Word: bhutan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bhutan: The God of Small Films
...Bhutan's only highway is three-and-a-half meters wide. Meandering at a rate of 17 curves per kilometer through the valleys and mountains of the tiny Himalayan kingdom, the road may be better acquainted with cattle than automobiles. At dawn and long after dusk, its rutted asphalt rings with the chatter of schoolchildren traveling hours by foot for their daily lessons. By noon, the highway is a playground for rambunctious monkeys, a drying rack for chilies, and?by the grace of an occasional car or truck?an ingenious tool for flattening bamboo. Waters from holy streams course alongside...
...bright, chilly day in early November, a stretch of this humble road near the tiny hamlet of Chendebji bears witness to an unprecedented event: the shooting of Bhutan's first-ever homegrown feature film. Its writer and director, Khyentse Norbu, bundled against the wind in a thick, maroon turtleneck and pale lavender muffler, pulls his baseball cap low over his eyes and instructs the cameraman to focus on four actors by the side of the road. "Again," he says into a walkie-talkie, and a red tractor emerges from around the bend to collect two of the actors?one dressed...
...shooting a film is a chance to be treated like a deity. For Khyentse Norbu, better known as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, the reincarnation of a 19th century Tibetan saint and one of Himalayan Buddhism's most revered lamas, it's just the opposite. "Mostly when I come to Bhutan I'm supposed to play God," explains the youthful 41-year-old, "which has been such a frustration for me for so many years." What he craves, he says, is the chance to "climb down from my throne and speak to ordinary people. I wish I could go with them...
Hilton professed that Shangri-la is not on any map, but that hasn't stopped numerous countries?Nepal, Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan, among others?from claiming to harbor the verdant Himalayan valley in the shadow of a glacier-clad peak, shaped like a pyramid. The People's Republic of China is the latest to jump on the bandwagon, announcing in 1996 that it had found Shangri-la in the mountainous Deqin prefecture of northwestern Yunnan province. Not to be outdone, Sichuan, its equally scenic neighbor to the north, has since claimed the title for its Yading Nature Reserve...