Source: Kuensel
By Kencho Wangdi
One out of four Bhutanese live in poverty. While covering the elections, Kuensel’s chief reporter came across some of them.
Living off the land: A life of relentless toil |
Sangay, 57, didn’t have to hear the thunder – he could see a gray mass of clouds stalking the western horizon. He eyed the clouds in the way all farmers do. Too much rain would ruin his maize seedlings, too little would parch and stunt them.
Sangay is a resident of Pangthang, a hamlet at the bottom of one of Pemagatshel’s perpendicular ridges. It’s a six-hour walk from a road at the hilltop. I was in Pangthang to gauge the political leanings of the inhabitants after a party leader had campaigned there a day or two ago. But, on that day, politics was the last thing on Sangay’s mind. He was clearing an area of weeds and the sudden change of colour in the sky had hastened his pace. Continue reading Glimpses into (almost) forgotten lives