A group of bikers from Kerala has apologised to Bhutan for the insensitive behaviour of another tourist, a biker who had climbed atop a sacred structure in Bhutan causing offence to the Bhutanese.
Few days ago Vishnu Sathya and his friends were in a biking trip which started from Kerala.They were in the middle of their biking then in north Sikkim heading to Bhutan when they heard the news of an Indian tourist causing some trouble there.They came to know an Indian tourist – another biker – had climbed atop a sacred structure in Dochula, causing offence to the Bhutanese. He was then taken in by the Royal Bhutan Police for questioning, though later released.
The Dochula Pass has 108 memorial chortens (stupas) built in honour of the Bhutanese soldiers who were killed in the December 2003 battle against Assamese insurgents from India. It shows that the irresponsible tourist had climbed one of the stupas and posed for a photo.
This news concerned Vishnu and his eight biker friends. Vishnu said “We felt that we would not be welcome there. We were also bikers, after all. And after that incident, they brought in some restrictions. We couldn’t get our permits individually. We had to get it through a travel agency. We also had to have a local guide with us.”
They wanted it to be instantly known that they were up to no trouble, that though they would not be disrespectful to another country’s culture.
“Our plan was to stick the words ‘Sorry, Bhutan’ on our bikes. But the Bhutanese people were so nice we didn’t need to do that. They were trying to tell us indirectly about what happened and why they were worried, and we assured them that there was nothing to worry. The people were more sad than angry. And we wanted to show them we respect their sacred structures. So at a Buddha point in Thimphu (not the same one that the other tourist had climbed), we stood with placards saying, ‘Sorry, Bhutan’. This made the local people there very happy. We got a lot of appreciation, from the police, from a Bhutanese paper, and soon the news spread wide,” Vishnu says.
One of the placards they held out read: ‘You are our neighbour. We are a friendly country. And it is our duty and responsibility to respect your heritage and faith and keep it from being tainted. Sorry Bhutan.’
Vishnu says. “It is for them, the message. We are telling them to not generalise that all tourists would be so discourteous,” he adds.
The bikers from Kerala who went with the peace message are on their next leg of trip in North East India.
