Of divine madmen and rockstar yogis

Driving into Thimphu for Bhutan Echoes: Drukyul's Literature and Arts Festival, it is apparent that the city has grown quite a bit since you last visited in the pre-pandemic era.

- Manjula Narayan

There are many more buildings and vehicles, and more people too in the streets. Thankfully, they are all still as nice as ever.

For a traveller from gritty NCR, the politeness and good humour are almost as shocking as the dazzling white clouds rumbling in a deep blue sky. At the Royal Bhutan University campus, where the three-day event was held from August 2, the traditional jester wanders around getting up to mischief as he does ever year; only this time, there is no sign of his regular prop, a large, well-carved wooden penis that in years gone by he waved cheerfully at all. These phallic objects that are believed to bring good energy and ward off the evil eye are connected to the teachings of “the Divine Madman”, a medieval master from the Drukpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism who is the subject of Needrup Zangpo’s book, Drukpa Kunley; Sacred Tales of a Mad Monk, which was released at the festival. It is tempting to give in to the lugubriousness that comes with the thought that the rest of the puritanical world has badgered the Bhutanese - a nation that has never been colonised - into hiding these fertility symbols, but there are just too many interesting sessions to attend for you to wallow.

One of them is