These Bhutanese are made for walking
Article first published in - AMERICAN PHILATELIST Journal of American Philatelic Society The Nation’s Premier Philatelic January 2000 issue.
Are there places in the world so remote that it is necessary for carriers to walk miles or even days to deliver mail? Believe it or not, there are. One such place is Bhutan, a tiny country in the eastern Himalayan Mountains, with a thinly distributed, mostly rural population of approximately 600,000 people.
The rural carriers of Bhutan are called “Postal Runners”. They are the lifeblood of communication for many villages in the inaccessible parts of this Himalayan outpost. Their duties include not only the collection and delivery of letters and packages, but often the selling of stationary and stamps as well. The runners also may be invited into homes for a cup of tea, where they are requested to either read the contents of an incoming letter or serve as the writer of an outgoing one. In addition, these versatile mail carriers contribute to the cohesiveness of the society by conveying local news from community to community along with the mail.
As we stand on the threshold of the twenty-first century, how could any country still need postal runners?
The story begins in one of the many isolated mountain homes that required several days of travel by foot to reach the nearest village. A trekker from Switzerland and his local guide made such a journey and established a friendship with a family living in one of these distant, mountain homes. Together, they shared stories over a meal. Being Swiss, the trekker was particularly interested in experiencing the local cheese. When he returned home, he sent a parcel of Swiss cheese from his village to his Bhutanese hosts, who also happened to be mail subscribers to the national weekly newspaper of Bhutan, the Kuensel.
Weeks after the parcel had been sent, two packages arrived postal bus at the village nearest to the Bhutanese family. One package contained cheese from Switzerland and the other copy of the Kuensel. The packages were delivered to the very last shop on the main road of the village. The shopkeeper promised that he would send the parcels along with the next person to travel up the mountain.
The packages were placed on the windowsill of the shop. The shopkeeper regularly would ask all passers-by if they were travelling in the direction of the family in the mountains. Finally, after several weeks, a farmer agreed to deliver the packages. The hike would take three to four days. After only two days on his journey, however, the farmer’s own food supply was exhausted so he decided to open the package of cheese. Although he ate only a small portion for sustenance, he was confronted with the problem of rewrapping the remainder. The obvious solution for him was to use the accompanying copy of the Kuensel.
After another two days, the farmer arrived at the destination of the Bhutanese family with a package of partially eaten cheese wrapped in the three-week old, slightly greasy copy of the Kuensel newspaper. Nevertheless, the mail was delivered!
While the story is anecdotal, it illustrates a real dilemma faced by the Bhutan Post. Home delivery of mail is practically nonexistent: 76 percent of the Bhutanese still must go to a postal establishment to collect and send their mail, while 2 percent of the population has no access to postal services at all.
However, according to Dasho Meghraj Gurung, director of Bhutan Post, progress within the country will soon curtail the duties of the Runners, possibly within the next decade. Bhutan is about to witness the construction of a road network that will reach the farthest corners of the country. With such a network in place, the postal runners will be relegated to the pages of history.
In an interview with Postal Director Gurung, I was advised that by 1999 all of the thirty-seven Bhutanese post offices located around the country would be linked by a national intranet site that would connect all post offices within Bhutan. Internet service would then link their Central Post Office to the world wide postal network via the World Wide Web. While progress will end the need for future Postal Runners, the contributions made by these gallant men of the road will not be forgotten. When the postal system of Bhutan was established in 1962, one of the first stamps printed honored these rural mail carriers.
As for my personal visit to Bhutan, I was there for cultural purposes and not on a trekking adventure. Bhutan allows only 5,000 visitors to enter the country annually. In 1998, I was one of those privileged few. While touring this small kingdom, approximately the size of Switzerland, I decided to mail a letter to myself to see just how long it would take to arrive at my home in Michigan.
I mailed my letter from a stop on the mail east-west road, where I noticed small, red post boxes hanging on shop fronts and houses in the villages and hamlets. Its journey began in the very small town of Trongsa. Having located the Trongsa post office, which resembled an early American one, I introduced myself, explained my purpose to a postal worker and also asked if he would pose for a photograph.
When it was posted in Trongsa in October 2, my letter was placed in a postal bag. The following day, it was sent by postal bus to the Main Post Office in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. There the letter was sorted and placed in the International section. The next step was bagging it with other mail destined for the United States.
This bagged mail destined for the United States was delivered to Druk Air office in Thimphu and later taken to Paro, approximately one and half hours away from the capital and the location of Bhutan’s only airport - the sole entrance and exit for air travelers to Bhutan. Druk Air is the smallest national airline in the world, with flights connecting Paro to New Delhi, Calcutta, Kathmandu, Dacca, and Bangkok. The U.S mail was sent to Bangkok for its flight to the United States. All in all, the journey of my letter from Trongsa to Michigan took seventeen days.
What did this experiment prove to me? Well, I traveled to a country that I had been told was ‘frozen’ in the past, “medieval” at best. What I discovered was a country in pursuit of its own, unique identity within the modern world. Bhutan, as recently as forty years ago, was truly a closed society. As such, it had never been invaded or corrupted by outside cultures. With its small population and beautiful landscapes, the country has all the ingredients of mythical Shangri-la. Its rivers, forests, and rich agricultural lands make it virtually self-sufficient.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck continues to guide this last independent, Himalayan Buddhist kingdom with a vision of the future that includes a carefully nurtured economic plan that will benefit the entire nation in its pursuit of the “good life” for everyone. With a government that is also dedicated to the preservation of the country’s spectacular, natural beauty Bhutan’s future looks very bright indeed.
By: Carole Herdegen