"Non-Violence is a weapon of Strong" - Mahatma Gandhi

 Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) once said " I object to violence because it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil, does it permanent".

The Buddhist dharma defines that violence so called Zhedhang or Khongthro is the worst form of sin we are committing to go to hell and non violence so called Zoeba  is the best weapon or the greatest merit we accumulating in out life to attain enlightenment in the next life.

 In reality, this modern world is governed by violence starting from homes to organization to nations. Everyone assumes that violence is the solution to end conflicts in the family, in the community and in the society and also among the countries not realizing how much does it cause more complex conflicts and more disharmony in the world at large.

Bhutanese are born Buddhist and supposed to be the great followers of Buddha with great quality of compassion and virtues of non violence. Yet we see, hear and know that violence is very much practiced at home, in schools. Many of our parents believe that the best method to make our children more disciplined (Driglam Namzha), we have resort to violence so that the other person will obey us in fear of that. Husbands beat their wives with the same reason and teachers beat our small, cute yet innocent children citing the same reason. No one seems to realize the after effects of such behavior towards them.

Yesterday was the day one of the greatest person who opposed violence was born and the UN adopted that day, 2 October of every year as the International Day, the day when Mahatma Gandhi was born. It started from 2007.

Bhutan as one of the very sincere member of the UN and also being signatory to  numerous UN Human Rights Declaration including CEDAW and CRC, must join the rest of the UN Members to observe the day. But to our amazement, the day was very silent in Bhutan and no one seems to know about it. Only a handful of senior government officials and the UN system in Bhutan made an effort to observe the day which was more of a symbol as a member of UN. Bhutan needs more initiatives to make such day to the people of Bhutan to reduce and inform the Bhutanese people about the importance of the day. Not only importance, the application and advantages of non violence in our country, the nation of Gross National Happiness.


"Non violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be inseparable part of our being" ( Mahatma Gandhi)