📖 🐒 monk chasing monkey (book review)

by Roderick Wijunamai

The very first Bhutanese novel I read was 🐕 Dawa: The Story of a Stay Dog in Bhutan by Ashi Kunzang Choden. Very beautifully captured from the lens of a personified dog, the book provides a brief tour of places and people in Bhutan. Monk Chasing Monkey gave me a similar experience. Granted that the point of the book was something else, it gave me a survey tour of all places (meaning all dzongkhags) in Bhutan. Of the twenty dzongkhags in Bhutan, I have either been to or passed through a total of ten dzongkhags. The book afforded me a familiar return of my visits to the dzongkhags I had visited in my last three years, while also taking me through a breezy excursion to the places I haven’t been to. In doing so, the book acquainted me with some of the distinctive characteristics of each dzongkhag, including a few stories behind dzongkhag names.

But what is this book about? Or, what actually is the story? Spurred by his inquisitive mind (which he calls his ‘monkey mind’), the protagonist of the novel, a monk named Rigzin, embarks on a journey to visit all the twenty dzongkhags in Bhutan. In pursuing his explorative journey, he is introduced to many unfamiliar particulars and way of life. Some of these new encounters excited him, but others puzzled him, or even disquieted him. Through Rinzin’s expedition, the author presents to the readers what modern Bhutan looks like (or has come to look like) seen from a tabula rasa. Furthermore, the novel also demonstrates how modern quest has the potential to not only unplug us from our roots, but also disorient us by overwhelmingly riddling us with plenty of options, aspirations, and prospects. The author shows this through Rigzin’s inability to call on to his teacher for help towards the end of his journey having gone too astray. Writes the author: “There has been too many distractions and too many images and now they competed fiercely for space in his mind” (p. 195). Until that point of time, Rigzin had an infrangible connection and ability to communicate with his teacher through his trained mind.

The book does not end in a sad note, although. Rigzin eventually finds his way back. His master comes to his rescue. And when he got back to his hermitage, he feels the existential insideness. In addition, the mundane silence of the mountainside at once became appreciated. His temporary detachments brought home to him perceptiveness. Finally, he learnt the value of what he had all along. 

Roderick Wijunamai is a lecture at Royal Thimphu College.

@rdrck_wjnm
https://twitter.com/rdrck_wjnm?s=20

- First published for the RTC Library e-Newsletter, November 2021.