Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
rare species such as cranes and tigers were part of this GNH, along with poverty reduction,
literacy, and provision of safe drinking water.
Before we headed off to the mountains, Kinzang had arranged a meeting for me to speak to
government officials and to discuss local conservation issues. In most parts of Asia, men tend
to dominate government departments, but here the lecture room filled not only with men but
also with a surprising number of women. I began my talk by lauding Bhutan's goal to protect
all species by protecting large areas of
all
habitats. This approach was similar to the one that
John MacKinnon advocated for Vietnam and that underpins conservation strategies in sever-
al countries of the region. I suggested that this “representation strategy,” as biologists refer to
the inclusion of differing habitats, could be complemented effectively by specific programs
targeting wide-ranging, migratory, and rare species that might need special measures of pro-
tection. In the discussion after my talk, I learned that in the Bhutanese plan, even mythical
rare vertebrates rate attention: the main purpose of Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary was to safe-
guard the preferred habitat of the yeti.
After the meeting, I was introduced to two well-respected young biologists from the Nature
Conservation Division who, to our delight, had volunteered to be our nature guides. Both
Nawang Norbu and Sherub had earned master's degrees abroad and were rapidly gaining
respect in Bhutan's conservation community. Sherub was one of the country's top ornitho-
logists and, like many Bhutanese, had only one given name (in Tibetan, his name means
“wisdom”). Nawang was a talented ecologist who would later head Bhutan's most import-
ant forestry institute. The required government-appointed chaperone was Mincha Wangdi,
among the kingdom's top environmental educators, an employee of WWF-Bhutan, and the
former teacher of Sherub.
Ute had spent the morning exploring one of the large monasteries in Thimpu. She met the
attendant lamas and made a donation. She also purchased Tibetan prayer flags, which saturate
the landscape in a rainbow of blue, green, red, yellow, and white, representing the elements
of water, wood, fire, earth, and iron, respectively. The flags are covered in printed prayers
and religious symbols, and their display is said to help individuals accumulate merit toward
a higher rebirth in their next reincarnation. At another monastery she witnessed the chanting
of the monks and spun giant prayer wheels at the entrance to the ceremonial chamber. The
massive wheels, nearly four meters tall, contain thousands of written prayers, and the time-
less ritual of spinning them in a clockwise motion is intended to generate compassion for all
living things.
In late afternoon, we drove from Thimpu to a large enclosure for takins, the national an-
imal. Many species figure prominently in Bhutanese mythology, but none more so than the
rare takin, an ungulate of the high mountains now restricted to a small arc around the Eastern
Himalayas. According to legend, the takin was created in the fifteenth century when the great
Lama Drukpa Kunley, the “Divine Madman,” visited Bhutan. The charismatic lama attrac-
