An unknown journal kept by Father William Mackey, which a former student discovered lying in his house, was brought to this paper’s notice. The journal is about his initial experiences, the students he taught and life in rural Bhutan. It reveals personal observations, relationships he developed and whatever he learnt from the Bhutanese.
This was at a time when education had just dawned upon Bhutan. Father Mackey would wander through the dormitories every evening before the lights went out in what is now the Trashigang Higher Secondary School. A sight that left a deep impression was seeing his students squatting on their beds, oblivious to the ruckus around them, immersed in prayers.
Father Mackey, a devout Jesuit, began to follow their example. The journal reveals the initial days and months of his time in an intimate observation of what was to become a lifelong affair.
“I can now squat peacefully for 45 minutes every morning, trying to experience the reality of God in my life,” reads one of the entries. It reflects the religiousness he saw around him. There is a growing familiarity as his stay in the school becomes comfortable and he writes, “Bhutanese guluphulus (rascals) have taught me how to pray.”
Father Mackey dedicated the rest of his life to modernizing the nascent education system in Bhutan.
“I was able to give a lot to the Bhutanese, but I received more than I have given.”
Lessons from the village
Father Mackey spent five years in Trashigang before moving to Kanglung for another 10 years. He then moved onto Khaling to start the Jigme Sherubling High School.
Father Mackey notes how he saw a poor village grow and develop in just a few decades.
“We see small is not only beautiful but capable of facing any challenge that may come Bhutan’s way in the first decade of the 21st century,” he notes.
The Bhutanese, according to the journal, were born in small villages in the 1960’s, lived off the land and gradually died in the same place. He takes note of the fact that Bhutanese in general at the time had strong bonds and attachments to their place of birth.
Calling the small villages “fantastic social units,” he was awed by the gomchens who he referred to as “defrocked monks.” His fascination with his gomchen friends is evident in the journal. He saw them everywhere; they were present at birth, marriage, sickness and death.
“In time of disaster, they guided the villagers to face any problem that happened to arise,” he writes.
The journal reveals how the villages were at the centre of everything. Father Mackey was fascinated at the answers he got when ever he asked a kid who they were. They would answer “Mongarpa,” “Radhipa” or a “Bidungpa.”
In his journal, he also recalls how the school (now Sherubtse College) was visited by a group from the United Nations. When a boy in class X was asked by the visiting group if he would die for his country, the boy had just looked at the questioning member, thought for a moment and answered, “No. That would be crazy! Who would want to die for a country?”
Father Mackey intervened and asked the UN member to ask the boy if he was ready to die for his King. The answer was unanimous. All were ready to die for their King.
“The concept of country did not exist,” Father Mackey writes. “Their world was their small villages.”
However, he mentions the impact the construction of roads brought about. After the construction of the first three roads in Bhutan, children from villages along the road came to the bigger schools where they rubbed shoulders, fought and played with boys and girls from other villages.
He also writes that the concept of a bigger political unit grew and slowly the ‘concept of country’ developed and so did the concept of ‘One People, One Nation.’
“They grew into Sharchopas, Nalongpas and Lhotshampas. Any threat from outside unified the different groups making up a country.”
Lessons from Buddhism
“How have I been influenced by Bhutan’s religious thinking and practice?” he questions himself.
Father Mackey, writes Mother Teresa, was invited to Bhutan to set up some of her charitable works. She took one look at the country and refused.
Her remark on the Bhutanese was that there was not an orphan in the country and when their parents died, she said the village took care of the children.
“This was an encouraging feature in Buddhism, the willingness to help each other,” he notes.
Much of Father Mackey’s prayer life, religious reading and other practices, more often than not, stressed an intellectual approach.
For him, Bhutan stressed the fact that an infinite reality can not be grasped by a finite intelligence. “However, it can be experienced,” he wrote.
When the students in boarding schools gathered to recite Buddhist prayers, he would sit with them and recite his own prayers.
“I would recite to the rhythm of the Bhutanese prayer,” he wrote.
To him, the daily religious practices in a Bhutanese home showed how close they were to reality.
The Bhutanese taught him to pray and their religious insights enriched his life.
He wrote that he was a better Christian, Catholic, Jesuit and Priest because of 31 years among the Bhutanese.
“If the love of God is proved by the love of the neighbor, many Bhutanese are very close to God,” he wrote.
Father Mackey was awarded the Druk Thuksey medal for his services to education in Bhutan. In 1985, he was granted Honorary Bhutanese Citizenship.
Born in Montreal, Canada in 1915, Father Mackey came to Bhutan at the age of 48 in October 1963. He passed away on October 18, 1995 at the age of 80.
He dedicated 32 years of his life to education in Bhutan.
“My life and work has been enriched by my contact with Buddhism. I pray the Bhutanese and Buddhism may be enriched by coming in contact with me.”
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