The 51 Kashos of the 4th Druk Gyalpo
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Portrait of a Leader, Looking through the Looking-Glass of His Majesty’s Decrees Mieko Nishimizu The Centre for Bhutan Studies 249 pages
12 May, 2009 – “All the people in Bhutan, be they the royal family, civil or armed officials and the citizens, whether rich or poor, are equal before the law,” wrote the fourth Druk Gyalpo in a 1996 kasho. The kasho is one of 51 compiled by Mieko Nishimizu for her book, Portrait of a Leader, Looking through the Looking-Glass of His Majesty’s Decrees, launched last week. Through these kashos, Nishimizu believes readers will see or be reminded of how His Majesty was “ahead of the times”.
Nishimizu classifies the kashos into eight ‘lucky signs’, each reflecting an aspect of His Majesty’s leadership qualities that reflect the book’s theme. She writes in her preface, “A notion struck me as if by some divine intervention – each leadership dimension corresponded to one of the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism.”
For instance, the section identified by the sernya or golden fish corresponds to His Majesty’s sense of “Doing Things Right.” Nishimizu, who is a “leadership mentor” by passion, writes, “Leadership is about doing the right things. Management, on the other hand, is about doing things right … Excellence in either is incomplete without the other”. One kasho that reflects this leadership characteristic is evident in a 1992 kasho concerning prisoners being chained at the ankles. “Since our country is a Buddhist country, we need to look at the difficulty and misery in the life of human beings with compassion, kindness and love,” wrote His Majesty. The prison act was subsequently amended and the use of ankle chains prohibited, except in cases where the prisoner represented extreme danger.
The 51 kashos, obtained from Dasho Karma Ura’s personal collection, are reproduced in their original dzongkha versions with English translations. Each section is introduced briefly by Nishimizu. She writes, “I could neither do justice to Dasho Karma Ura’s vision of the book”, from whom she got the idea, “nor to His Majesty’s decrees themselves … It goes without saying that my own narrative is kept as brief as possible, since it is His Majesty’s decrees themselves that speak volumes.”
Source: Kuenselonline