Lesson from My Fishing Trip

Rainy Lake

  I strongly believe in religion and support all the noble acts, but avoids unnecessary and craze to receive “wang” from every religious figure that I encounter. Everyday I start my day with water and butter lamp offering and reciting short prayers. I believe, this keeps me going and makes my day worth.

As I child, I had my own catapult which I used to hunt birds just for fun. It was fun for me during that part of my time but not for the poor birds, probably about 3 birds I remembered hitting. I guess I was not turning out to be good human being than. The change in my attitude towards them came when I was in class IV. From the very beginning of my life, I was trained as a cook (probably, this may be the reason of my passion towards cooking and my craze to try and prepare different cuisine) to prepare meals to my Lt. Grand Father who would spend his time meditating. Once, I set a trap to catch fish which would come right by our house during summer as there used to be small pond by our house. I happened to catch a bag (100cm X 50 cm) full of fish (size of fish: 15 cm length and about 20 cm diameter). Before I could harvest the fish, my Grand Father came to know and made me to release all the fish back after whipping two or three times sharp on my butt and back with small cane stick. It was a bitter experience but I am thankful that he nipped such an activity from me while in the state of bud.

I didn't fish!!! I was just posing to the camera..haha...!

I was a transformed kid and when I was in class VI, I was appointed as a prayer captain in the school. I tried to learn the art of using a Drel-bu (bell) and memorize as many prayers as I could. I could proudly say that, even now I recite those prayers which I memorized that time. I was sincere, good and hard working and continued with my childhood character. Thanks to my Lt. Grand Father. He left me (when I was in class VIII) before I could repay him for what he did to me. Has it not been his strict rules, training on daily chores, and frequent Drig-lam-Nam-sha (daily etiquette; I hope it is the right translation!!!) class, I would not have been what I am today.

Recently, one of my professors in the US asked what we (three Bhutanese) would like to do after we defended our thesis. One of my friends, promptly said “fishing”. The day of the fishing arrived, professor arrived with his SUV (Honda CRV) loaded with a Canoe, two chairs, few bottles of beer and some dried fruit and snacks. Soon, we were heading towards Rainy Lake from Missoula (it was an hour drive). Rainy Lake has Cut-throat trout and only three Cut-throat trout is allowed to harvest in a day by a license holder according to the US fishing and hunting laws.

Cut Throat Trout
(Note the typical red colour mark under the operculum of the fish)

The fishing trip was a great success for us but not for the poor fishes. But, we realized that, they were dying of starvation as their stomach was literally empty. I consoled myself saying, “We probably saved the fish from torturous dead of starvation.” I may be wrong, but that was the only way to console myself. Though we killed the fish, but we also thanked the fish for providing us with protein, omega 3 fatty acids and of course filling our stomach by sacrificing itself. I think only animals have the capacity of performing Lue-ke-jin-pa (offering one’s body to satiate someone’s greed or liberate someone from suffering).

It was yet another great lesson to me. When animals have the power to sacrifice themselves why can’t humans give away whatever excess he has to provide comfort to someone un-lucky.