Let me initiate the discussions in this article by performing Traditionally, instead in a glass and/or cup, alcohol (especially locally brewed ones) is consumed in a stone/wooden/brass bowl. One story goes that the It is an honorary title, which is used to refer to the great In the Tibetan language, this term is used to refer to a holy vessel in Buddhism. Haa is a valley, which is situated in the west of Bhutan bordering Sikkim. A type of prayer in Tibetan language, which stands for repentance and forgiveness.
The second story is also about Ap Khyung bdud. He had a lake over the valley of Haa from which he wanted to irrigate the paddy fields of Haa. But, Jo bo Brag skyes, who is regarded as the mountain deity and the protector of Paro, tricked Khyung bdud by offering him alcohol. Taking advantage of Khyung bdud's drunken stupor Brag skyes diverted the water from the valley of Haa towards the fields of Paro. When Khyung bdud came back to his senses, he got extremely annoyed that the direction of water had been diverted to Paro. He also threatened Brag skyes that he will overturn the lake and change the direction of the water. This made Jo bo Brag skyes afraid and he pleaded Khyung bdud to forgive him, and in return, he assured that every year the people of Paro will travel to Haa to offer him prayers for the water. Since then, it has become an annual Buddhist ritual, which is conducted on the 15th day of the 11th Bhutanese month every year.
These two stories unpack the various social, cultural, and religious dimensions of consuming locally brewed alcohol in the traditional society of Bhutan. On the one side, it creates misunderstandings, conflicts, and ego clashes, and on the other side, it generates spiritual ethics and values amongst the individuals. In 2016, it was
But, with the inception of European colonisation across different moments of time and space, the indigenous practices of consuming and sharing locally brewed alcoholic drinks were strictly forbidden. Their act of forbiddance was underpinned with the sole intention of disrupting this de-hierarchical, pluriversal, collective and co-creative indigenous socio-cultural practice and appropriates the white-European-colonial-Christian-centric ideologies of the Old Testament (Snipe 2001). Through seduction as well as coercion, as the Christian missionaries proselytised the various indigenous communities across the globe, they identified the consumption of locally brewed alcohol, especially on different socio-religious occasions, as unreligious, unethical, and unhealthy. As a result, they imposed a strict ban on the consumption of locally brewed alcohol. But, ironically, with the arrival of the European traders, alcohol was used as a ‘chemical weapon of warfare in their genocidal and ethnic cleansing mistreatment and exploitation of indigenous peoples’ (Dahlheimer 2009). In fact, in some Native American communities alcohol was exclusively introduced by the European traders. In ‘What's Behind the Myth of Native American Colonialism?’ (2016), Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker argue: ‘Europeans introduced alcohol to American Indians as an instrument of trade and diplomacy. By the time the Great Plains was being settled by Europeans, virtually all treaty negotiations included complex and subtle uses of alcohol, and alcohol even became a bargaining chip’. This process of control took place by forcing the natives to stop brewing their traditional forms of alcohol on the one side and by introducing European alcoholic drinks on the other. The adverse impact of introducing European alcoholic drinks at the cost of locally brewed alcoholic drinks at the time of European colonisation is experienced even today. This act not only killed a set of indigenous social, cultural, and religious practices but also systematically, epistemically, and ontologically uprooted the rich constellation of depolarised plural knowledge systems (De Sousa Santos 2008, 249) that were once imbibed by the indigenous communities from their respective foremothers and forefathers. This is why, in the contemporary era, through various pseudo-logical narratives of religion, society, culture, and medical sciences, European and American brands of alcoholic drinks are promoted as superior (in terms of quality, health, and socio-economic values) than the locally brewed branded and non-branded alcoholic drinks. It is due to the same reasons that western-branded alcoholic drinks are gradually replacing the culture of brewing, consuming, and sharing the locally brewed alcoholic drinks in contemporary Bhutan. This act of replacement is negatively impacting the locals in a social, cultural, and economic manner. These aspects will be elaborately discussed in the later part of this article.
This article has been divided into four sections. The first section, titled ‘Introduction: a journey towards collaborations and co-creation’, sets the thematic and the theoretical tone of this article in a story-telling manner. To bring forth the various collaborative and co-creative socio-religious practices of the local Bhutanese that centre on the production and consumption of local alcohol, this section starts with a couple of folk tales. Both the tales are based on the consumption of alcohol by Ap Khyung bdud. Besides these folk tales, the section also briefly talks about some of the socio-religious rituals of consuming locally brewed alcohol amongst several indigenous communities across the globe and how these rituals were disrupted by the European colonisers.
The second section, titled “
The third section, titled ‘
The final section, titled ‘Conclusion’, summarises the theoretical and the thematic findings of this article.
This article is underlined by the following research questions:
What are the cultural and spiritual significance of locally brewed alcoholic drinks in Bhutan? Which alcoholic drinks (locally brewed or western branded) are preferred by the consumers in Bhutan and why?
The research methodology that has been used for this article is qualitative research methodology. As a part of the qualitative research methodology the research methods that have been used are personal conversations and critical diversity literacy. Personal conversation is a form of research method where the researchers and the participants engage in conversation with each other about diverse topics and the conversations are documented with due permission from the participants. In the context of this article, as the article was written during my tenure at the Yonphula Centenary College, the research participants of my article were the villagers in Yonphula and other parts of East Bhutan. The participants were chosen on the basis of their interest to participate and therefore no specific gender dynamics could be maintained. Altogether, 12 participants (7 male and 5 female participants between 18 years and 40 years old) participated in the conversations and they were asked the following question: according to you, which alcoholic drinks are better – western-branded alcoholic drinks or locally brewed alcoholic drinks?
The interview was conducted in person and the responses were hand-written and recorded. After the responses to the abovementioned questions were received, they were thematically sampled through using the thematic network analysis. The responses were divided into two thematic groups – participants in favour of locally brewed alcoholic drinks and participants in favour of western-branded alcoholic drinks. Out of the twelve participants, eight responded in favour of western-branded alcoholic drinks and four participants responded in favour of locally brewed alcoholic drinks. In order to maintain the anonymity of the participants, the participants have been named A, B, C, D, etc. The interviews were conducted in English and Hindi languages. The interviews in Hindi were translated into English by the author. The transcripts have been personally archived by the author and the author is happy to share it with scholars at any point of time. Selected excerpts from the interviews in a consolidated manner are documented in the following Table 1. The responses of the interviewees reveal that a majority (eight) of the respondents are in favour of consuming western-branded alcoholic drinks. Out of the eight interviewees, who have spoken in favour of western-branded alcoholic drinks, five interviewees believed that the western-branded alcoholic drinks are healthier and more hygienic than the locally brewed alcoholic drinks. The rest of the three interviewees believe that the consumption of western-branded alcoholic drinks gives them a high-status identity in the society. The four respondents, who have voiced in favour of consuming locally brewed alcoholic drinks, shared that the consumption of locally brewed alcoholic drinks is a way of preserving ancestral cultural traditions and are healthier than western-branded alcoholic drinks because they are prepared with natural grains. Though the consumption of both western-branded alcoholic drinks and locally brewed alcoholic drinks is harmful, the preference of western-branded alcoholic drinks over locally brewed alcoholic drinks maps the historical and cultural shifts that Bhutan has undergone with time and how the cultural rituals that are centred on the locally brewed alcoholic drinks are under threat. Based on the responses, the following sections of the article socio-historically trace the spiritual and cultural significance of the locally brewed alcoholic drinks in Bhutan and how the native cultural practices around locally brewed alcoholic drinks can be maintained without violating any health protocols.
Questions and responses.a
A | 37 years old female | ‘Western based alcoholic drinks because they are smooth and made in a healthier way’. |
B | 25 years old male | ‘Western based alcoholic drinks because they do not smell as bad as locally brewed alcoholic drinks’. |
C | 30 years old female | ‘Locally brewed alcoholic drinks because they have rich spiritual values in Bhutanese life’. |
D | 20 years old female | ‘Locally brewed alcoholic drinks because they are made naturally, unlike the western based alcoholic drinks’. |
E | 22 years old male | ‘Western alcoholic drinks because they are from Europe and America, so they ought to be better than those from Bhutan’. |
F | 40 years old male | ‘Western based alcoholic drinks because I think they are made by smart people’. |
G | 40 years old female | ‘Locally brewed alcoholic drinks because they are a part of our spiritual culture. It can never be bad in any ways’. |
H | 32 years old female | ‘Locally brewed alcoholic drinks because they are made from natural grains’. |
I | 19 years old male | ‘Western based alcoholic drinks because they are drunk by rich and smart people’. |
J | 22 years old male | Same as above |
K | 35 years old female | Same as above |
L | 29 years old male | ‘Western based alcoholic drinks because they are packaged and brewed in a healthy way’. |
Participants A–L, in-person interview by the author, May 28, 2022.
Besides personal conversation, the method of critical diversity literacy also contributed towards the development of this article. The critical diversity method notes how the world is a socially, culturally, and politically complex and entangled space where ‘differences of many varieties increasingly coexist’ (Steyn 2015, 279). The critical diversity method in this article has been applied through a detailed historical analysis of the diverse spiritual and cultural circumstances in which locally brewed alcoholic drinks are consumed. The differences in preferences (locally brewed alcoholic drinks and western-branded alcoholic drinks) of alcohol unpack the simultaneous co-existence and conflict between various consumption patterns on the one side, and the decadence of native cultural practices due to the blind adaptation of Euromodern cultural practices on the other. The application of critical diversity method can also be understood through the analysis of the consumption and other usages of locally brewed alcoholic drinks in Bhutan from the diverse disciplinary perspectives of sociology, history, anthropology and postcolonial studies.
This research work is original in the sense that no research articles have been written on the locally brewed alcoholic drinks of Bhutan from such diverse disciplinary perspectives. The articles on the locally brewed alcoholic drinks of Bhutan that have been written so far mainly focus on the commercial perspectives, and a very few focus on the historical and spiritual dimensions.
Etymologically, the English word alcohol is believed to have originated from the Arabic word Like Dzongkha, Chokey is also a native language of Bhutan.
One of the stories reveals that the religious origin of alcohol in Bhutan took place through Lha
In the Dzongkha language, the term
In ancient Bhutan,
Here ancient Bhutan refers to the pre-modern era when monastic education was the only way of teaching and learning. The Bon priests belong to the ‘Bon’ religion, which is regarded as a Tibetan form of Buddhism. Shamans are priests who are believed to have the power to interact with the spirit through an altered state of consciousness. This term is used to denote a practitioner of yoga and meditations.
The following table (Table 2) outlines the various categories of locally brewed alcoholic drinks and their social, cultural, and religious usages.
Categories of alcoholic drinks in Bhutan and their usages.
It is offered to local deities. | |
It is drunk while making ritual cakes. | |
It is offered during various religious ceremonies. | |
It is used as an ingredient for offering incense to the deities. | |
It is used as an ingredient to ward off evils. | |
It is specifically brewed for the god of wealth. | |
It is offered to the dead. | |
It is offered to the local deity. | |
It is offered and drank while performing rituals for long life. | |
This drink is related to individual astrology. | |
This drink is offered to visitors and it is very popular in the eastern parts of Bhutan. | |
Amongst the pastoral communities of Bhutan, this drink is offered to welcome guests. | |
It is offered for reciprocity and fellow feeling. | |
It is offered at the beginning of important work. | |
It is offered in the middle of any work. | |
Drinks that are served before a meal. | |
Drinks that are served after a meal. | |
Drinks are that are served as an acknowledgement for free labour services. | |
Drinks that are offered as a request for labour help. | |
These drinks are offered to receive guests during marriages and other social gatherings. | |
It is offered as an arrival drink. | |
Like |
|
It is usually consumed during the night-time. | |
It is consumed while travelling. |
The table reveals a variety of drinks that are consumed in different social, cultural, and religious contexts. Not all the varieties of drinks that have been mentioned in the table need to be different from each other. Most of these drinks are the same and they are just referred to with different names on different occasions. There is hardly any written document that talks about the brewing processes. A few audio-visual documents exist that talk about the brewing processes in a general manner.
The social, cultural, and religious significances of alcohol regulate human relationships and widely impact expressions of respect towards each other. It also develops emotional bonding. In the article ‘Alcohol use, human capital and wages’ (2005) Jeremy Bray argues that moderate use of alcohol has a ‘positive effect’ (279) on the society as it helps in building strong community relationships. In traditional Bhutanese societies, locally brewed alcoholic drinks are regularly shared during occasions of meetings and departures. The monograph Alcohol serves as a consolatory treat during bereavement, as part of the relaxed ambience and pleasant sensation during festivities, a source of hospitality, and as a reconciliatory agent during disputes. Festivals and other important social events are organised with alcohol as a central enhancement substance. The tradition of offering
The farmers consume alcohol because they believe that after a hard day's toil it gives them mental peace and energy. Alcohol is also used as a spiritual object to drive out evils, as a medicinal cure for several illnesses, and as a weapon to keep the snakes away. In the article ‘The Myth behind Alcohol Happiness’ (2007) Chencho Dorji reveals that ‘a Bhutanese is introduced to alcohol soon after his or her birth. Starting with the celebration of a newborn a special homemade rice-based fermented drink called
In many Bhutanese villages, children start drinking at an early age, and in traditional Bhutanese society, it is not regarded as taboo. Usually, the alcohol-based drink that they consume is the ‘fermented rice-based
However, while playing archery and A traditional Bhutanese sport, which involves throwing of darts.
Before we try to understand the various ways through which locally brewed alcoholic drinks are allowing Bhutan to socially, culturally, religiously, and economically combat the western (Europe and North America) designs of capitalism/colonialism, it is important for us to briefly analyse the culture of brewing and consuming various forms of alcoholic beverages amongst the different indigenous communities in South Asia. So, let us look into some of the traditional alcoholic beverages that are consumed across India in the contemporary era and their contexts of use. Since time immemorial, varieties of locally brewed alcoholic drinks are consumed in North East India. Jyoti Prakash Tamang in his article ‘Diversity of fermented beverages and alcoholic drinks’ (2010) notes that ‘more than 250 types of ethnic fermented food and alcoholic beverages are produced and consumed in North East India’ (98). For instance, the preparation and consumption of rice beers are very common among the indigenous tribal communities of North East India (Ghosh and Das 2004, 378). For the
Besides North East India and the Sikkim Himalayas, varied forms of alcoholic drinks are consumed in the South Asian regions, like rice wine, cereal wine, palm wine, flower-based wine, and fruit wines combined with jaggery (Thakur, Savitri, and Bhalla 2004, 330). In India, Nepal, and Indonesia several alcoholic beverages are consumed as starters during lunch and/or dinner. Some of the alcoholic starters that are prepared from varieties of plants and cereals are as follows:
Here the word
Despite the high consumption of western (Europe and North America) brands of alcoholic drinks, these indigenous communities have successfully countered the influence of western-branded alcoholic drinks. This resistance has not only enabled them to remain connected to their social, cultural, geographical, economic, communal, and religious roots but also helped them to successfully evade the toxic forces of ‘modernity/rationality’ (Quijano 2007, 169). Through brewing various types of local alcoholic drinks, Bhutan also makes an effort to resist the influence of western-branded alcoholic beverages and widely the encroachment of the metaphysical empires of capitalism in an identical manner. Concerning metaphysical colonial empires, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni says that ‘if you remove colonialism without removing it epistemically, it will not disappear’ (2020). Through the introduction of western-branded alcoholic drinks, many commercial organisations in Bhutan have been making an effort to perform ‘a double cultural decapitation’ (wa Thiong’o 2009, 64) in Bhutan by trying to disengage the Bhutanese from their indigenous social, cultural, religious and economic practices on the one side and by trying to uproot their traditional systems of knowledge on the other. These forms of double cultural decapitation ultimately lead to ‘mnemonic decapitation’ (Zerubavel 2004, 84). As mnemonic decapitation takes place, it becomes easy for the metaphysical empire of capitalism to perform various forms of ‘epistemicides,
Killing and replacing the indigenous systems of knowledge. Killing and displacing the languages of the indigenous communities. Killing and displacing various forms of indigenous cultures and traditions.
In the process of preserving the indigenous social, cultural, religious, and economic traditions through the production and consumption of local alcoholic drinks, some of the challenges that contemporary Bhutan is facing are as follows:
Health Issues and Marketing Strategies: The over-consumption of alcoholic drinks has been triggering several health issues across Bhutan and this has been a major point of concern to date (Dorji 2011, 46–51; Royal Government of Bhutan 2019, 9). In 2019, the 5-year report (2013–2018) of
Though the survey reveals that most of the individuals believe that western-branded alcoholic drinks are more hygienic and healthier and a few believe the opposite, both types of alcoholic drinks are equally harmful. In general, the high consumption of alcoholic drinks in Bhutan causes major health issues. So, the health dichotomies that have been created based on consuming western-branded alcoholic drinks and locally brewed alcoholic drinks are baseless. There exist no statistical records that justify that locally brewed alcoholic drinks are more harmful than western-branded alcoholic drinks. These imaginative narratives have been deliberately curated as a marketing strategy to build markets of western-branded alcoholic drinks in Bhutan and demobilise the market for local alcoholic drinks (Dorji 2007, 67).
Social and Economic Challenges: These capitalistic acts of demobilisation are having a drastic impact on the social and economic conditions of contemporary Bhutan. The introduction and marketisation of western-branded alcoholic drinks are socio-culturally decapitating the locals on the one side and disrupting the traditional economic practice of producing and selling local alcoholic drinks on the other. According to surveys, which had been conducted by the National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan in 2003, 2007, and 2010, the consumption of locally brewed alcoholic drinks like
A National Statistics Bureau survey report (2003–2010) on the import, production, and sale of different alcoholic drinks in Bhutan notes the alarming fall in the sale of locally brewed alcoholic drinks across Bhutan and the constant increase in the sale of western-branded alcoholic drinks that are imported as well as manufactured in the country (Dorji 2011, 39–40). These situations are compelling many households to give their indigenous economic practice of producing and selling local alcoholic drinks, which they have been practicing for several generations, and to look for other modes of economic sustenance.
Despite, these social, cultural, and economic challenges, some of the possible initiatives, which have already been taken and which can be developed at the individual as well as at the organisational level, to preserve and promote the collective indigenous culture of producing, consuming, and sharing local alcoholic drinks in Bhutan, and to resist the westernisation of local Bhutanese cultures are as follows:
Building theme-based cultural tourism: A major part of Bhutan's economy is dependent on the tourism sector. Therefore, the government consistently makes a consistent effort to uphold the indigenous social, cultural, religious, and economic traditions of Bhutan as prominently as possible. Apart from introducing the tourists (especially the European and the North American tourists) to various forms of indigenous arts, crafts, potteries, architectures, spices, and food items, tourist guides also invite the visitors to taste different varieties of locally brewed alcoholic drinks. To present the traditional Bhutanese culture of producing, consuming, and holistically sharing local alcoholic drinks, the locally brewed alcoholic drinks are served in different containers made of wood, stone, and brass. Traditionally, based on specific social, cultural, religious, and ritualistic purposes, the locally brewed alcoholic drinks are consumed in different types of containers in Bhutan. As the tourists are served with local alcoholic drinks in different containers, they not only get the tastes of different alcoholic drinks but also come to know about the diverse socio-historical narratives that are associated with them. With respect to the culture and habit of consuming alcoholic drinks, these experiences enable them to re-think and interrogate the existing social, cultural, religious, scientific, and medical narratives as established and universalised by the Euro-North American-colonial-capitalistic systems of knowledge production. Reducing the import of western-branded alcoholic drinks: Besides sharing the culture of consuming locally brewed alcoholic drinks with the tourists, due to various health and economic concerns, the government has also reduced the import of western-branded alcoholic drinks. Though restrictions have also been imposed on the production of local alcoholic drinks, it has enabled the households in Bhutan to increase their production and distribution across the country. Gradually, it is also allowing the indigenous communities to revive and diversify their traditional economic practices. Organisation of alcoholic beverage fests: Apart from the above-mentioned initiatives, which are already being implemented in Bhutan, the government, in collaboration with various cultural institutions across the country, can organise annual alcoholic beverage fests in the places that are frequently visited by tourists. With due respect to the importance of spreading awareness against the over-consumption of any alcoholic drink, the fests can promote the various homemade alcoholic beverages to the tourists and other visitors from within and outside Bhutan. The organisers should also encourage the sale of locally brewed alcohol, especially to foreign tourists. On the one side the beverage fests, through the tourists, will allow the promotion of the alcohol-centred indigenous socio-cultural practices of Bhutan across the globe, and on the other side, it will also revive and re-mobilise the market for the locally brewed alcoholic drinks. Exporting locally brewed alcoholic drinks: The government also should start exploring the possibilities of exporting locally brewed alcoholic drinks across the globe. If the locally brewed alcoholic drinks can be sold outside the country, then it will have a positive impact on the economic progress and will encourage the practice of traditional economic activities. The government should also ensure that the locally brewed alcoholic drinks are exported in non-branded forms. In other words, instead of branding, packaging and industrially manufacturing the traditional alcoholic drinks, they should be exported by directly purchasing the homemade alcohol from the local households. Other than generating economic benefits, this initiative will also pose a challenge to the autonomous branding, packaging, and marketing policies of the commercial organisations.
Altogether, this article makes an effort to unfurl the various social, cultural, and religious practices that are associated with the traditional culture of producing, consuming, and sharing local alcohol in Bhutan. The article begins in a storytelling manner and through a couple of stories it briefly reflects on the socio-cultural history of locally brewed alcoholic drinks in Bhutan. Then, the socio-cultural history is elaborated further by identifying the varieties of locally brewed alcoholic drinks and by understanding the different social, cultural, and religious contexts in which they are consumed. The article brings forth the various challenges that have been created through importing western-branded alcoholic drinks and also by manufacturing them in Bhutan. In the process of discussing these aspects, the article also outlines how, based on health and medical sciences, several imagined narratives have been manufactured to justify the superiority of the western-branded alcoholic drinks and the inferiority of the locally brewed ones.
This article serves as a possible resistance to such problematic narratives and therefore concludes by analysing the various initiatives that have already been taken and can be taken in the near future to resist the western-branded alcoholic drinks and to revive and diversify the alcohol-centric indigenous social, cultural, religious and economic practices of/in Bhutan. Without violating the health and legal restrictions, the proposals for the revival of alcohol-centric indigenous socio-cultural practices are also a reminder for every indigenous community across the world to challenge the Eurocentric self-profiting social, cultural, health, and economic narratives that centre on alcohol productions and consumptions and revive the native socio-cultural practices that centre on the locally brewed alcoholic drinks.