 March 01, 2009-Thimphu: The damp Thimphu weather has got into Deki, 23. For the past few days, the first thing she has been doing when she gets up in the morning is to part her window curtains and look outside. She has been disappointed all these days.
Like Deki, many Thimphu residents are still waiting for the first snowfall of the year. Though the prime time for the snow has already passed, the damp weather of late has resurrected the hope for a snowfall. |
“It’s the fifth day since it started raining every afternoon but the rain is not bringing the white flakes,” Deki said.
The wait also holds true for many civil servants who get a public holiday during the first snowfall. But the clouds do not seem to be pregnant with the white flakes as yet.
Also awaiting the snowfall are tourists. Hans, 22, a media consultant from Kerala, India, has never seen a snowfall.
“I got up at 6:30 am to check if it snowed yesterday morning because a Bhutanese friend told me the evening before that it would snow as it had rained in the evening,” he said. “I am still waiting.”
Sonam, a shopkeeper, said: “It used to snow regularly almost every year by the end of December just till a few years back. But snowfall has become very erratic now.”
Last year, the first snowfall was late but it did come toward the end of January.
Apart from a government holiday, everybody takes a break during the first snowfall. Offices and shops are closed, neighbors explore their sculptural skills on snowmen, people throw snow balls at each other, and many take a time out with their family and friends.
Children have their own share of fun.
Eight-year-old Gartoen loves snowfall. “My mother does not allow me to go out and play with the friends but I open the door by standing on a chair when she is not around and sneak out to play,” he fondly remembers.
“It’s always fun to be with friends when it snows,” said Pema, a Class IX student.
A shopkeeper, however, said he prefers customers to snowfall. “We hardly have any customer when it snows,” he said.
While people wait for the white flakes with pleasant thoughts, many are unaware that the erratic snow is one of the signs of global climate change. Bhutan has already started to experience the impacts of climate change with receding snowlines and temperature changes.
But for Tenzin, 27, a driver in the civil service, climate change and its impacts are issues far beyond his comprehension. He just wishes for the snow to be more regular like in the past so that he can take his three children out and throw snow balls at each other.
Source: Bhutan Times