For A Noble Cause

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see my father-in-law in the live Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) television program for Fund Raising for Wangduephodrang Dzong reconstruction. I was happy that the program coordinator Dawa allotted an entire half an hour for my father-in-law in an exclusive program to recount his life as a monk and a soldier and to express his sentiments and feelings on the national tragedy.

 

My father-in-law did not have huge cash donations to make. But whatever little that he donated had so much intrinsic value because of the genuine feelings attached for the noble cause. 

My father-in-law joined the monastic life as a child. However, when he came of age, he was recruited in the Royal Bhutan Army during the reign of the Third King where he served for 26 years and reached the rank of a sergeant till his retirement in the early 1980s. He was then entitled to a pension of Nu. 125/= per month which he continues to receive till date.

 

With a large family consisting of eight children, life was hard for him. In order to make ends meet, he started small time businesses. Although his business ventures started giving him good returns to enable him to lead a comfortable life, he always spent the major part of his income contributing for and carrying out religious activities all his life. Now, with his children well settled in life and old age having descended upon him, he has now given up his worldly activities and dedicates his life entirely for religious affairs.

Just a few days before the above programme, he withdrew his last accumulated pension balance of Nu. 8,000/=  from his pension account which was solely used for religious activities and offerings and further added another Nu. 8,000/= to make a total donation of Nu.16,000/- in cash, five vintage silver coins and the ancestral family inheritance, a pair of silver double headed dragon bracelets.

 

I am proud to be a member of the family.