Bae-Langdra, 24 kilometers uphill from Chuzomsa, Wangduephodrang, is a highly revered Nye where Terton Dorji Lingpa discovered treasures hidden by Guru Padmasambhava. Today, in an unbelievable twist of history, the hidden place is earning infamy as its villagers take to organised Marijuana cultivation.
Cannabis calling
On a hot summer afternoon when the farmers of Bae-Langdra in Wangduephodrang were sweating in their field, a young native came back home from Phuentsholing.
The year was 2004.
In his early 20s, young Karma Norbu (all names are changed) sported long hair and flaunted his torn jeans. A crude tattoo ran along his skinny arms and his T-shirt almost touched his knees.
Uninterested in farm work, Karma Norbu loitered around the village to kill time until the day he spotted a familiar plant close to his sister’s home.
A year later, Karma Norbu and the plant brought a new dawn to the lives of the farmers of Bae-langdra.
Historical premise
Not until long ago, the people of Bae-Langdra were poor. Like the Lady of Shalott, they were bound by a curse cast by none other than Guru Rinpoche himself.
It is said that when Guru Rinpoche came to Bae-Langdra he met an elderly woman carrying water on her back. When he asked her for a drink, she promptly refused.
Instantly the stream that coursed through Bae-Langdra disappeared. It had gone underground coming out beyond the last house in the village.
For hundreds of years the people of Bae-Langdra had to carry drinking water from faraway places. Their fields went fallow, and people often went thirsty. Instead of potatoes and maize, the fallow fields would see wild cannabis flourish.
The government, however, averted the Guru’s curse by providing a continuous supply of water for farming. People went back to taming the wilderness, planting potatoes and maize again.
But then, Karma Norbu came back home!
The new crop
It didn’t take too long for Karma Norbu to convince the Bae-Langdra farmers the promise of organized marijuana cultivation.
He first chatted up Tshering Choden, a farmer and mother of a two-month old child. She was excited with the new knowledge, and a few conversations later Karma Norbu found his first well-wisher.
Soon, almost every household in Bae-Langdra embraced marijuana cultivation. The wild plant was domesticated in a record time.
Farmers also learnt how to extract hash by rubbing the plants with palms. They learnt that the market for their products was big and growing.
Marijuana farming
It might be naive to compare the marijuana plantations in Bae-Langdra to opium poppy plantations in Afghanistan, but both the businesses are organized.
Sangay Tenzin was one of the first to collect the seeds from female Marijuana plants and sow them in a small patch of land. Today, he is proud of his little plantation.
Like him, many farmers in Bae-Langdra have patches of their land dedicated to marijuana. And some farmers kill two birds with one stone: they grow marijuana and potatoes together. They harvest the two ‘crops’ at the same time.
Some have even sacrificed their land to growing marijuana, replacing maize and cash crops like potatoes and chilies. Moreover, marijuana is a hardy plant. It doesn’t need water, and it doesn’t have to be replanted.
Harvesting hash
Karma Norbu’s ingenuity introduced the farmers of Bae-langdra to quick money. Come peak season (September to October), when marijuana plants are replete with resin, farmers hang up their plow.
Almost everyone is seen rubbing the plants in the open, without any fear of being caught by the law, collecting the black hash (a concentrated resin produced from the flowers of the marijuana plant).
Yonten Dorji, 58, grows marijuana with chilies. He said he works in the farm the whole day, dedicating the first half to cash crops and the rest to the production of hash.
Gyem, who just became a mother, now finds it difficult to make more hash compared to the past. She made about five little containers of hash a week before. Thus, her 60-year-old father-in-law helps her today.
“Growing hash is more profitable than growing cash crops,” she said.
Almost off-season for marijuana plants now, the farmers have uprooted the plants to ready their field for the next season.
Gembo, another farmer, said marijuana didn’t need any weeding like other crops. Farmers in Bae-Langdra said marijuana plantation is a one-time investment where money is hardly involved.
Another farmer, who reaped healthy profits this season, said he will plant more marijuana plants the next season. “Potatoes will wait,” he said.
A garden of knowledge
Farmers in Bae-Langdra are abreast with the know-how of hash business. For example, they know that female plants are more productive than the males.
“Moreover, customers prefer hash from the female plants,” said Gembo.
Most farmers save their products for the winter, when customers don’t mind paying double the price during off-season. They also know who their serious buyers are and who would be willing to pay more.
Sangay Tenzin said he studies his customers before he tells them the price. “If it’s the rich ones from Thimphu, they are willing to pay more,” he said.
Farmers store the hash in plastic pouch as it retains the moisture and keeps it soft and sticky, which is normally considered good quality.
The money involved
Farmers in Bae-Langdra sell their hash in camera film containers. One container fetches Nu 2,000.
However, some farmers blame the rookies for undercutting and selling a container for Nu 1,000 to Nu 1,500.
A Thimphu taxi driver said he bought hash from the people of Bae-Langdra at Nu 2,000 a container and sold it in the capital for Nu 6,000.
Another supplier said he sells for Nu 4,000 to his regular customers, but charges new buyers Nu 5,000 a container.
A private sector employee, who is a regular customer at Bae-Langdra, said he normally bought a container at Nu 1,500 to Nu 2,000 depending on the quality.
However, it is not only money that is involved in the business. When customers are short of money, farmers are willing to barter. Starting from shoes to clothes to mobile phone to cameras, anything works.
Sangay, a 22-year-old dealer and regular of the Bae-Langdra farmers, said his customers preferred the Bae-Langdra hash compared to the Thinleygang one.
The law
The people of Bae-Langdra know the consequences they might face if caught cultivating marijuana.
Gyem, who has a brother in the Royal Bhutan Police, fears a rough time if her brother finds about it.
The Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse Act 2005 states that the owner, operator, or occupier, under whatever title, of land for agricultural or other use shall be required to destroy any opium poppies, coca bushes or cannabis plants found growing there.
But the farmers of Baelangdra are already looking forward to a better season next year.
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