At
the October meeting of the West Galloway branch of Scotland’s Bird Club, the popular Mike
Betts was the speaker for the evening. A serving member of RSPB’s Committee for
Scotland
he was also a member of the management Committee of the SOC and one of the
editors of their brilliant “Birds of Scotland” publication.
Mike’s talk, entitled “Bhutan – Birds and Monasteries”, transported the
audience to a little known country in the Himalayas, sandwiched between India to the south and Tibet, which it
is closely linked geographically, to the north. A monarchy for the past hundred
years, it is a happy country and measures its success by its “Gross National
Happiness”! About the size of Switzerland
but with only one seventh of its population, Bhutan
is predominantly mountainous but has a few strips of lowland plains on its
borders with Assam
which are very important for some threatened bird species.
With over six hundred species likely
to be present, one of the first birds which Mike saw on this visit was the Tree
Sparrow, a bird that can be seen in Britain!. However, traveling up
into the hills, over 70% of which is natural, undisturbed forest, he saw the more
unusual and highly colourful birds endemic to Bhutan, such as the Orange-bellied
Leafbird and Scarlet Minivet.
A picture of Trashigang village gave
the audience a sense of the pride that the people of Bhutan have for their country.
Anyone carrying out an official duty wears the national dress, Ghos for men and
Kiras for women, and many wear it as everyday attire. At Radi, the villagers specialize
in hand weaving, sitting in specially designed “chairs” and producing
beautiful, brilliantly coloured fabrics.
Travelling further into the country,
birds such as Hoopoe and oriental Turtle Dove were seen, rarities in the UK but common in Bhutan, together with the
evocatively name Grey Treepie. At Gom Kora, where, in the 8Th century AD,
Guru Rinpoche began the spread of Buddhism into the country, an annual two day
dance festival is held on the second lunar month. Mike showed amazing pictures
of this event, with huge numbers of local people, holy men and jesters and
massive, colourful appliquéd religious banners set against a backdrop of the monastery
and the Bhutan
landscape.
Continuing on towards Mongar, the familiar Gadwall and
Wigeon were seen together with the Rufous-necked Hornbill, an endangered bird
whose small population is almost exclusively in the Bhutanese forest. The “main
road” is little more than a track hugging the contours of the mountains and
Mike showed a picture of a small shrine on the roadside, commemorating the site
where a coach went over the precipitous drop!
Beyond the Trumpshing La pass lies
the Bumthang valley, a key area for birds ranging from the spectacular Snake
Eagle to the minute Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker. Whilst it is traditional in Bhutan for the eldest son to enter a monastery,
there are also some nunneries here, though they are quite different from those
in Europe. In places, the Himalayan people
practice both polygamy and polyandry and Mike showed phallic decorations,
regarded as symbols of fertility, accompanied by a notice giving advice on
avoiding AIDS. Oddly, this was printed in English only!
The talk continued with a
kaleidoscope of colourful
birds with evocative names together with some of the other wildlife of the
country. The ground at one site had attracted large numbers of beautiful
butterflies, presumably gaining some essential mineral from the soil, the Giant
Malayan Squirrel was seen in the forest and Elephant, Goat Antelopes and Hog
Deer were seen as the grassland plains were reached.
Mike concluded with a picture of a
bird he failed to see on his visit. The Black-necked Crane is regarded as a
sacred bird and thought to be reincarnated beings sent back into the world to
help and enlighten souls. He reflected that he would quite like to come back in
the form of such a beautiful bird.
With his informative and often
amusing dialogue together with the sequence of wonderful pictures of the
wildlife of Bhutan,
its monasteries, its countryside and its happy, colourful people, Mike brought this
country to life.
