By Jigme Wangchuk

Hi all. My name is Jigme Wangchuk and I have volunteered to write news for Contact Magazine. I recently left my job because I wanted to pursue things beyond my ken. Wanting to learn a little Francais, I signed up for lessons at Lha and realised that I could also contribute effectively just like so many people I admire have done in the past and are doing now. Also, since I temporarily declared myself as an invalid to the hectic culture of work and competition, I wanted to feel little more than just useless.

I was born in Bir, a village not so far away from here. When I was little, I frequented Dharamsala with my grandmother who circled the Lha Gye hill three times a day. It was a sleepy town before, but it made quite an impression to anyone who visited.

Childhood memories turned into occupation. I think that if we’re helping someone who has realised the importance of an occupation, it’s a noble thing to do as a human being. I am glad that I am grasping French,someone else is reading German, another Tibetan, one Chinese and ultimately everybody understanding one another in English.

By writing for Contact Magazine which establishes an intimate relationship with the Tibetan community, I hope that our stories will grow together with the growth of the magazine itself. Writing enables us to understand the depth of a certain perception and challenge it with our own. It is no different for Contact which scrutinises writings that come off as an opinion of the writer him/herself. So much of our courage is borne by words; it has enabled me to understand and serve.

There are raging trends around the world which encourage shallow thinking, I myself do sometimes. It betrays every concept we believed as a child: Freedom, love and humanity. If people think we must live with each other and make the most of it and if they’re doing it in Dharamsala, that is a wonderful thing.

Posted on September 7, 2017