157  

Chapter 5

The Circle of Karma: A novel

 

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Life and works of Kunzang Choden

5.3. The Circle of Karma: An Introduction

5.4. Critical Study of parameters

5.5. Conclusion

Works Cited

5.1. Introduction

This chapter discusses about the novel The Circle of Karma written by a

Bhutanese writer Kunzang Choden. Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a

landlocked country in South Asia located at the eastern end of the Himalayas. Bhutan has

good diplomatic relations with India. India has friendly relations with Bhutan in trade,

commerce and many bilateral talks have been organized between the chiefs of India and

Bhutan. Recently, the Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi invited the Prime

Minister of Bhutan Lyonchen Tshering Tobgay to attend the swearing-in-ceremony of

NDA government in May 2014. Thereafter, the Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra

Modi visited Bhutan as his first foreign trip. Bhutan is a member of the South Asian

Association for Regional Cooperation i.e.SAARC, and it has no trade relations with

China, and so the study of Bhutan through literature is of extremely useful. Bhutan is the

only country to have officially adopted gross national happiness instead of the gross

domestic product as the main development indicator. In 2006, based on a global survey,

Business Week rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the

world. (“Bhutan”)

In the context of world literature, Bhutanese Literature seemed hidden in the

corner of this world and not exposed with its artistic writing. To meet the global standard,

Global Bhutanese Literature Organization (GBLO) was formed with common objectives.

158  

Objectives are to promote, protect, conserve and bring revolution in Bhutanese Literature

in the 21st century with new concept and ideas of all people, connect Bhutanese writers

all over the world, encourage and uplift the young generation in the field of literature and

education, keep old literature alive with respect and bring change in progressive way

across the globe, encourage all people in literary field making their active participation. It

is fully non political literary organization for all Bhutanese people. GBLO works for the

promotion of writers and readers at global level through different Medias. GBLO also

works to share art in literature with world community in progressive way. (Global)

There are a few Bhutanese writers. Kunzang Choden is a Bhutanese writer. Ap

Chuni Dorji is a Bhutanese poet and creator of the most famous Yak Song ever written.

Dzok Trun Trun is also a Bhutanese writer and notable literary scholar. He delivers

lectures at the Royal University of Bhutan, addressing social issues such as Gross

National Happiness and Buddhism. He was also a noted government advisor to the

cabinet of Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Thinley. Dzok Trun Trun was a recipient of

the Royal Order of Bhutan in January 2013. His first novel, Swollen Swallow, Green Tea

Leaf, was published in 2009. This novel deals with the rapid change of infrastructure and

opening up of Bhutan to the western world and rural people outside of the capital

of Thimphu who seem oblivious to what is happening. This novel has been championed

by the Dzongkha Development Commission who labelled the novel 'Bhutan Novel of the

Year- Silver Award 2009'. The works of Dzok Trun Trun have not been published in

English, but only in Dzongkha and Tibetan. (Dzok)

5.2. Life and Works of Kunzang Choden

Kunzang Choden is a Bhutanese writer. She is the first Bhutanese woman to write

a novel in English. Choden was born in 1952,  in Bumthang District. She has a BA

Honours in Psychology from Delhi and a BA in Sociology from the University of

Nebraska-Lincoln. She has worked for the United Nations Development Program in

Bhutan. She is a Bhutanese writer married to a Swiss. Her works include Folktales of

Bhutan , Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti , Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan, The

Circle of Karma, Chilli and Cheese- Food and Society in Bhutan and, Tales in Colour

and other. (“Kunzang”)

159  

I. Folk Tale of Bhutan

This is the first attempt of a Bhutanese writer to record in English the oral

traditions of their kingdom. It has resulted into collection of thirty-eight Bhutanese

folktales and legends. She has also preserved Bhutanese oral tradition for everyone to

appreciate.

II. Bhutanese Tales of the Yeti

It is a collection of twenty-two stories set in four different regions of Bhutan. The

presence of the yeti is ubiquitous to the kingdoms of the Himalayas, where beliefs and

attitudes related to it go beyond scientific judgment and analysis. The Bhutanese consider

the yeti, or the migoi, to be an essential part of the backdrop of their existence. This is

second volume on Bhutanese folktales.

III. Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan

Dawa is an old dog who spends most of his time outside Chandgangkha lhakhang

temple in Thimpu. This ancient temple, built on a hillock overlooking Thimpu, is a

historical landmark. Dawa has chosen to spend the rest of his life here only. He

understands Dzongkaha, he has an urge to see the world and his brave brain is matched

only by his compassionate heart. Dawa's story exemplifies the people of Bhutan, gentle,

hard working, devout and friendly. Dawa's determination to reach his destination could

have been a metaphor for the determination of the people of Bhutan to always be free of

outside influences. It describes the beauty of Bhutan where "Gross National Happiness"

is the country's motto and, the people are always smiling.

IV. The Circle of Karma

The Circle of Karma, published in 2005, is her first novel. It takes place in the

1950s, the initial period of imperially regulated modernization in Bhutan. The main

character, a Bhutanese woman is forced to deal both with the traditional,

restrictive gender roles of pre-modern Bhutan and the new kinds of sexism developing as

men gain economic freedom. The novel tells the story of Tsomo, a young Bhutanese

woman who embarks on the difficult and lonely journey of life. Tsomo's travels, which

begin after her mother's death, take her away from her family, and lead her across Bhutan

and into India. All the while, Tsomo seeks to find herself and a life partner, and grows as

160  

a person and a woman. The novel is enriched by detailed descriptions of ritual life in

Bhutan. The novel weaves a complex tapestry of life from a relatively unknown part of

the world.

V. Chilli and Cheese- Food and Society in Bhutan

This is a pioneering book offering insight into Bhutanese food culture within its

historical and geographical context, as well as looking at food-related beliefs and

practices. Kunzang Choden highlights the importance of food as a socio-economic

signifier and illustrates how food has meaning beyond nourishment, particularly in its

symbolic forms in religion and ritual. The author explores regional agricultural and

herding practices, the use of wild plants and the resulting food customs and habits.

VI. Tales in Colour and other stories

In this collection, all the stories take place in rural settings, to which creeping

urbanization brings gradual change, and tensions surface between the new and the old, or

the traditional and the modern. For many rural women, being able to connect to the city

and all its perceived power and glamour is a very real aspiration.

5.3. The Circle of Karma: An Introduction

The opening locale of the novel is set in Thimpu in Bhutan. The novel opens with

a prologue and it narrates the events in flash back. Tsomo, the protagonist, goes to meet

Lham Yeshi. Tsomo complains about her foot. She talks about a man who stays at a

chorten i.e. stup and has a girl friend-an old woman. Tsomo continues her talk saying, “I

never want to think of men or sex. Men and sex have caused me enough suffering to last

many lifetimes”(ix). Lham Yeshi is a migrant and the municipality is evicting the

migrants who construct their unauthorized huts in and around Thimpu town.

Tsomo is the third child and the first daughter among twelve siblings. She was

very weak in childhood. She was born in the Year of Monkey as per Bhutanese calendar

and it has been forecasted she would remain restless, always wanting to travel throughout

her life. The astrologer predicts from her horoscope that material prosperity would elude

her but if she practices religion, she will be born as a man in her next life. Right from

childhood Tsomo has been made conscious about her womanhood. She asks her mother

161  

‘Where is the furthest I can travel to Mother?” Her mother replies: “Where can a girl

travel to? Perhaps as far north as Tibet and as far south as India” (2). The orthodox

background of her parents is revealed in the beginning and there is a drastic change in her

personality as the event progresses.

By the time she was fifteen, they were only seven siblings. Five of her brothers

and sisters had died in infancy and the last died with mother before it was born. Thus,

Tsomo has grown up in a typical patriarchal family system where she, being a girl child

has to care her younger siblings. Her house is big and her ancestors had been known as

the Wangleng chupko or the wealthy of Wangleng. The economic condition of her

ancestors was very sound and they were proud of being tax payers. The municipality is

charged with the unpleasant task of evicting the migrants who construct unauthorized

huts in and around Thimpu town. Tsomo’s father is a gomchen or a lay monk. He spends

most of his time performing rituals in and around the village. Tsomo used to listen from

him about the importance of karma which makes our next life happy. When Tsomo longs

to be able to read, write and learn religion, her father says, “You are a girl. You are

different. You learn other things that will make you a good woman and a good wife.

Learn to cook, weave and all those things. A woman does not need to know how to read

and write” (21).

Tsomo’s second oldest brother marries to a girl from village and becomes a

farmer. Choden narrates incident of playing of sensual games by school boys and girls.

They swim in muddy –deep water and then touch and pull the organs of the opposite sex.

Tsomo is a stubborn child. There is a mention of wedding ceremony and how girls

become pregnant and they have to undergo purification ceremony. If a woman does not

perform tshangma, she would be held responsible for any natural catastrophes that befell

the village that year. For Chimme, a girl who has pregnancy of four months, no male

comes to claim the father of the child and so she becomes defiant. She says, “I am not the

first woman to go through this and I will not be the last and this helped me to appear

unperturbed. How did I look? Frightened? Ashamed?” (43). The father of Chimme’s

child is a gaylong or a celibate monk who may lose his celibacy if he confesses about

Chimme’s child. Chimme could not go for abortion as it would have sinned doubly,

making a gaylong lose his celibacy and killing her own child.

162  

Tsomo regrets at one stage for not getting started her menstruation till the age of

fifteen and feels that it is because of her karma that she may be deprived of having a baby

in future. Tsomo had seen her mother either pregnant or sucking a child at her soft

sagging breasts. Her father believes ‘Dangpa mi yi long choi, nepa choygi long choi,

sumpa junor long choi.’ (Means ‘first the abundance of people, second the abundance of

religion and third the abundance of material wealth’) (56). Tsomo’s mother dies in a

labour pain and could not deliver a baby. Her family believes that, “The unborn child

must see the light of day…Leaving it in the womb will cause it similar obstacles in its

future lives” (60). Tsomo’s mother’s body was cut with a knife to remove the fetus. Her

mother is cremated and on the same day the baby’s body is put into a tiny box which is

immersed in the river. The post death rituals continue up to forty-nine days. Tsomo’s

father decides to remarry a girl named Tashi Lhamo, almost few years elder than Tsomo.

He says, “A person in my position cannot do without a wife. There must be a woman to

welcome, entertain and see off guests and see to the daily affairs of the house. The house

should not feel like a cold cave” (64). Tsomo being elder child, she has more

responsibility now after death of her mother. She has become mother to her siblings. Her

father, a religious person does not care much about kids. Kesang is seventeen year old

sister of Tsomo who helps in weaving fabrics. Her seven year old brother Nidup Tshering

wants to become a gomchen. Another brother Kincho Thinlay is sixteen, but he is slow

and partially deaf, so could not become gomchen. They try to cure blockage of his speech

and worship deities for his cure.

Tsomo is grief stricken for the death of her mother. She thinks of going to

Trongsa and light butter lamps for mother’s first death anniversary. She leaves for the

first time alone. Tsomo starts her journey to Trongsa alone. On her journey, Tsomo meets

a man-Dhondulpa, his sister Ani, and Wangchen, his son. One night while Tsomo is

sleeping in the open around the fire, Wangchen approaches her for sex and she likes it.

After departure of Ani and Dhondulpa, Tsomo and Wangchen live there, they make love

and enjoy sex. She goes at all the temples with Wangchen and offers butter lamps at all

the altars. Tsomo decides to go back to home as she remembers her siblings. Tsomo is

unaware of the fact that Wangchen has already been married and has kids also. Tsomo

and Wangchen start return journey. After three months Tsomo finds her pregnancy.

163  

Tsomo thinks about the prestige of her father and what she has already done. She thinks

of writing a letter to Wangchen but as she is illiterate, she could not. Though Wangchen

married in childhood, he agrees to marry Tsomo. He hides the fact of his earlier marriage

and kids. Tashi Lhamo, the step mother of Tsomo knows about Tsomo’s pregnancy.

Tsomo gives birth to a dead child premature. Tsomo’s belly is swollen because of illness

and she considers it is because of her karma. Later on Wangchen falls in love with

Kesang, younger sister of Tsomo. She marries him and has a child also. When Tsomo

knows this fact, she feels very depressed and thinks about going far away.

Tsomo reaches Thimpu. People from all over Bhutan come for reconstruction

work on the Thimpu dzong. At that place where people work for road construction,

Tsomo meets Tseten Dorji and his wife Ugyen Doma, and lives with them. Though she

gets involved in the activities, she longs for Wangchen. Tsomo works as a maidservant.

She feels jealous of her sister Kesang. All sorts of people are being employed on the road

construction sites between Phuentsoling and Thimpu. She dreams to do better than just do

labour on roads. She wants to learn, read and write and to practice religion and become a

nun. She dreams of becoming a good woman, - a good wife and a mother of big family.

She wants to make her family prosper and wants to show Kesang and Wangchen that she

is worth something. Later on Tsomo plans to make a little money to pay for her journey

to look for her brother and then she will practice religion and get out of this cycle of

suffering.

One day Dechen Choki, a twenty one year old lady, comes to Tsomo’s hut. She

looks like her sister Kesang. Initially Tsomo denies but then agrees to allow her to live in

her hut till she gets another arrangement. With the arrival of Dechen Choki, laughter and

warmth reappeared in Tsomo’s life. After completion of work at the site, the workers are

directed to join for the new site. Tsomo and Dechen Choki decide to go with them. At the

site, the first thing done is to dynamite the rocks so that there are enough stones for the

women to hammer into gravel. It is extremely dangerous work. Dechen has been

molested by her step-father and now the employer. After this, Tsomo and Dechen decide

to go Phuentsoling, situated near border of India. At Phuentsoling, Dechen has regained

some of her confidence and spontaneity. The change of place is good for her. Kalimpong

was a just a day’s journey from Phuentsoling. Tsomo had heard in Thimpu that her

164  

brother was there too, as a gomchen with Karsang Drakpa Rinpoche. They plan to reach

up to Siliguri and from there to Kalimpong by taxi. She imagines, “Kalimpong was the

place that was going to give her a new life. A life of religion and prayer. A life of peace

and forgetfulness. She wanted to forget all that she had left behind” (130).

Tsomo and Dechen reach Siliguri. They go Kalimpong by a jip full of passengers.

There she finds people from Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet. Kalimpong is almost like a

Bhutanese village. Tsomo has come to Kalimpong for searching her brother. On the way,

Tsomo finds one person who resembles her brother and on inquiring, she finds him to be

her brother. He manages about their boarding. She talks about her family with Gyalsten.

He comes to know about his mother’s death after six months of her death. When Tsomo

informs Gyalsten about her family, Gyalsten says very true fact about human being that

one can never be free of our attachments through our bodies. There is a yearning that

calls for family. Families are connected through blood and bones and there is a restless

anxiety that haunts one all the time. Later on Tsomo informs about Kesang and

Wangchen. She wants to learn religion, but as she is not educated, she can’t. Thereafter

they go to get Lama Karsang Drakpa Rinpoche’s blessings.

Dechen starts weaving bags with specific patterns and colors as her profession

and Tsomo creates hobby in gardening. They meet Pema who has a son, Tenzing, twenty

one years of age. Tenzing falls in love with Dechen and marries her. Tenzing decides to

go to Sikkim, as there are more opportunities for taxi driver there. After departure of

Dechen, Tsomo thinks that she is a cursed woman, having no children, no home. Pema

Buti informs Tsomo about news of Tenzing and Dechen in Gangtok. They are doing well

in Sikkim and they have bought a second jeep. Dechen gives birth to a baby boy and her

husband inherited property from his uncle in Gangtok. Tsomo feels envious that happy

things are happening to people all around her and nothing much happened in her life.

Tsomo’s brother comes home from Kurseong and decides to go back to Bhutan

and do a series of retreats in the holy meditation sites, starting with Paro Taktsang,

Singhe Dzong in Kurtoi and in Bumthang. He asks Tsomo to join her but Tsomo does not

want to return home like a beggar. Her brother leaves for Bhutan. Tsomo has met some

people with whom she feels at ease and she is not so lonely anymore. One day Tsomo

decides to go Dorjiten (it is Bodhgaya) and manages money required for that. Even as a

165  

small child in her village, Tsomo had known that every person should strive to visit this

holy place at least once in a lifetime. Tsomo considers her to be lucky because of her

karma. At Dorjiten, Tsomo goes with her companions to all the main pilgrimage sites,

lights butter lamps and prays.

Later on Tsomo plans to become a nun. She dreams how she would look as a nun.

She decides to join the Bhutanese pilgrims going to Kalimpong when they travel back.

Some other pilgrims plan to go Tso Pema in Rewalsar in Himachal Pradesh; it is the

place where Guru Rinpoche had transformed the burning pyre into the soothing waters of

a lake. Tsomo wants to return to Kalimpong and not to go any further. Going deeper and

deeper into India, she fears may swallow her in its vastness. She regrets that she missed

the opportunity to return Kalimpong first with her companions and then with Ani Decho.

Tsomo changes her decision and goes with her companion at Rewalsar in

Himachal Pradesh. At that place, an elderly man proposes Gomchen Lhatu for her. Lhatu

is a good man and he is quite well educated too. His parentage is clean, tax payers on

both his parents’ sides. Though Tsomo refuses Lhatu, Tsomo feels that she has been

neglected by her companion, lonely and isolated. Tsomo likes his company and later on

they get married. They move towards Dehradun. They meet high lama Rinpoche, and he

suggests them to go to Mussorrie, where there is an American hospital. Rinpoche is

dedicated to copying Buddhist manuscripts because so many of them had fled their

country without their scriptures and the Chinese were engaged in the systematic

destruction of all religious artifacts and scriptures. Tsomo’s illness is supposed to be

cured. She has been sent to an Indian doctor and an interpreter who interprets in Hindi. At

Dehradun, in spite of physical comfort and mental well-being, her health has deteriorated

and she has begun to experience more discomfort and pain. Her belly grows hard like an

over pumped ball and becomes heavier. Her appetite disappeared. She has been taken to

an American hospital at Mussorrie. The doctor examines her but the medicines given

make her uneasy and drowsy and her belly aches as if with childbirth contractions. She is

miserable. Gradually, Tsomo feels optimistic and rejuvenated. She starts weaving. After

a few months in Dehradun, Tsomo goes to Delhi with Lhatu on advice of Rinpoche. He

says that Lhatu will get job as scribe in Delhi and greater market for Tsomo’s Bhutanese

166  

woven bags. So that they may get more money and pay for her medicine and operation

charges.

Lhatu and Tsomo reach Ladakh Vihar in old Delhi. She starts weaving and Lhatu

as a scribe Tsomo goes to Chandani Chowk. One day a Tibetan, Sherab comes to her

home inquiring Lhatu. Lhatu has been lying Tsomo that he has some additional work at

office. Tsomo and Sherab go on a three wheeler scooter to eat Tibetan food up to far

place from the city and that place is Tibetan refugee camp. She finds him gambling.

Gradually Tsomo and Sherab come closer and they like physical contact also. Sherab

advises her to go to Kalimpong. Tsomo thinks about herself:

All these years and all the yatras that I wove, allegedly for the doctor,

went to support his gambling habits. I began weaving even before my

operation wounds were healed properly. I, the fool, the idiot, a complete

cow minus the horns, am weaving one which he commanded that I should

finish today so that he can post off tomorrow. (251)

Lhatu and Tsomo reach Kalimpong. Tsomo becomes weaver here. She weaves

not because of economic compulsion but because she needs to do something before she

lost all sense of purpose. Lhatu and she maintained a cool, detached and dispassionate

relationship. Lhatu has young Bhutanese female friends also. He discontinued gamble.

Pema Buti feels happy that Tsomo has come back to Kalimpong. Dechen Choki has TB

and she has become thin and weak. She does not like to take medicines and go to the

special hospital for TB patients. Tsomo enjoys Hindi movies there.

There is a change in Tsomo’s attitude. Although she performs the daily rituals of

offering water at the altar and lighting butter lamps and saying a few prayers, all her

actions seem hollow and cursory. She thinks of religion as “Another time, at a later time,

When I get older” (258). Tsomo and her husband are jolted back to reality when their rich

patron suddenly left for Bhutan. Her husband and she are invited to join them, but Lhatu

makes some excuses. Tsomo is aware that Lhatu’s business takes him to Phuentsoling,

more frequently and some time he does not return for weeks at a time. She learns that he

has a mistress, a young girl. Tsomo feels a lot and she thinks, “It was not so much the

anger and the loneliness but the question of being so valueless that hurt her. How could

167  

she be cast aside so easily after all these years? She was not like an old shirt that could be

easily discarded and forgotten” (262).

At Phuentsoling Tsomo meets a young girl who is sixteen years of age. The girl is

pregnant, carrying Lhatu’s child. Tsomo thinks that her married life is now on the dying

stage. Tsomo thinks that women internalized their problems and grief and believe that

they are all at fault. Women are the thieves, stealing husbands from each other, living in

suspicion and hate. While reaching back at Kalimpong, Tsomo comes to know that she

has really forgotten to lock the house and everything of any value that she owes has been

stolen. Her friend Lhadon helps and says her to live with her. Lhadon allows Tsomo to

live in that house until her house is re-established. There is a mention of foreign priests

called father who give out the food. The novelist shows that how Christian father

provides help to children. The people call them ‘milk Christmas' and ‘rice Christmas’.

The fathers get lot of money to help the poor.

Tsomo wants to be a nun. She shaves her head. She has stopped going to the

cinema for which she was very much fond of. She continues to distil alcohol for sale. It is

easier and faster than to sell fabric. She hears death of Rinpoche and his body has been

taken to Thimpu so Tsomo goes there by bus. As Rinpoche is no more, she thinks that

there is no reason for her to live in Thimpu. She lingers on the idea to go back to

Kalimpong. Her own relatives come looking for her. There are children from her sister

Kesang and her former husband, Wangchen. Tsomo feels that she is a poor woman with

shaven head and not even a space of her own that she could call home and yet these

people come to her, calling her sister, aunt, granny, expecting nothing in return. Tsomo

has come to Phuentsoling for a few days just with her bag. She would have to go back to

Kalimpong for that is where she belongs. She takes the early morning bus back to

Phuentsoling after about two weeks in Thimpu. Her relatives come to see her off. She

feels that she belongs to each of them and to nobody in particular. Her relatives, ‘mine’,

‘my’ are words full of the burden of responsibilities and obligations.

During her journey from Thimpu to Kalimpong, Tsomo decides to live in Thimpu

as she likes it. Most of the Buddhist lamas have left Kalimpong. Bhutan has many lamas

and the religious atmosphere is much more serious. It is severe winter in Bhutan. At

chorten, she keeps herself busy in circumnutating or prostrating. After several months,

168  

the caretaker helps her to apply for a government stipend. Her obligation is to say a

certain number of prayers every month for which she is given a sum of money. Tsomo

does not want her relatives to bear the financial responsibility for her death. She wants to

be able to bear her own expenses even when she is dead. She wants to go in dignity and

does not want her death to be the cause of quarrels, discord and disgrace in the family she

has abandoned long ago.

After several months in Thimpu Tsomo is convinced that she has made the right

decision to come and live there. She likes meeting the different people there, relatives and

friends. Thimpu attracts all sorts of people who come there for its work opportunities, its

medical facilities, to meet their families or simply to see the big town. She has chosen to

be there because she feels she belongs there, with the aged and devout who centered their

lives around the chorten. Wangchen has come to Thimpu to get his cataract operation. He

has become weak and old. He is simple her former husband, Kesang’s husband now and

her brother-in- law. Wangchen has to be helped around the house because his left eye is

still blind and his right eye has not healed enough to be uncovered. Thimpu keeps

growing and laws keep changing and so the location of Tsomo’s dwelling has to change

because she has to move each time her hut is declared to be on an unauthorized area

within the municipality. Tsomo thinks, “It is not easy to live like enlightened buddhas if

we have the bodies and minds of human beings. A whole life time’s endeavor is not

enough to do that. Tsomo thought. But who was she to expound on human weakness or

the virtues and religion?” (311)

In the epilogue Lham Yeshi under the gate of chorten, tries to see if Tsomo is

there among the people who are circumambulating the holy monument. Tsomo

announces that she is going to the Kalachakra Wang in Siliguri as His Holiness, the Dalai

Lama is coming. The Dalai Lama is the true Buddha of Compassion. Then she wants to

go on to Bodhgaya for the Great Prayer Festival. This will be her third and final year at

the Prayer Meeting and the last big pilgrimage. After coming back she will spend the rest

of her days in Bhutan visiting all the holy places here. Tsomo is seventy five years of age.

Tsomo has renounced the worldly pleasures and joined Buddhism as a nun. She is at

chorten experiencing circle of her karma.

169  

5.4. Critical Study of parameters

The researcher has carried out extensive narrative analysis to study various

parameters to understand the elements of diaspora in the novel. The same are discussed

as under.

I. Time and type of migration

The purpose of migration may be political, religious or economical. Here, Tsomo

feels the weight inside her for the death of her mother. She could not weep properly after

the death of her mother. She thinks of going to Trongsa and light butter lamps for her

mother’s first death anniversary. Perhaps the act will hasten the healing process and help

in dealing with mother’s death. She is leaving for the first time alone. Her father agrees

and asks her to light the lamps properly for the dead mother. She feels cheated by

Wangchen who promises her to marry but later on married her sister Kesang. So Tsomo

wants to get rid of both of them and leaves her home. Thus in the novel, the initial

purpose of migration of the woman protagonist is different than other novels under study.

It is voluntary for spiritual quest. Tsomo has not conducted her journey for career or

because of marriage.

On her journey, Tsomo meets many people and continues her journey from one

holy place to another, arrives in India at Bodhgaya. She also visits Tso Pema in Rewalsar

in Himachal Pradesh; it is the place where Guru Rinpoche had transformed the burning

pyre into the soothing waters of a lake. Later on Tsomo comes in contact with Lhatu and

visits Dehradun to cure her swollen belly and from there at Ladakh Vihar, in Delhi where

Bhutanese live in Ghettos. She feels victim of circumstances and comes back to Thimpu.

Thus the migration of Tsomo may be considered as temporary for spiritual and religious

purpose and it is not for settlement at one place. Tsomo’s brother becomes a priest and so

his migration is for religious purpose.

II. Glimpses of homeland in the novel under study –its

geography, polity, economy and locale

Kunzang Choden vividly describes the locale of her native land i.e. Bhutan. The

opening locale of the novel is set in Thimpu in Bhutan. Through Tsomo’s father and

mention about her ancestors, Kunzang informs about the status of people in Bhutan,

170  

about the problems of migrants in Bhutan from Nepal. Tsomo’s house is big and her

ancestors had been known as the Wangleng chupko or the wealthy of Wangleng. The

economic condition of her ancestors was very sound and they were proud of being tax

payers. The municipality is charged with the unpleasant task of evicting the migrants who

construct unauthorized huts in and around Thimpu town. Tsomo’s father is a gomchen or

a lay monk. He spends most of his time performing rituals in and around the village.

There were peach, pear and walnut trees surrounding her house. Lovely spring season of

Bhutan is mentioned. The orthodox beliefs of the people of Bhutan are mentioned. Her

aunt Dechen feeds the spirits to make them contended and keeps any evil away from the

villagers. Throughout her childhood she listens to importance of karma which makes our

next life happy. Her father informs her about karmic illness.

The economic condition of Bhutan is narrated in the novel. The serfs are

descendants of the plains people, who are brought as slaves and are considered to be of

the lowest class. The tenant farmers are considered to be a little higher up the social

ladder. The tax structure and collection of taxes is mentioned. “Each household was taxed

differently based on the number of people in the house and the size of their land holdings.

This was the time the taxpayers envied the serfs and the other tenured farmers who

worked for their master everyday but did not have to worry about any taxes ”(54). The

general economic condition of the people of Bhutan is mentioned in the novel. People

from all over Bhutan come for reconstruction work on the Thimpu dzong. They work at

the site, hauling timber, breaking stones. “All sorts of people were being employed on the

road construction sites between Phuentsoling and Thimpu. Some of the people at the

dzong construction site were planning to work on the road after they had done their

mandatory labour contribution, in order to earn something to take back home” (99-100).

There is an acute scarcity of vegetables in Bhutan in winter. They cook turnip

throughout winter because it is one vegetable that keeps well for several months. Choden

describes pleasant spring season in Bhutan, “The willow trees around the village wore

various shades of green, the pear trees carried a profusion of soft, white flowers with the

palest yellow in the centre and the peach trees were covered with bright blossoms. All

around the village ponds were clumps and clumps of primroses covered with soft

171  

powdery dust” (46). Tsomo used to play sensual game with the school boys and girls.

They swim in muddy –deep water and then touch and pull the organs of the opposite sex.

Thus, Choden as a writer in English from Bhutan has given the idea about

geography, location and economy of Bhutan.

III. Glimpses of hostland in the novels under study -its

geography, polity, economy and locale

The novel depicts journey of Tsomo in search of self and for spiritual salvation.

Tsomo and Dechen decide to go Phuentsoling, situated near Indian border. Choden

describes the scene of that place. In those days, it was not like it is today. There were no

high buildings and not so many shops. There were as many Bhutanese as there were

Indians.

Tsomo’s journey in India starts from the way to Siliguri and then Kalimpong

through train and Jip. She finds hill in an endless maze of zigs and zags. The condition of

Siliguri railway station in India is narrated thus:

Just then there was a tremendous push and Tsomo was thrown into the

crowd in the train, falling on top of several people, who began berating

and shouting at her…The small windows were jammed with people

pushing in their luggage. Even screaming children were being pushed in

through the windows. The compartment was full, so full that they could

actually feel each other’s breath on their necks. (176)

Religious places in India is described here, “Tsomo stood below the Mahabodhi Temple

and titled her head to look up. The pinnacle of the stupa seemed to pierce the blue sky

above. She felt herself being lifted into the clouds. All around people were praying,

prostrating and circumambulating. Monks and nuns sat in meditation” (179). Tsomo

decides to visit for pilgrimage to Tso Pema in Rewalsar in Himachal Pradesh; it is the

place where Guru Rinpoche had transformed the burning pyre into the soothing waters of

a lake. There is a mention of an American Hospital and Tibetan refugee camps in India.

The highlands of Bhutan are clean and arid so, many Bhutanese suffer from Tuberculosis

and die in India as they could not adjust in hot and humid sub-tropical Indian plains.

They even become addicted to alcohol in India. The religious and political issues of

South Asian nations are mentioned in the novel. Rinpoche is dedicated to copying

172  

Buddhist manuscripts because so many of them had fled their country without their

scriptures and the Chinese were engaged in the systematic destruction of all religious

artifacts and scriptures.

The people in India have a strong belief that evil times bring evil illnesses. In

India, a magician a trickster has been approached to cure Tsomo’s swollen belly. The

trickster brings a long string of rudraksha beads and chants mantras. There is a scorpion

and it is considered that if a candle is flamed and poured over the belly of the scorpion,

then the pain may be removed. But Tsomo’s pain continues and she has been sent for

operation.

India as a secular country gives equal values and respects all religions. Rinpoche

has been invited by the Tibetan community in Mussorie to come and consecrate the

monastery they have recently built. Tsomo reaches Delhi with Lhatu. Buddhist religious

places at Delhi are mentioned. Tsomo visits Ladakh Vihar, Buddha temple and Chandani

Chowk. The scene of India is narrated through Chandani Chowk in Delhi, where they

could get everything and anything if they could manage not to get lost among the endless

alleys of shops crowded with noisy and loud traders and equally rowdy customers.

The novel describes the people, geographical location of the hostland but not

much about the economy and polity.

IV. Attitude of the diaspora group towards other migrants and

the homeland

In the novel, Tsomo starts her journey from Bhutan, without proper goal to visit

various places. She meets people during her journey and decides to go further for

pilgrimage. During her journey she has become victim and harassed physically by her

own people who travel with her or whom she meets during journey. Dechen Choki is one

who has suffered like Tsomo in a male dominated society. Tsomo allows her to live with

her in a hut. With the arrival of Dechen Choki, laughter and warmth reappear in Tsomo’s

life. After completion of work at the site, the workers are directed to join for the new site;

Tsomo and Dechen Choki decide to go with them. These poor people have to live a

migratory life as per the need of workers at different places. Choden narrates the incident

that these people have to shift many times after completion of work at a particular cites.

“Having made their decision they dismantled their hut and put the bamboo sheets and

173  

poles together. They folded the ragged old tarpaulin, which was their roof, rolled up their

bedding, packed all their belongings and waited for the vehicle. All along the road

everybody was doing the same” (110). At the new camp site, there is a lot of squabbling,

cursing, shouting, pulling and pushing because everybody’s bamboo sheets and wooden

poles looked the same. At the site, the task is first thing done is to dynamite the rocks so

that there are enough stones for the women to hammer into gravel. It is extremely

dangerous work.

After arriving at Kalimpong and then at Himachal Pradesh, Mussorie and in

Delhi, the attitude of Tsomo and other migrants with her is positive towards the hostland

and here, there are no feelings like colonized and colonizer, oppressor and oppressed. But

the universal problem of refugees and their settlement remains unresolved.

V. Attitude of the diaspora group towards the hostland and

citizens of hostland

Choden narrates the migration of people of Bhutan to India. The purpose of the

protagonist is to get salvation through pilgrimage. So, in the novel there is no issue like

racial discrimination of the immigrants and hostile attitude of the immigrants towards the

hostland people. Tsomo gets help and abode at all the places of India. She visits

Kalimpong. At her brother’s place also, she gets place to stay and the people cooperate

her.

Her swollen belly has made her life miserable. She gets cooperation at Mussorie

to cure her illness. She also gets information about cure of her disease in Delhi. Thus, in

the novel there is a harmony among the citizens of the hostland and the diaspora. She

feels insulted and harassed physically as a woman, but that is a universal problem that

women are facing across the globe.

VI. Search for identity and feelings of alienation

Tsomo feels that she has been born to take care of her siblings since childhood.

She could not study and make her career as after the death of her mother, she has

performed the role of a motherly caring person for her younger siblings. At Trongsa,

Tsomo finds some time for herself and likes the company of Wangchen. She thinks that

Wangchen may fill the gap in her life. After departure of Ani and Dhondulpa, Tsomo and

Wangchen live there, they make love and enjoy sex. Wangchen has already been married

174  

and has kids also which Tsomo does not know. After three months Tsomo finds her

pregnancy. Tsomo feels victim of Wangchen’s lust. Her feeling of alienation is

accentuated when her own younger sister married Wangchen.

She plans to go to Kalimpong to search her brother who has become a gomchen.

Her alienation is reduced when she meets him, but it remains transient as he leaves for

pilgrimage and she denies joining him. Here Choden describes how food is a part of

culture and it matters a lot for recognizing one’s identity. “Soon the lady brought three

steaming bowls of thin soup garnished with fresh coriander and onion leaves. She placed

three plates with eight momos each in front of them. Then she brought a big bowl of red

chilli paste saying, ‘Bhutanese people eat too much chilli’ ” (141).

In the novel, food becomes a part of identity for Tsomo and others who come to

India from Bhutan for religious pilgrimage or for getting employment. After many days

Tsomo and Dechen are having good breakfast. It is cooked by Dechen, aromatic rice and

churned thick rich butter. There is a zesty salad of fresh chilli with onions, tomatoes and

ginger mixed with cheese which is garnished with coriander leaves.

There is a feeling of loneliness among the immigrants. The loneliness would go

away or she would get used to it. Tsomo replies her brother, “I like Kalimpong. I will

stay here. I do not want to go home” (164). She wishes to return only when she could say,

“Look what I have made of my life all on my own” (164). Tsomo feels that what she

would show at home. She does not want to return home like a beggar. Later on, Tsomo

decides to go with her companion at Rewalsar in Himachal Pradesh. She keeps thinking,

“Why I am being propelled from one place to another? Was this the fulfillment of a last

wish made in a previous life or was she the moth circling around the butter lamp?” (195)

Choden has narrated Tsomo’s feeling of alienation. Tsomo feels as the ‘Other’ at

various places that she visited for pilgrimage and she finds Bhutan as her own place of

belonging. Regarding this ‘otherness’ and feelings of alienation, Jasbir Jain says, “the

kind and quality of space invariably plays a dominant role in moulding societies and

people, even ideologies”(4). It is for various reasons viz., loss of mother, father’s

indifference, missing siblings, yearning for brother, being left by husband etc.

175  

VII. Nostalgia, memory and their role in the present

Longing for place and relatives is common human instinct and in diaspora text it

is reflected through the memory of the characters. At the place where people work for

road construction, Tsomo meets Tseten Dorji and his wife Ugyen Doma. She lives with

them. She frankly tells them that she has problem with her sister and husband and so she

decided to come away for a while. Though she gets involved in the activities, she longs

for Wangchen:

Everyday Tsomo hoped that there would be a message asking her to come

back. She imagined that Wangchen would send her a message begging her

to come back. ‘I am sorry. Please forgive me. I was wrong. Please come

back. You are my true wife.’ She saw Kesang, tears caught in her thick

eyelashes, ‘It was a mistake. Wangchen loves only you’. (98)

After meal with Gyalsten, Tsomo and Dechen reach Chomo Basti. Many people

from Bhutan live there. It is almost like a Bhutanese village like ghettos. Tsomo talks

about her family with Gyalsten. He came to know about his mother’s death after six

months of her death. At that time he was in a three year solitary retreat and could not

break it. The novelist brings the reality of life that even though Gyalsten follows a saintly

life, he remembers his past and relatives. When Tsomo informs Gyalsten about her

family, Gyalsten says very true fact about human being.

When I left home I Thought I could break away from all attachments,

from my parents, my brothers, sisters, my village, my country and

everything. I wanted to become a celibate monk and be completely free.

But you know something? Even if we free ourselves from all mental

attachments, I think we can never be free of our attachments through our

bodies. Within the very being in me there is a yearning that calls for

family. Families are connected through blood and bones and I think there

is a need to connect. If this connection is denied then there is a restless

anxiety that haunts you all the time. (144)

Tsomo dislikes Indian food so at the hospital in Dehradun, she does not like food. She

longs for Bhutanese food. As Rinpoche is no more she thinks that there is no reason for

her to live in Thimpu. She thinks to go back to Kalimpong. But she lingers on and the

176  

more she lingers, the more people she meets from her village. Her own relatives come

looking for her. There are children from her sister Kesang and her former husband,

Wangchen. She immediately knows that they are her niece and nephews by definition but

closer because they are her sister’s and her ex- husband’s children. Her brother Nidup

Tshering has become a cow herder. He has joined army and marries the widow of his best

friend in the army. Her father died within three years after her departure. Her brother

Kincho Thinlay died soon after she has left. He fell of a tree while lopping off the

branches for the cattle one winter evening. Tsomo feels that she is a poor woman with

shaven head and not even a space of her own that she could call home and yet these

people come to her, calling her sister, aunt, granny, expecting nothing in return.

Tsomo goes to Phuentsoling for a few days just with her bag. She would have to

go back to Kalimpong for that is the place where she belongs. She takes the early

morning bus back to Phuentsoling after about two weeks in Thimpu. Her relatives come

to see her off. She feels that she belongs to each of them and to nobody in particular.

Thus, the novelist mentions that in spite of feelings of being cheated by her relatives, she

feels something missing in their absence even during her pilgrimage.

Regarding Tsomo’s recollection of memory, Neera Singh, “Without history you

were nothing, a nobody, one of those fluffy seed- heads floating in the summer breeze,

unaware of your origins, careless of your destination. Meaningless, mythless, shapeless”

(26). Memory, remembering and forgetting are tools to reconstruct the self that had

become psychologically as much as physically unmoored. Dislocation and relocation

creates issues related to the construction of the self.

VIII. Issues related to alien language, social mobility and politics

of struggle for survival in the hostland

Choden mentions that Tsomo has lived in a small village in Bhutan and she could

not read or write anything. So, when she feels more alien during her journey. Tsomo

decides never to go back home. She wants to learn read and write and to practice religion

and become a nun. She dreams of becoming a good woman, - a good wife and a mother

of big family. She wants to make her family prosper and wants to show Kesang and

Wangchen that she is worth something. She goes to Phuentsoling, where Indian soldiers

are tarring road. They take women to break stones for gravel. Tsomo has a lot of dream.

177  

She dreams to do better than just do labour on roads. Here the novelist narrates the efforts

of Tsomo to get adjusted with alien atmosphere. She imagines:

Kalimpong was the place that was going to give her a new life. A life of

religion and prayer. A life of peace and forgetfulness. She wanted to forget

all that she had left behind. For although she was physically far away from

home her mind hovered in Wangleng. Room by room, face by face, she

saw them all. The smallest corners of her mind were filled with memories

of the life she was trying to escape from. Her mind refused to obliterate

the images of her brothers and sister as they would wake up in the

morning until they went to sleep at night…All these images of endearment

and affection were constantly disrupted by the single flash of memory of

Wangchen with his arms around Kesang, taunting her wordlessly.(130)

Diaspora is a journey and so when Gyalsten plans to go Kurseong for spiritual voyage,

Tsomo thinks this journey in philosophical terms, “We all are pilgrims on earth, but the

choices are not the same for all” (150). The novelist mentions how Tsomo makes efforts

to assimilate in new environment. Dechen starts weaving bags with specific patterns and

colours as her profession and Tsomo creates hobby in gardening. She plants ginger,

pumpkin beans, peas, chilli plants. She says Dechen on the matter of crossing roads that,

“Haven’t you seen that I am getting much better at crossing the streets? You know that I

must learn, if we are to live here” (153). Choden also mentions about the efforts of

Dechen in a foreign land. After marrying Tenzing, Dechen goes to Sikkim and makes

efforts for adjustment there.

Tsomo decides to go Dorjiten, which is Bodhgaya, for pilgrimage but needs 600

rupees, so she sells her old Bhutanese textiles to a foreigner in the market and gets

money. Tsomo bargains a lot and gets 500 rupees. Tsomo has problem in her belly, but

she continues weaving and earns for livelihood. After a few months in Dehradun, Tsomo

goes to Delhi with Lhatu on advice of Rinpoche. He says that Lhatu may get job as scribe

in Delhi and greater market for Tsomo’s Bhutanese woven bags. So that they may get

more money and pay for her medicine and operation charges. Tsomo gets adjusted at

Delhi, though Lhatu is not faithful to her and even economically not settled. After

reaching Kalimpong, Tsomo continues weaving, not because of economic compulsion

178  

but because she needs to do something before she loose all sense of purpose. Tsomo

enjoys watching Hindi movies there with friends. Tsomo for the first time uses lipstick

and other make-up cosmetics. Later on, Tsomo wants to be a nun. She pulls out silver

earrings from her ears and bracelets. She shaves her head. She stops going to the cinema

for which she was very much fond of. She continues to distil alcohol for sale. It is easier

and faster than to sell fabric. Although this is her livelihood, guilt consumes her and she

finally decides to stop the sinful business. Tsomo does not want her relatives to bear the

financial responsibility for her death. At the end, Tsomo wants not to be the cause of

quarrels, discord and disgrace in the family she has abandoned long ago.

The novelist has depicted the efforts of Tsomo right from her childhood to adjust

the situation and compromise, though it leads to unhappiness to her many a times. Tsomo

has to struggle a lot while adapting a foreign environment.

IX. Issues related to religion, racism in homeland and hostland

Choden mentions about the beliefs in religion and superstitions in Bhutan.

Religion and traditions inherent in it is a part of culture of a nation. Here, Chimme gives

birth to a baby girl and there is a mention of purification ceremony as birthing is

considered unclean. The novelist narrates about beliefs among the villagers in Bhutan:

that eating garlic while feeding a child is good. Tsomo’s father believes ‘Dangpa mi yi

long choi, nepa choygi long choi, sumpa junor long choi.’ (Means ‘first the abundance of

people, second the abundance of religion and third the abundance of material wealth’).

Choden narrates the incidence of death of Tsomo’s mother and rituals in Bhutan.

Tsomo’s mother dies in a labour pain and could not deliver a baby. Her family believes

that, “The unborn child must see the light of day…Leaving it in the womb will cause it

similar obstacles in its future lives” (60). Tsomo’s mother’s body was cut with a knife to

remove the fetus. Her mother is cremated and on the same day the baby’s body is put into

a tiny box which is immersed in the river. The post death rituals continue up to forty-nine

days.

After departing Wangchen, Tsomo plans to make a little money to pay for her

journey to look for her brother and then to practice religion and get out of this cycle of

suffering. The novel narrates many issues and belief related to Buddhism. Tsomo

considers her swollen belly as result of her karma. She wants to learn religion, but as she

179  

is not educated, she can’t. The novel provides kaleidoscopic picture of various religious

places and practices of Buddhism. Tsomo and her companions go to the place where

Buddha had attained nirvana. This is the pilgrimage of a lifetime. Even as a small child in

her village, Tsomo had known that every person should strive to visit this holy place at

least once in a lifetime. Tsomo considers her to be lucky chance because of her karma.

Choden has mentioned about religious beliefs, especially in Buddhism. She has

not mentioned any racial issues in homeland or hostland.

X. Issues of subaltern, especially condition of women in

homeland and hostland

Choden, being a woman novelist, has depicted the condition of women in

patriarchy and their subaltern status and different codes of conduct for men and women.

Tsomo, being a girl child, feels deprived of her basic rights as a human being in

patriarchy and Choden has given voice to her feelings. Tsomo asks her mother “Where is

the furthest I can travel to Mother?” (2) Her mother replies: “Where can a girl travel to?

Perhaps as far north as Tibet and as far south as India” (2).When Tsomo’s maternal

uncles and aunts married and left, she was told: “You are the oldest girl, you have to

learn to take the responsibilities of the household” (8). Tsomo longs to be able to read

and write and learn religion, her father says, “You are a girl. You are different .You learn

other things that will make you a good woman and a good wife. Learn to cook, weave

and all those things. A woman does not need to know how to read and write”(21).

In Bhutan women are supposed to undergo purification ceremony when they get

pregnant. There is a mention of wedding ceremony and how girls become pregnant and

they have to undergo purification ceremony. When a woman becomes pregnant she is

obliged to announce it and there is a purification ceremony called tshangma for a

pregnancy is seen as unclean unless purified. If a woman does not perform tshangma,

she would be held responsible for any natural catastrophes that befell the village that

year.

Chimme has pregnancy of four months no male comes to claim the father of the

child and so she becomes defiant she says, “I am not the first woman to go through this

and I will not be the last and this helped me to appear unperturbed. How did I look?

Frightened? Ashamed?” (43) Choden puts forward the reality for women through girls

180  

like Chimme that “Men are really lucky. They can do something and then deny all

responsibility. But for us women there is no way we can get away.” (43)The father of

Chimme’s child is a gaylong or a celibate monk who may lose his celibacy if he

confesses about Chimme’s child. Chimme at one time thinks about abortion, but it would

have sinned doubly. Making a gaylong lose his celibacy and killing her own child. Tsomo

being elder child, she has more responsibility now after death of her mother. She has

become mother to her siblings. Her father, a religious person does not care much about

kids.

At the construction site, poor women work with their infant kids. “The women

brought their baby baskets to their workplace and kept them nearby. Many of them had

babies tugging at their breasts as they hammered away at the stones” (103). These poor

working women are exploited by their masters and even they are sexually harassed and

molested. Dechen Choki has been molested by her employer. Tsomo tells her about

Kesang and Wangchen. Then Dechen Choki says, “Our stories are similar and yet so

different. Everything happened because we are women. You loved a man and suffered. I

hated the man and suffered” (109). Tsomo believes that men take advantage of every

situation. Dechen feels that she has been molested by her step-father and now this

employer. The novelist brings the reality that about a woman when Tsomo denies going

to Bhutan, her brother says, “A woman can’t live by herself so far from home. What if

you should fall ill or something?”(164)

Tsomo feels that a man may not be faithful to his wife and a woman is responsible

for it to some extent as she keeps relationship with a married man and spoils other

woman’s marital life. Tsomo considers that she stole Wangchen form his first wife and

later, her sister Kesang snatched Wangchen form her. Tsomo says, “Because she stole

my husband. We all know that a man is a man and he will stray sometimes but a woman

should know when a man is married and not lead him on” (269). Tsomo thinks that

women are the thieves, stealing husbands from each other, living in suspicion and hate.

Regarding the issues of subaltern and its depiction in diaspora writing, Gayatri

Spivak’s essay “Diasporas Old and New: Women in the Transnational World” offers the

role of the nation-state in the context of diaspora. More specifically, Spivak challenges

conventional articulations of diaspora in terms of “global hybridity” from “the point of

181  

view of popular culture, military intervention, and the neo-colonialism of the

multinationals” (89). Instead, she aptly argues, diaspora should be read as a result of the

“failure of a civil society in developing nations. … The undermining of the civil

structures of society is now a global situation … [and] the manipulation of civil social

structures [takes place] in the interest of the financializaton of the globe” (91). Spivak

squarely situates diaspora within a critique of the postcolonial nation-state and insists on

the limits of diasporic concepts of identity as they are embodied in the figure of the

indigenous, female subaltern. In the context of Bhutan, the rituals and patriarchal

restrictions have controlled women’s identity even in the post-colonial period.

5.5. Conclusion

The Circle of Karma is a novel depicting the predicament of a woman, who is

brought up under patriarchy. Tsomo feels alien in life as she has been cheated by her own

relatives viz., sister and the society in general. Regarding the feelings of rootlessness of

human being, R.S. Pathak quotes Erich Fromm et.al, “ the alienation from oneself, from

one’s fellowmen and from nature; the awareness that life runs out of one’s hand like

sand, and that one will die without having lived; that one lives in the midst of plenty and

joyless”(25). Choden has vividly narrated the geography, economy and polity of Bhutan

as well as India. Tsomo gets help from the immigrants in hostland and their attitude is

positive, however she becomes victim of man folk in patriarchy. She longs for her family,

her native and at last decides to live near her homeland. The novel narrates various rituals

in Buddhism but does not mention about any racial or religious conflict in the novel. One

of the reasons may be the countries in the novel are neighbouring countries and the

religious practices and rituals resemble in both the countries as well as people of both

the countries are racially common and there is no issue like colonizer and colonized or

white and non-white race. The novelist has made an outstanding effort to bring the life,

geography, economy, polity of Bhutan at the global level in English language as she is

the first novelist who has written in a language other than the regional language of

Bhutan.

182  

Works Cited

“Bhutan.” Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Web.15 Jan.2012

Choden, Kunzang. The Circle of Karma: A Novel. New Delhi: Penguin Books India,

2005. Print.

“Dzok Trun Trun.” Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Web.15 Jan.2012.

“Global Bhutanese Literature Organization.”

globalbhutaneseliteratureorganisation.webs.com. Web.5 May 2012.

Jain, Jasbir. ed. Cultural narratives: Hybridity and Other Spaces. Jaipur: Rawat 2012.

Print.

“Kunzang Choden.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunzang_Choden. Web.17 Jan. 2013.

Pathak, R.S. Modern Indian Novel in English. New Delhi: Creative Books,1999. Print.

Singh, Neera, ed. Diasporic Writing: The Dynamics of Be/Longing. New Delhi: Book

Plus. 2008. Print.

Spivak, Gayatri. “Diasporas Old and New: Women in the Transnational World.” Class

Issues: Pedagogy, Cultural Studies, and the Public Sphere. Ed. Amitava Kumar.

New York: New York UP, 1997. 87-116. Print.