Smile of contentment

Despite the noisy sound of vehicle, abi sits at the courtyard of the house. On her right hand she turns her prayer wheel and counts the bead by the left hand. She continuously chants Mani siting peacefully. She gets up early at around 5am and starts her prayers. Sometimes she spents her time with people chatting and listening to their jokes.  

She is abi Tsundru aged 94 counted as the oldest citizen in kanglung and Rongthung vicinity. Born in 1920 at Rongthung as the eldest sister. She had a younger sister but died at a young age.  Abi has seven children and more than twenty grandchildren.  Her husband has expired many years ago and the second marriage did not last long.  Now she recollects her memories of their lifestyle in 1930s. It is indeed very heartwarming to get firsthand information from a person who has seen the maximum change.

When asked about how Rongthung was during her times, she says there were only 20 households and the houses were built as single storied by bamboo which amounted to 40 people in the community. She remembers her life from the age of 16 to 17 which was around 1936 to 1937 under the reign of the second king jigme wangchuck. Now Rongthung has 132 household with more than 700 people.

“our life was simple, we had nothing as compared to today. Our diet composed of flour and potatoes ’’, replies abi when asked about the meals. Due to the lack of fertilizers less quantity of spinach, radish and potatoes were grown.

As a young girl she has worked for Tashigang. She says people could not focus much on their works as they spent their time working for the Dzongpon. According to her the greatest change she had seen seen was in terms of diet. She says, “our diet composed of flour and potatoes, we would rarely get chance to eat rice. These days we get to eat rice three times a day, thats so special for me”.

Another greatest challenge was trading. They had to walk all the way to samdrup jongkhar which was known as gudama by then. Five to six people would travel to samdrup jongkhar carrying woven clothes and potatoes. They would do batter system and exchange with salt, utensils and thread. The journey in total would take two weeks to reach at the village. Our life has really undergone a huge change, developmental activities has made life much easier compared to the olden days of theirs.

Having witnessed lots of changes in her life, she says she is thankful to the kings of Bhutan for ruling the country independently. Despite the fact that she has reached such a crucial age, abi Tsundru has no such chronic disease. The only thing is she has some difficulty in hearing and vision. However she smiles with contentment. She advices the younger generation to make the best use of every opportunity available.