lively debates  surrounding numerous remarkable books. I relished some of them (over 60,000 new books are  published in India every year!). Among the most notable were William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road:  How Ancient India Transformed the World, Shashi Tharoor’s A Wonderland of Words: Around the World in  101 Essays, Ambassador Pavan K. Verma’s Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker. These  books have significantly enriched South Asia’s literary landscape, particularly in the non-fiction genre.

It is not my intent to delve into these works in this brief article. Instead, I reserve this space to share  my impressions about yet another outstanding book, published at home in Bhutan in December 2024.

As 2024 breathed its final sigh, former education minister Thakur S Powdyel’s Country before Self:  A Tribute, a refreshing work of prose non-fiction, emerged as a rare addition to the country’s  intellectual wealth and creative heritage. Comprising fifty-three captivating articles laid out in three  broad thematic categories—‘Bhutan in My Heart,’ ‘Too Many Goodbyes,’ and ‘Embracing the  World’—the book offers a delightful and edifying read.

Country Before Self is an exuberant and decisive expression of an author with a polymathic mind—a  personality in whom many fascinating roles converge effortlessly and without pretence: distinguished  educator, illustrious public servant, acclaimed writer, poet, philosopher, and patriot. Every page of the  book unfolds like a rich tapestry of stories lived and observed, values tested and affirmed, and art and  ideas explored.

There is no shortage of knowledge and insights woven into the narrative—dreams, discipline,  worldviews, ancient civilizations, art, nature, music, poetry, pomegranates, teachers, children, SDGs,  Virgil, Shakespeare, Gandhi, PISA tests, public life and service, the Vatican City, the Latin roots of  English words, keynote addresses, Vietnamese grace and elegance, happy schools, goodbyes… The  list is too vast to enumerate fully here.

Nor is there a lack of the finest words and expressions, expertly crafted to suit the tone and spirit of  this masterful work. Reading Country before Self, I was often reminded of the words of the 13th-century  Sufi mystic and poet Rumi: “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not  thunder.” During a visit to Punakha in 2008, the author wrote, capturing the moment in the book:  “The benign silence of the night forms a matching backdrop to the slow music of our darling rivers  as they continue their timeless journey into the forever realm of the infinite.” In the constant demands  of everyday life, the inherent beauty and order of the world outside the egotistical self often go  unnoticed. It takes the absorptive mind of an inspired artist or a keen-eyed writer to sense the rhythm  and cadence of life’s fleeting moments and bloom “flowers” from them, echoing Rumi’s wisdom.

Throughout the book, the reader is treated to a wealth of ideas, experiences, and observations rendered  in prose that is both accesible and profoundly poetic. The titles of the 53 prose narratives speak directly  to the reader’s own experience, made so by the author’s rare ability to convey life stories through a  seamless blend of prose and poetic expression. Pieces like these will never fail to enthrall the reader’s  mind: ‘Flowers Whisper,’ ‘The Minstrel of Talo,’ ‘Tika Times and Village Vibes,’ ‘A Teacher Retires  Today,’ ‘The World Sans Queen Elizabeth II,’ ‘India at 75,’ ‘Education as if People and Planet Matter,’  ‘A Green Colombian Gratitude,’ and ‘Curriculum and the National Character.’

Rarely seen in Bhutanese writing in English today, Country before Self is a rich tapestry of literary and  linguistic elements, including metaphors, allusions, similes, oxymorons, personifications, alliterations,  symbolism, onomatopoeia, anaphora, idioms, euphemisms, and much more. The book will be an  excellent choice for university courses, fostering intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, the cultivation  of enduring values, and enhancing writing workshops. Those involved in governance, public policy,  education, business, peace and well-being studies, science, technology, the creative arts, as well as  parents and children, will find the book both comforting and life-affirming.

Reading the 53 sparkling, profoundly uplifting, and rewarding prose narratives spanning the book’s  325 pages was never tiring, thanks to the writer’s deep emotional engagement with his art and the  strong authorial voice that permeates the entire work. Engaging with Country before Self has reaffirmed  my belief that genuine writing, both as an art and a craft, is intricately tied to the writer’s inner and  outer lives. The book illuminates numerous inspiring and meaningful incidents from the author’s life.  For instance, reflecting on a morning congregation at Sherubtse College, the author recalls how a  student, moved by his speech, took a quote from John Bunyan’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ and “pasted  it on the door of his hostel room.” The quote reads:

Better, though difficult, the right way to go

Than wrong, which though easy, where the end is woe.

Country Before Self is a fascinating work of art, with each page serving as a mindscape painted beautifully  with strokes of solid wisdom, penetrating thoughts, uplifting emotions, fond memories, critical  perceptions, and abiding hopes. Paying tribute to Bhutan’s enlightened leadership, its unique model  of democracy, and the profound influence of Vajrayana Buddhism’s extraordinary practice of inward  reflection, the author affirms: “The wisdom to look inward and secure the soul of the nation has  always moderated the impulse to opt for the dramatic and the populist.”

In Country Before Self, Thakur S. Powdyel’s multifaceted personality as an educationist and writer— poet, philosopher, patriot, and observer of life’s grand spectacles and delicate ironies—comes to full  fruition. During a brief visit to Punakha in 2008, as noted earlier, he wrote:

Rolling fields of golden rice spread through the length of the valley, right and left, as far as the eyes can  see, and wait for reapers with harvest-calls. Far in the distance, where the heights touch the sky, at the  sacred seat of Jamgoen, the celestial abode of the future Buddha, the holy sentinels of Sewla Goemba  keep their vigil over the land of abiding faith and folklore. Magic pervades this world. 

The renowned philosopher and Nobel laureate in literature Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was once  approached by a young man eager to become a writer. The man’s problem was that every time he sat  down to put pen to paper, the words simply wouldn’t flow. He was stuck. Russell, the famed  mathematician, suggested that he go to Siberia to experience life there, so that writing, deeply  intertwined with life, would come more naturally. The message here is that the true source and  motivation for serious writing are not infantile excitement, instant gratification, or a craving for  fleeting popularity. It requires passion, experience, sustained effort, self-discipline, natural talent, and  fidelity to high standards. The quality of writing, books, and publications reflects a nation’s intellectual  life, as well as its inner and outer culture. Hence, Dr. Powdyel emphasizes that “Sans art, sans literature,  sans music, a nation has no soul”. 

We live in times when the distinction between the serious and the frivolous in writing and scholarship  is increasingly blurred. Country before Self, therefore, comes as a breath of fresh air, offering hope to the  rich tradition of Bhutanese writing that was pioneered in the 1600s by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651) and carried forward by distinguished scholars such as Je Sherab Gyeltshan (1772-1848),  Lopon Norbu Wangchuk (1917-1991), Je Gedun Rinchen (1926–1997), Lam Pema Tshewang (1926- 2009), and many others. 

An unmissable book, Country before Self: A Tribute will soon be available in bookstores. 

Contributed by

Dorji Thinley, PhD 

President, Paro College of Education