Tshewang Tobden's Profile

"A simple story revolving around the life of a simple yet relatable character. This is what I thought of the book titled 'Yangchen' by Tshering Wangchuk, the author of 'A thousand footprints' which is on my reading list and currently sitting on my bookshelf.This book takes us along the life of Yangchen, the protagonist as she goes through all that life has to offer to her. It all seems to be going well for her for most part of the story but towards the final quarter of the book, things start looking gloomy for our protagonist.  This is as far as I can talk about the story without revealing any plot lines."For the full review/ my thoughts:  http://tobdentshewang.blogspot.com/2023/01/yangchen-book-review.html

Although I have read only a couple of Rimpochoe's books, I think it's safe for me to say that this book is different from the style of writing I have come to associate with Rimpochoe. But that is of course to be expected as it says "How to prepare for Death, Dying and Beyond" right on the book cover. We can make out that this is sort of an instructional/ guide book. Some parts of the book are in a question and answer form so for someone like me who already had similar questions in mind, it was really informative and also reassuring at the same time. It made me realize that I was not the only one with such doubts and fears.My experience with the book at:  https://tobdentshewang.blogspot.com/2022/05/book-review-living-is-dying.html

While reading this book I was reminded of a quote. I don’t remember the exact quote or where it’s from. It says that art is not supposed to be understood, it’s supposed to make you think and feel or something along this line. And feel and think I did. Even if I couldn’t connect to everything the author had to say and quite a few from the sixty-nine essays went over my head, the book made me think about my perspectives on things, things happening around me and the people, the systems, the cultures and the places and of course my life as a whole. I am not claiming that I am a changed person now after reading the book now but something in me has definitely changed.For my full review on the book please visit:http://tobdentshewang.blogspot.com/2022/02/book-review-post-mortem-by-jurmi.html?m=1

A wonderful insight into the life of someone serving in the court of the second and the third king. The book manages to take us us back in time and give a vivid image of how things were, how things worked, and how our country progressed over time because of the benevolence of our great leaders. It being a historical novel, I think it managed to achieve what the author wanted achieved and therefore I don't have any complaints about how straightforward and simple the narrative was. It is not a literary masterpiece but then again, like I said I don't think that was what the author was going for. The only thing that bothered me though was the use of the name "Wangchuck" for those who were not from the royal family. Since the copy I read was the seventh reprint of the book, maybe the people involved with the publication of the book might have overlooked it.
I would have given it a 3.5 out of 5 stars but .5 is not an option here so I am giving it a 3 stars rating, simply for the fact that it is a straightforward narrative of the life in the court of our kings in the past. But I would definitely recommend people to read this book for an in-depth insight into the recent history of our country through the 40's to the 80's that we do not get from our school textbooks.

The best thing about this little book of jokes is you can come back to it again and again. Sometimes simple is just the right way to go about.

Maybe it's because I haven't read most of the books out there written by our own Bhutanese writers, but Pema Euden's "Lomba" came as a pleasant surprise for me as a reader. Having been trying to read as many books by Bhutanese authors in the last couple of years (mainly fictions), I have come across some good reads. Most stories talked about things that the readers could relate to in settings we were familiar with and a few of them made us look at things differently and touched our hearts. But like I said, maybe it's because of the small number of books I have read, I never thought someone would actually push the envelope and create a whole world of it's own in a Bhutanese book.
Since all I know about Lomba, the festival, is only as much as is written in the book, I don't know if there is any mention of the lu world in the stories told in this part of the country and if there are any, how much of it is actually described. Having finished the book just the previous night and for the lack of research done by my lazy self, I want to say the whole lu world is made up from scratch. It was not the hidden world of witches and wizards or hobbits and ogres but for me it did stand out for being a fantasy world that had some sort of connection with our own culture and believes. Of course, I do think that elders tell the children how the lus take away our suffering and how they take away children to their world if they don't behave in certain ways or do certain things.
Anyways, coming back to the book, the story was unique in a way as it dealt with both our reality and a fantasy and mashed them into a fun reading experience. The plot was interesting as well being probably the first Bhutanese book with a plot to eradicate the human species. Like the characters in the story, I also found myself in a confusion and asking myself who the culprit was until the very end and shocked at the revelation as well. I do feel like towards the end of the book, the seemed kind of rushed,(also like my review) which to be honest is something I came across other Bhutanese books as well (the first half or three quarters are usually slow paced and give a lot of details about almost everything and the last quarter usually happens like snap, snap, snap, and we are done).
The story deals with the usual themes of family, friendship, trust, identity, belonging and the sorts. One does learn about a culture unique to Haa and Paro and also some "sciency" stuff that was sprinkled over the pages teaching the reader about how certain things work in the lu world that can be paralleled to how similar things work in our own world.
There were a few misprints here and there like the old queen was referred to as the father of the current king and it felt like a few verbs were missing as well in some lines. But I don't think that hampers the story in any way because being so engrossed in a story that is different from what we are used to as readers of Bhutanese books I don't think many will pick up on that.
*from my Blog "a figment of my thoughts" https://tobdentshewang.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite books from a Bhutanese author. Of course I read it as a part our curriculum in high school like most people but I have re-read it two times after I completed college because it is that good.
The author gives us a different perspective to life with this book while also reminding us that even if dogs, or any other animal for that matter, have lives of their own, we are all connected to one another; humans and animals. It is because our past karma that we are who we are or where we are. I think the message that the author is trying to pass on to her readers is that just like Dawa, we have no control over where or under what circumstances we are born. The things we go through in life, the people we meet that depends on the Karma of our past life. But even with all the adversaries life throws at us we must believe in ourselves, be open to learning new things, and take risks to better our lives. It is in our hands to change our destiny and accumulate better karma for our next lives.
Even though from the outside we see that this is a story of a stray dog who is unique, talented and intelligent, we can also see that his life can be paralleled to that of a human. He is born under difficult circumstances and has an abnormal body, even though he is intelligent and has a talent at howling and understanding human language. He learns travels to different places and meets other characters. Catches mange and searches for a solution and takes another journey believing that he can be cured and eventually gets cured and travels back and enjoys the remainder of his life. Us humans are the same, all of us are born under different circumstances. We may or may not have unique talents, bodily deformities or a "big brain". But we all go through ups and downs that life throws at us. We will meet others along our journey, some who help us, some who distract us and some just passing by. And even if we are hit really hard by an obstacle like Dawa we can overcome it by having faith in ourselves and believing that the obstacle can be overcome and working towards it and towards achieving any other goals we have in life. And if we work hard towards our goal, then one day we can also look back our lives under the warm sun and smile and be content of where we are.
Just like the author's other book, 'The Circle of Karma' this story is deeply rooted in our belief of Karma. I think it is perfect as a school textbook because it teaches students many life lessons as well as about the cause and effects of our actions all the while keeping the readers entertained and hooked to the story with the peculiar protagonist and the various characters.
P.S. I loved enacting scenes from the story as part of the class.

http://tobdentshewang.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-review-kadrinche-beyond-words.html