Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Rarity Made Common
W
E WERE flYING FROM
Calcutta on Druk Air, the national air carrier of Bhutan. When the
pilot quietly announced, “Mount Kanchenjunga is now visible from the left side of the plane,”
the passengers pressed against the windows to photograph the world's third-tallest mountain.
Kanchenjunga, whose Tibetan name means “Five Treasures of the Snows,” straddles the bor-
der of Nepal, the former kingdom of Sikkim (now part of India), and Tibet. The breathtaking
panorama of the Himalayas and, just beyond, the beckoning high-plains vista of Tibet kept
us glued to the port side. A spirit of serenity wafted like incense through the cabin. In a one-
hour flight, the plane had ascended from steamy, sea level Calcutta to the sparkling roof of the
world. The next landmark was Mount Jhomolhari. Its gleaming white summit signals entry in-
to Bhutanese airspace and was the cue to return to our seats. The airborne quietude evaporated
instantly when the pilot executed a rollercoaster plunge into the tight seam of the Paro Valley.
Even among the placid Bhutanese on the plane, this rapid maneuver produces beads of sweat
across the brow. Minutes later, the grateful passengers exited the airbus and stood firmly on
the tarmac, bathed in the cool, pine-scented breezes of western Bhutan.
This was my second journey to this remote Himalayan kingdom. Most visitors come here
to experience the rich cultural heritage or to trek through one of the least disturbed parts of the
Himalayas. I came for both purposes, but my main aim on this trip was to inspect a new cultur-
al model in which humans try to live in harmony with nature's rarities rather than contribute
to their demise.
Like any other visiting naturalist, I longed to tick off some of the rarities on my list of quest
species, in which Bhutan abounds. And then there was Bhutan's fabled conservation program,
as progressive, at least on paper, as any in the world, ripe for either an exposé or a paean.
But conservation programs go only so far. To the occasional vexation of biologists, the last-
ing solutions lie in mainstreaming conservation into cultural, economic, and even religious
norms. I was here to look at the links between the three: to explore how certain traditions and
