BHUTAN: Senior Sticks to Two Ghos, Rain, Hail, or Sunshine

THIMPU (KUENSEL.COM), 21 June, 2005:

Imagine yourself wearing two thick bura ghos under the sweltering heat of Phuentsholing. That is what 65-year old Lhatu, a chimi from Sha Zena, does. Chimi Lhatu says it has always been our tradition to wear two ghos.

Accustomed to an age-old habit Lhatu is always dressed in the doubled ghos. He says that he has been wearing two ghos at a time for the past 50 years. “I have been wearing two ghos since I was 15 years old and I have never changed that habit,” he said.

When asked why he wore double ghos he said that he was preserving an age-old tradition of Bhutan. “During the first King’s time, soldiers used to wear double and sometimes triple ghos as a measure of protection against enemy swords,” he said, adding that the ghos also functioned as a blanket and mattress while camping out during a battle.

Lhatu said that the thick ghos prevented one being injured by stray arrows during an archery match. “My mother always used to remind me to wear double ghos when I went for an archery match,” he reminisces.

“It is our tradition to wear two bura ghos at a time but, due to old age I only wear a thick bura gho on the outside and a thin gho inside,” he said. Lhatu never wears ghos that are mass-produced in factories. “I make sure that I wear only genuine hand woven Bhutanese ghos,” he said.

Lhatu laments that the younger generation today did not even wear ghos leave alone two ghos. “Even if they did wear they either wear it without a 'nangshap’ (inner-lining) and there are still others who wear half ghos,” he said.

“I always tell my seven sons to wear double ghos but they never heed to my advice saying that it was too hot and cumbersome,” he told Kuensel.

Lhatu said that his ancestors used to say that a man wearing a single gho was considered weak and unmanly.

The only disadvantage that Lhatu finds in pursuing his habit is the heavy luggage that he has to tow every time he travels. “I have to carry at least seven ghos wherever I go,” he said.

Lhatu served as a gup and as a chimi for 18 years during the reign of His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. He was re-elected as the Wangduephodrang chimi in 2003.

Lhatu is a widely traveled man having been to Mumbai, Kolkota, Dehradhun and New Delhi and having met the then Prime Minister of India, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. He always wore two ghos.

By Kinley Y Dorji kins@kuensel.com.bt