Journal of Sustainable Tourism

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Cultural sustainability and fluidity in Bhutan's

traditional festivals

Wantanee Suntikul

To cite this article: Wantanee Suntikul (2018): Cultural sustainability and fluidity in Bhutan's
traditional festivals, Journal of Sustainable Tourism

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1533021

Published online: 17 Nov 2018.

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JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1533021

Cultural sustainability and fluidity in Bhutan’s

traditional festivals
Wantanee Suntikul
School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper engages the “culture gap” in the sustainable tourism litera- Received 26 May 2018
ture by addressing issues of cultural sustainability through an investiga- Accepted 30 September 2018
tion of traditional festivals in Bhutan. Cultural sightseeing is the major
KEYWORDS
motivation for tourism to Bhutan, and religious festivals are among the
Tourism; cultural
primary contexts within which local people and tourists interact. sustainability; religious
Tourism brings forces of modernization and globalization into contact festivals; fluidity; liquid
with traditional practices, with various consequences. Based primarily on modernity; Bhutan
on-site observation of religious festivals, and interviews with Bhutanese
monks and abbots, this paper explores the incursion of modernization
into traditional festivals. Bauman’s concept of "liquid modernity" is
applied to articulate the intertwining of traditional and modern practi-
ces and frames of reference in constantly changing ways. This leads to
a critical discussion of how the case of Bhutan’s festivals reveals the
necessity of seeing cultural sustainability in fluid and evolutionary terms,
especially in our “liquid modern” times. Foreign tourists and local youth
are identified as particular agents of liquid modernism in the religious
festivals, bringing perspectives and behaviors that diverge from those of
the traditional society within which the meaning and practices of these
festivals are rooted, which in turn affects the performance and perform-
ers of the dances.

Introduction
In traditional, formerly isolated societies like that of the idyllic Himalayan nation of Bhutan, the
arrival of international tourism is among the harbingers of modernity and globalization that con-
front such societies with the necessity to negotiate between the traditional values and practices
that manifest their identity, and the allure of modern global lifestyles and values. This article
examines the effects of such touristification on traditional religious festivals in Bhutan and inter-
rogates the cultural forms and values, as well as the individual perceptions and behaviour that
emerge from these processes of negotiation, within which tourism plays an estimable role.
The research reported in this study investigates the changes that are becoming apparent in
the practice of Bhutan’s most important religious festivals, especially the Tsechu festival and the
Tercham (naked dance), a religious and cultural performance conducted at other religious festival
such as Jambay Lhakhang Drup, in which lay monks (gomchen) perform in the nude. The incur-
sion of modernity into Bhutanese society is manifest in the increasing presence of tourists
among the audience at these ceremonies, as well as the changing attitudes of local people – in

CONTACT Wantanee Suntikul [email protected]

ß 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 W. SUNTIKUL

particular Bhutanese youth – toward these traditional rituals, as their exposure to foreign people
and influences increases.
Drawing from multiple sources, centered on a series of interviews with Bhutanese abbots and
monks regarding their experiences and perceptions regarding Bhutanese religious festivals, this
paper explores the actual and potential consequences of the commodification and touristifica-
tion of these manifestations of Bhutan’s intangible cultural heritage. In particular, this research
applies Bauman’s (2000) concept of ‘liquid modernity’ to understand the ways in which the mod-
ernizing influence of touristification and the traditional practices of religious festivals intertwine
in contemporary Bhutanese society. In distinction to the more well-worn discourses of “solid
modernity” that see modernization as a departure from inherited traditions in the pursuit of pro-
gress towards an ever more rational and ideal society, “liquid modernity” presents modernization
as a complex and constant state of flux without an overarching narrative of progress or finality,
in which myriad cultural factors, traditional as well as progressive, interact. This topic has been
introduced and discussed briefly in a book chapter by Suntikul (2017). The following literature
review builds upon and extends this work, and the subsequent body of this paper uses an
empirical study to explore and exemplify the relationship between cultural sustainability and
liquid modernity in the context of a specific set of practices of intangible heritage: Bhutanese
religious festivals.

Cultural sustainability, intangible heritage, and liquid modernity in tourism

Over the past two decades, there have been perennial remarks on a “culture gap” in the sustain-
able tourism literature (i.e. Jamal, Camargo, Sandlin, & Segrado, 2010; Robinson, 1999). However,
while sustainability studies have made appreciable progress in understanding and articulating
the impact of human practices, including tourism, on the natural environment, an equivalent
concern for the impact on cultural inheritance remains a relatively underarticulated perspective
(Dessein, Soini, Fairclough, & Horlings, 2015; Harrison, 2013). The reasons for this may in part be
rooted in the fact that the cultural dimension is not explicitly addressed in the tripartite model
of sustainability (ecological, economic, and social), enshrined by the 2005 World Summit on
Social Development (United Nations, 2005), although there are arguments that cultural sustain-
ability should be seen as on an equal standing to these three “pillars” or even as an overarching
concept that can help in consolidating ecological, economic, and social sustainability concerns
(Bender & Haller, 2017; Dessein et al., 2015).
The sustainable integration of tourism and cultural heritage has been gaining attention in
recent years (Loulanski & Loulanski, 2011). In studies on tourism in the Peruvian Amazon and
Iranian geoparks, respectively, scholars characterize cultural sustainability as appealing to “locally
defined and culturally embedded relations and meanings” rather than academic or theoretical
concerns (Jamal & Stronza, 2008), and dealing with the “recovery and protection of cultural iden-
tities” (Torabi Farsani, Coelho, & Costa, 2012). Recent studies have applied the cultural sustain-
ability lens to critically analyze tourism contexts and artifacts such as Cypriot museums
(Stylianou-Lambert, Boukas, & Christodoulou-Yerali, 2014) and Mexican souvenirs (Milman, 2015).
With the commodification of heritage in the context of tourism, cultural narratives may be
“sanitized” in order to create marketable products and desirable tourist experiences (Wong,
2013). Bearing in mind this and other potential threats to cultural sustainability, researchers have
proposed principles for culturally sustainable tourism development. For instance, Throsby (2009)
proposes particular values, principles and methods that should underlie culturally sustainable
development of tourism, while Hill (2011) demonstrates that community-level participation in
tourism decision-making is found to have a positive effect on cultural sustainability.
Heritage was identified as one of seven “storylines” of the discourse on cultural sustainability
(Soini & Birkeland, 2014). Distinct from the tangible heritage of buildings, monuments and
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 3

artifacts, intangible cultural heritage is defined by the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding
of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge,
skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith –
that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural
heritage” (UNESCO, 2003). Intangible heritage is passed on from generation to generation and
promotes a sense of cultural identity and continuity (Kato, 2007), embodying the “underlying spi-
rit” of a group of people (Kurin, 2004). This appeal to identity and continuity is not to imply that
intangible cultural heritage is static. The sustainability of this heritage does not mean its preser-
vation in a fixed form for perpetuity, but rather “ensuring the continuing contribution of heritage
to the present through the thoughtful management of change” (Matero, 2003, p. viii). Loulanski
(2006) suggests that the concept of heritage needs to be both dynamic and elastic, acknowledg-
ing that things and practices inherited from the past are subject to changing significances over
time, and that new values and meanings are constantly discovered as old ones fade away.
While cultural heritage always evolves over time, the speed and radicality of this change has
had to increase exponentially in the modern era, to the extent that modernization and heritage
have come to be seen as antithetical. The concept of “liquid modernity” was introduced by the
Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman in his book of the same name (Bauman, 2000) to describe
the state of society that had been emerging since the 1960s (Vogel & Oschmann, 2013). In con-
trast to the more conventional, ‘solid’ understanding of modernity based on the pursuit of con-
trol, rationality, fixed understandings and once-and-for-all solutions, the liquid modernity
perspective sees change as a perpetual state of being with no end-state, not as a transition
between one stable paradigm and another. Change is seen as being so rapid, persistent and
implacable that it outstrips the abilities of people and societies to adjust, fostering a constant
state of disorientation and tentativeness (Blackshaw, 2005). Bauman recognizes that the modern-
ist project of rationalizing the world has fallen short of its promise of solving humankind’s prob-
lems, even as the modernist impulse of superseding the old with the new continues inexorably
but without expectation of a common or final goal.
For individuals and societies, liquid modernity means that identity is always under construc-
tion and never complete, as the networks of relationships, economics, and cultural values within
which individuals and communities are embedded constantly shift, not allowing for consolidation
but only constant adaptation (Bauman, 2000). Liquid modernity can be contrasted to the state of
traditional societies in its eschewing of fixed social hierarchies, but at the same time, proponents
of this perspective do not categorically set modernity as a counterpoint to tradition as did ear-
lier, “solid” modernity. Rather, in liquid modernity, the modern does not supplant the traditional
but interweaves with it in ever-changing ways.
In an interview, Bauman himself cast doubt on the tenability of the conceptualization of tour-
ism embodied in seminal works like Urry’s (1990) The Tourist Gaze or MacCannell’s (1976) The
Tourist, which he saw as emerging from a “solid modernity” understanding of society and
steeped in obsolete dualities like home/away and work/leisure (Franklin, 2003). Though Bauman
has used tourism as a metaphor for the always-moving state of contemporary life (ibid.), tourism
researchers have only recently begun to introduce the perspective of liquid modernity into main-
stream tourism discourse (Suleman & Hollinshead, 2017). The concept has been applied to
understand phenomena such as evolution in cruise tourism (Vogel & Oschmann, 2013) and
organizational trends in volunteer tourism (Steele & Dredge, 2017).
Festivals, the particular facet of intangible cultural heritage investigated by this paper, are
implicated in many ways in processes of modernization. They are a pivotal element of cultural
tourism (Formica & Uysal, 1998; Frisby & Getz, 1989), playing an important role in the tourism
marketing of destinations (Mules & Faulkner, 1996), contributing to local economies while linking
them into global economic flows (Felsenstein & Fleischer, 2003; Getz, 1993) and attracting a
range of different types of participants, local and international (Chang, 2006). In a study of the
“Bun Festival” on Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau Island, Chew (2009) claims that the cultural
4 W. SUNTIKUL

sustainability of this festival is threatened by the local population’s acceptance of increased

economic benefit as a viable tradeoff for commodification and perceived loss of authenticity.
Drawing on field studies conducted at religious festivals in Bhutan, the research presented in
this paper demonstrates that the conflicts and changes experienced by traditional festivals in the
contemporary world – and possible ways of engaging these conflicts and changes – may be
understood in terms of the mechanisms of liquid modernity.

Tourism development in Bhutan

Bhutan is a small landlocked country in Southern Asia, sandwiched between the two giant
nations of China and India. The estimated population of Bhutan as of 2017 was just 735,553
(National Statistics Bureau Royal Government of Bhutan, 2017). Bhutan’s political system changed
from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 2008. Under the nation’s new
Constitution, the King remains Head of State and the Prime Minister acts as Head of Government
in a parliamentary democracy. The economy of Bhutan is based largely on agriculture and for-
estry, which provide livelihoods for over 60% of the population. The landscape is mostly moun-
tainous, making the construction of roads and other infrastructure complicated. Economically,
Bhutan is highly dependent on its close ties with its neighbor, India. Bhutan’s economic policy is
driven by the government’s concern for protecting the country’s cultural heritage and natural
environment. The national language of Bhutan is Dzongkha, though English has been the lan-
guage of instruction in the country’s schools since 1961. The Bhutanese government takes a
careful approach to tourism development and other ‘modernization’ measures in the interest of
preserving the country’s traditional culture.
The number of regional and international visitors to Bhutan increased from 209,570 in 2016
to 254,704 in 2017, about 21.5% growth in just 1 year (Bhutan Tourism Monitor, 2017). Cultural
attractions and activities are a central motivation for the vast majority (88.4% as of 2017) of
foreign visitors to Bhutan, and religious festivals have been among the country’s most popular
cultural events for tourists since the country opened up for tourism in 1974 (Bhutan Tourism
Monitor, 2017). Previous research (Suntikul & Dorji, 2016) determined that tourists tend to per-
ceive attendance at a religious festival as an essential component of a trip to Bhutan, through
which tourists can gain a better appreciation for the country’s religion and culture.
As a landlocked, developing country with difficult terrain, a small population and without
well-developed tourism infrastructure, Bhutan faces a number of limitations in developing its
tourism carrying capacity. Historically largely cut off by its geographical situation and protection-
ist policies, Bhutan’s society has long remained largely “traditional” in terms of its prevalent val-
ues, cultural forms and societal structures. One manifestation of this is the country’s embracing
of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the index of national progress and quality of life, rather
than Gross National Product (GNP). It is only relatively recently that the forces of development
and modernization, including tourism, have been encroaching on Bhutanese society. Access to
communications technologies for Bhutan’s populace is a very recent occurrence. Television and
the Internet access both came to Bhutan in 1999 and mobile phone networks four years later.
The Bhutanese government’s approach to modernization has been gradual and intentional,
balancing desire for economic growth with concerns for protection of the nation’s cultural, spirit-
ual, and environmental assets. This is reflected in each of Bhutan’s 5-year development plans
since 1961. This cautious stance towards modernization, in general, and tourism specifically, is
apparent across Bhutan’s tourism policy, such as the government’s roster of sites that are off-
limits to tourists, usually because they are places of spiritual importance.
In 1971, the National Assembly of Bhutan endorsed a set of principles for opening the country
for international tourism, and the first 274 such visitors were welcomed to the country in 1974,
the coronation year of King Jigme Singye Wangchuk, the father of Bhutan’s current king.
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 5

These tourists all entered the country by land via India, paying a tariff of US$130 per day of their
stay, in exchange for which they were provided with all food, transport, accommodation and other
elements required for their visit. This established a principle of welcoming tourists as ‘paying
guests’ that characterizes Bhutan tourism to this day. Tourists began to arrive by air with the 1983
opening of the country’s international airport in Paro, and the Bhutanese national carrier, Druk Air,
was founded in 1988. The following year, the tourist tariff was raised to US$200 per day. In 1991,
Bhutan’s tourism sector was privatized and the Tourism Authority of Bhutan (TAB) was established
to regulate the industry, in 2000 becoming the Department of Tourism (DoT).
While tourism can be seen as a force of modernization and development, the foundation of
Bhutan’s tourism industry lies in its history and traditional culture, bringing elements of modernity
and elements of tradition into a mutually dependent and mutually formative relationship. Most
tourists were attracted to Bhutan by cultural attractions and activities such as historic sites, festivals
and living intangible culture, with respondents selecting terms such as ‘cultural’, ‘spiritual’ and
‘religious’ to describe the country (Bhutan Tourism Monitor, 2017). Bhutan is also increasingly seen
as a sustainable tourism destination, as indicated by its earning of the Earth Reward during the
Sustainable Tourism Top 100 Awards at the International Tourismus Bo €rse (ITB) in Berlin in 2018.
In the interest of controlling the ecological, social and cultural impact of tourism, foreign
tourists in Bhutan are required to travel only arranged routes in organized packages, staying
exclusively in designated hotels, dining in specific restaurants reserved for tourists and following
controlled itineraries. These stipulations have the effect that tourists’ interactions with Bhutanese
people are very limited and circumscribed.

Buddhism and Bhutan’s traditional festivals

Bhutan’s official religion is the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, which was introduced to Bhutan
in the 8th century by the Guru Rinpoche, a Tantric monk from India who is believed to have
assumed eight manifestations in his quest to expel malevolent spiritual forces from Bhutan and
install the Buddhist religion. Places across Bhutan where he is reputed to have stayed and medi-
tated are revered by Bhutanese in the present day as places of pilgrimage.
Buddhist tradition permeates every facet of Bhutanese life, and its influence can be seen in
Bhutan’s peaceful and harmonious image. Among the tenets of this belief system is the concept
of karma, which leads adherents to avoid bringing suffering to any living thing. Buddhist astrolo-
gers are consulted on issues of timing and comportment in important life events such as marry-
ing, moving house, making a journey or cremating a deceased relative. Even many elements of
governmental policy such as the principle of Gross National Happiness, are rooted in the
Buddhist values of prioritizing happiness over material possessions in appraising well-being.
Consequently, ambitions for developing tourism are also tempered by these cultural and spiritual
values, and the mitigation of the impact of tourism on traditional religious practices and beliefs.
This leads, for instance, to tourists being allowed to visit only specific government-designated
religious events and sites and explicitly excluded from all others.
While there is a concern for the effects of tourism on festivals and religious events, these are
also the pride of the nation’s cultural heritage and effective contexts for the showcasing of
Bhutan’s unique culture and values to foreign visitors. These festivals are manifestations of the
spirit of societal cohesion and happiness that underlie the Gross National Happiness ethos and
affirmation of Buddhist tenets. Local festivals such as the Jhomo and Aja Lham of Merak-Sakteng,
dedicated to mountain gods of eastern Bhutan, are distinctive examples of such events, but the
most well-known and significant festivals of the Bhutanese religious calendar are the Tsechus.
Tsechus are religious festivals dedicated to Guru Rinpoche, staged on the tenth day of every
month in Bhutan’s lunar calendar. They are believed to have the power to summon Tantric dei-
ties and disperse malevolent spirits to make way for the spreading of the Buddha’s teachings
6 W. SUNTIKUL

and blessings. The original purpose of these festivals was to disseminate religious teachings to
the local populace. Bhutanese Buddhist leaders propagated the performance of Tsechus to other
places in Bhutan, gradually spreading across the country. In the present day, Tsechu festivals are
official national holidays in Bhutan, serving a social purpose as well as a religious one, in gather-
ing people from remote villages together from time to time. While Tsechus are perhaps the most
popular and well-known of Bhutan’s festivals, there are also many other important religious festi-
vals such as the Drubchen, Dromchoe, Mewang, Mani and Kuchoe.
Tsechus and other religious festivals are typically held on the grounds of monasteries or in
the courtyards of dzongs – imposing fortified structures that have played an important role in
Bhutanese culture and history. In the present day, the primary purpose of dzongs is to serve as
monasteries and religious centers and as administrative headquarters, but historically, dzongs
also used to serve as noble residences, military bases and depots in the trading networks that
linked Bhutan’s various valleys. The performers in religious festivals are typically monks and lay
monks, who may marry and who live as private citizens outside of the monastery.
One of the central aspects of the Tsechu is a series of traditional Bhutanese dances, which are
counted among the country’s most distinctive elements of intangible cultural heritage. Among
the most famous and important of these dances is the ‘mask dance’ (Cham). The mask dance is
performed by monks and lay monks, wearing ornate costumes and carved colorful masks, danc-
ing to music performed by musicians on traditional instruments. Drametse Ngacham, a specific
variant of the mask dance from Drametse village in eastern Bhutan, was declared by UNESCO as
a ‘Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’ in 2005.
Many residents of Bhutan’s remote areas do not have a high level of formal education or are
even illiterate, and even those who are able to read are unlikely to have the time or resources to
devote to religious studies, which is seen as the role of religious scholars and monks. Because of
this, festivals are important channels of religious education, with dances serving a didactic pur-
pose in demonstrating the stories and values of Bhutan’s spiritual tradition, with different dances
intentionally designed to convey particular teachings (Penjore, 2011; Pommaret, 2006).
The Tercham, or naked dance, is reputed to have been first introduced by the historic figure
Terton Dorji Lingpa at Jambay Lhakhang. The dance is performed by lay monks, behaving in
ways that are intentionally provocative and shocking. As explained by one of the senior abbots
interviewed in this research, “The treasure naked dance staged at Jambay Lhakhang signifies the
subduing of demons in the Vajarayana Buddhist tradition. Other dances signify the narration of
histories and the introduction of various deities.”
In addition to their deep-seated cultural and societal significance in Bhutanese society, reli-
gious festivals have taken on an additional socio-cultural role in recent years, in that they are the
situations in which many Bhutanese people are most likely to come into contact with foreign
tourists. As Bhutan is an agrarian society of dispersed villages in very mountainous terrain, with
strict controls on tourist movement, most citizens will have scant occasions for contact with for-
eigners. Religious festivals are thus primary situations in which Bhutanese and tourists have a
chance to form impressions of one another. As both tourists and local people are spectators at
the religious festivals, this is also a context in which these two groups encounter one another in
a way that is not as explicitly asymmetrical as many encounters in tourism, in terms of one
group serving or hosting the other. Rather, it could be seen as a sharing of an experience from a
nominally somewhat equal vantage.

Methodology
Survey instrument and data collection
The main aim of the research was to determine whether and in what way the practices of trad-
itional religious festivals in Bhutan were perceived to be changing, and what were perceived to
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 7

be the drivers of these changes. Qualitative research methodology was judged as the most
appropriate approach with which to explore the conflicts and changes that confront traditional
festivals in Bhutan in the context of liquid modernity. According to Tracy (2013), interviews can
help in revealing opinions and perspectives and articulating intrinsic systems of meaning. In this
research, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven abbots and six
monks to gain an understanding of their perception of the festivals, using a set of ten open-
ended questions based on key themes identified through the literature review. The questions for
abbots and monks focused on three main areas: how religious festivals were different in the past
than nowadays, the nature of the perceived processes of change in religious festivals, and how
traditional festivals are adapting to modernization. In addition to the interviews with the monks
and abbots, on-site nonparticipant observation was conducted at religious festivals, as well as
informal interviews with Bhutanese and foreign attendees of the festivals.
The field studies for this research were carried out at religious festivals in October 2013 and
October 2014 in Bumthang, Bhutan. The research reported in this paper addresses a broad
socio-cultural trend in the present era in Bhutanese society, and the dynamics and issues that
were evident at the time of the field studies are still very much the case today. The interviewed
abbots and monks were chosen because of their seniority. All of them had been monks for a
substantial span of time - an average of 30 years – and they had all been involved in Tsechus
and other religious festivals for as long as they had been monks. These interviews provided rich
data from which to understand the meaning of the religious festivals and their development
over time. Each in-depth interview lasted from 35 to 40 min. Additional informal interviews with
ten local people attending the religious festivals offered different perspectives on the perceived
changes in these festivals. Supplementary informal interviews with ten foreign tourist attendees
of festivals focused on their perception of religious festivals in Bhutan and their understanding
of the festivals. Each of these informal interviews lasted about 15–20 min. These field studies
were conducted over a period of about 2 weeks in each of the 2 years.

Data analysis
The interviews were recorded in written transcripts, which were subjected to data analysis, follow-
ing Miles and Huberman’s (1984, p. 22) qualitative research schema. In a “data reduction” stage,
salient statements were tagged in the transcribed interviews, and in a subsequent “data display”
phase, responses to each question were collated, and keywords compared across all interviews to
reveal trends, patterns, alignments, and contradictions among the different interviewees’ responses.
Subsequently, these keywords, patterns, alignments and contradictions were compared across the
different questions to identify the most consistent and common terms by which to understand the
interviewees’ perceptions, experiences and opinions on changes and issues in the festivals. Finally,
“conclusion drawing and verification” was pursued through an analysis of these identified common
themes with reference to cogent concepts and analogous cases from the previous literature.
Analysis of the resulting data was used to triangulate the findings from analysis of the inter-
view transcripts. Additionally, secondary sources such as Bhutanese press articles and govern-
ment documents, as well as blogs posts of tourists regarding their experiences at religious
festivals in Bhutan, were consulted for additional perspectives and examples to illustrate the
issues identified.

Findings
The perspective of tourists
For this research, a series of interviews was conducted with abbots and monks in Bhutan, sup-
plemented by less structured discussions with Bhutanese laypeople and foreign tourists visiting
8 W. SUNTIKUL

Bhutan. In sum, local people were very welcoming of tourists attending religious festivals. These
impressions were found to be inspired by economic considerations as well as cultural pride, in
that tourists’ attendance of festivals was seen as both a signal of contribution to the local econ-
omy and an indication of the value and uniqueness of Bhutanese cultural traditions, demonstrat-
ing their ability to attract visitors from around the world. Just as there was agreement among
the majority of interviewees – monks and abbots, Bhutanese laypeople and tourists alike – that
tourists to Bhutan should attend a religious festival to gain an appreciation of the country’s trad-
itional culture, there was also a general acknowledgement that attending a religious festival
would not in and of itself grant a better understanding of Bhutanese traditions or religion, and
that it would be imperative to provide adequate interpretation of these events for foreign
attendees, in order that they may have an essential appreciation, if not a complete understand-
ing, of Bhutanese culture. Interviewed tourists themselves admitted that they did not compre-
hend the dances’ meaning and expressed a desire for more guidance in understanding the
significance of the festivals and their performances. As one tourist stated, “The festival is so
impressive, so unique and colorful, but I don’t really understand the meaning of the dances. My
guide tried to explain, but he couldn’t explain it all. I want to know more.” Another tourist
claimed, “There are so many dance codes. The movements might have different meanings, but I
have no idea what they mean.”
Tourists bring different frames of reference and association to these religious festivals than do
local Bhutanese people. They also bring with them technologies and practices that record images
and videos from the festivals and project them into the global mediasphere, where they are
encountered in a decontextualized manner by a global audience. A tourist blogger who experi-
enced the naked dance described in her blog, “After a few minutes of ‘dancing’, they stopped and
stood around the fire again. At that point, two of the ‘dancers’ started doing something that scan-
dalized even us. They would run around the crowd, thrusting their penises at the faces of the peo-
ple sitting in the front row. Women, young children, old men, monks. Everyone received their
attention. Even the father sitting a few feet in front of us holding a baby in his lap. It was only
after the fact that we learned that receiving ‘the penis’ (I don’t know what else to call it) is consid-
ered a blessing. The laughing faces of the locals suggested that it was mainly the tourists who
were put off” (https://jitandtaitrip.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/naked-men-dancing/).
As one interviewed abbot said, “Today, due to advancements in technology, some people
consider it as a pornographic show and take photographs and videos for sharing with the rest
of the world. To restrict such activities, there is a need to put tight security measures and rules
in place, which were not necessary in olden times.” Despite such perceptions, though, monks
were found to be less likely than other Bhutanese people to be disturbed by tourists’ behaviour
at religious festivals. The reasons for this could at least in part have to do with the different
nature of contact that monks and others have with tourists. Whereas monks primarily interact
with other monks in planning, preparing and performing the dances and the festival, laypeople
who attend the festivals are intermixed with tourists as audience members, sharing a space and
a vantage with them. This could be expected to affect the way in which they perceive the effects
of tourists and tourism. The prevalent expressed attitude vis a vis tourists is welcoming, but
accompanied by recognition, from all sides, of the cultural barriers that exist in these encounters,
which prevent tourists from being able to move beyond consuming these dances as fascinating
cultural spectacles, to understand and appreciate their meaning and cultural significance.

The perspective of local youth

In contrast to their predominantly accommodating attitude towards tourists at the religious festi-
vals, monks and abbots were apprehensive, and, in some cases, slightly agitated, by the behav-
iour of Bhutanese young people as festival spectators. A majority of interviewed abbots and
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 9

monks felt that local youths had come to regard the festivals as platforms for commercial
activities and recreation, rather than as sacred or cultural events. One interviewed abbot stated,
“The Tsechu serves an educative purpose in Buddhism for old and devoted people, but for youth
and the non-devoted, it has become an occasion for enjoyment and for conducting unlawful
deeds. There is no change in the meanings of the Buddhist values of the Tsechu, but there is a
change in understanding due to younger people’s lower interest in culture and tradition.”
Previously unnecessary control measures have been introduced for the Tercham (naked
dance), in response to changing motivations and attitudes of Bhutanese young people at the
festivals, particularly in the case of the naked dance performed within the Jambay Lhakhang
Drup Festival in Bumthang. This festival lasts for five days each year, and the naked dance has
become one of the festival’s highlights, attracting many tourists. The Tercham is performed
around midnight by sixteen naked lay monks with their faces covered in white cloths. An inter-
viewed abbot reported that in the past, this dance was regarded as one of the most sacred dan-
ces, the monks and lay monks who performed it had no white cloths over their faces, as they do
today, and spectators attended the dance with a sense of respect, so that there was little need
for regulations on audience behaviour.
In recent years, though, some audience members have regarded the Tercham performance
with levity and giggles rather than reverence, in reaction to the dancers’ ‘fooling around’, such
as putting condoms or ropes on their organs, rather than following fixed moves (Bhutan 360,
2008). It is above all the local youth who exhibit such irreverent behaviour, indicating their
detachment from traditional ways of seeing these events. An interviewed 20-year-old man stated
“There is no way I would dance without clothes. I would feel embarrassed. Even though the
white cloths would cover my face, I would still feel strange.” This view is supported by 21-year-
old man, “I don’t know how those dancers feel when they come out dancing with no clothes on.
I can’t imagine myself doing that.” When the author asked further if young people don’t want to
carry out this traditional dance, who would preserve this, the same young man stated “I don’t
know, but I know that I and most of my friends will never do that. It is embarrassing.” This con-
flicts with the perspectives of their seniors, one of whom reported in a newspaper interview “We
have to look at it with devotion and not make fun of it. The younger generation may find it
funny, but it was started by our great saints” (Bhutan 360, 2008). Consequentially, the monas-
teries that host these festivals have found it necessary to impose tighter security measures and
explicit rules, such as strictly stipulating that a required distance be maintained between specta-
tors and performers (Interview, 2014).
Abbots expressed worry about the future of the traditional dances and the passing-down of
this intangible cultural heritage to the next generation. Few Bhutanese youth are interested in
learning and practicing these dances. There is also increasing mobility among the current gener-
ation, who often opt to leave their home villages for work or education in other parts of the
country, leaving the strenuous work of preparing and performing the festivals to the aging mem-
bers of the community, one of whom mused, “When my generation dies, who will preserve the
procedures and intricacies of the festivals?” (Phuntsho, 2006, p. 18). This trend is driven and exa-
cerbated by a shifting economic landscape. In the Ura region, for instance, falling agricultural
productivity has drained villages of the financial wherewithal to run festivals, as well as driving
young people from the villages to seek their livelihoods elsewhere.

Shifting roles of philosophy masters

The role of the festival dances as elements in the religious education of Bhutanese people has
been discussed above. This function of course relies on an audience of people raised in the
cultural and religious traditions in which these performances are rooted, for whom both the
symbolic and the performative aspects of the dances resonate with their system of beliefs and
10 W. SUNTIKUL

cultural references. The messages embodied in the dances would be inscrutable to outsiders
from different cultural traditions. This is exemplified by the Atsaras, who are integral parts of
religious festivals in Bhutan. The role of the Atsaras, or “philosophy masters,” is to assist the
dancers and to entertain the audience both during and between performances. The Atsaras’
performances, characterized by mockery and lewdness, are traditionally irreverent, risque and
humorous but with an understanding for the context and limits of Bhutanese cultural norms.
However, the presence of tourists in the mix of the festivals interferes with tacit understandings
of roles, norms and limits. It has been found that confronting tourists as an audience can be
disorienting for the Atsara themselves, which, as Pommaret (2006, p. 33) remarks, can lead to a
dissolving of the boundaries of what the Atsaras perceive as acceptable behaviour.
Also, foreign tourists can see Atsaras simply as clowns, without appreciating their function in
the cultural form of the festival. Tourists and Atsaras regard each other without a shared set of
references or norms, reflecting and distorting each other’s cultures. The same blogger cited
above described her perception of the Atsaras: “Soon after we sat down, two clowns emerged
from the monastery to warm up the crowd. They weren’t quite the red-nosed clowns we are
used to in the U.S … Each clown wore a large wooden mask fixed in a crazy grin just under an
enlarged nose. And in their hands, they each held absurdly large wooden penises. Their particu-
lar brand of humor was to select uncomfortable individuals in the crowd and proceed to play
hilariously inappropriate charades with their props. We had no idea what they were saying, but
we could guess. I mean, there are only so many things you can do with a 3 ft wooden
penis. And there are only so many things that can turn a Bhutanese woman beet red” (https://
jitandtaitrip.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/nakedmen-dancing/).
Within the traditional context of significance and symbolism established for Bhutanese reli-
gious festivals, the male sexual organ is imbued with sacred meaning. However, those who are
unfamiliar with the cultural and religious forms in which the festivals are grounded are unlikely
to appreciate the cultural and spiritual significance of the ‘philosophy masters’ and may see
them as merely funny or obscene. As discussed above, though, both tourists and local youths
have a different relationship with these performances that may be reflected in incomprehension
on the part of tourists or disrespect in the case of local youth. For both of these groups, the
dance is less likely to have a personal cultural resonance. A tourist explained, “I have no idea
how to react when the comedian (Atsara) approached me with that wooden penis. I heard that
this is the symbol of fertility, isn’t it? My guide is not around now, so I have no idea if I should
go along or be respectful.”
Among the changes in Bhutanese religious festivals reported by the abbots interviewed for
this research are a shift from religious education to ‘religious entertainment’ and a marked
change in the motivation and behaviour, particularly among young people. As one reported,
“From my point of view, with changing times come different objectives and interests regarding
the Tsechu. In the olden days, people viewed the Tsechu dances with enthusiasm as a good time
for families to eat delicious meals together. Today, though, the majority of Tsechu viewers
engage in commercial activities and courting and love affairs, which contributes to the decline
of this famous Tsechu.”

Tradition, change, and liquid modernity

In traditional societies, recurring events or rituals serve a societal function of reaffirming the
timeless truths and foundational myths that underlie the society’s world view and maintain social
cohesion (Eliade, 1959; Molnar, 1971). This ‘sacred model’ finds its counterpart in modernity and,
in particular, in “liquid modernity” (Bauman, 2000), characterized by endlessly shifting significan-
ces and practices driven by reactions to the present historic moment rather than reference to
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 11

any inheritance from the past, as in traditional societies, or an envisioned final state or goal in
the future, as in the twentieth century notions of “solid modernity” (Bauman, 2000, p. ix).
Changes in the religious festivals to accommodate the influence of tourism and the evolving
perspectives of local youth, as documented and discussed in this paper, are emblematic of the
implications of liquid modernity for Bhutan’s traditional culture. At least one interviewed abbot
seemed to see the festivals as cultural anchors that constitutes an element of continuity and
“grounding” as all else is in flux around them, eventually, though, grudgingly conceding to the
futility of trying to resist change even in the religious festivals: “I feel that Bhutan has developed
a lot over time. If we make changes in those festivals in the name of adapting to modernization,
there will be degradation of these cultural values that could give rise to misinterpretations in the
future. A few slight changes might be required to adapt to modern times.”
An appeal to festivals as manifestations of a shared identity may have less perceived rele-
vance to local youth, growing up in a world of increasing modernization and global influences,
or to tourists, whose day-to-day life worlds are typically firmly embedded in late modern soci-
eties. In such societies, characterized by a shift away from communal narratives and towards
individualization and consumerism, people’s attitudes tend to be formed much more with refer-
ence to their own personal situation than their relationship to others or to a communal or soci-
etal identity (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002; Middlemiss, 2014).
Even for the Atsara “philosophy masters” performing at the religious festivals, frames of refer-
ence and perception of their audience are changing. Whereas Atsaras’ jokes have traditionally
referenced local issues, occurrences or personalities, recently they have been targeting foreign
tourists with their banter, which expresses a global perspective. For instance, an Atsara perform-
ing at a festival in the small village of Ura in 2006 was cited as making witty and irreverent refer-
ences to US President George Bush and Osama bin Laden (Phuntsho, 2006, p. 13).
Changes have been made in the performance of the Tercham naked dance, in response to
changes in the attitudes of audiences: both local youth and tourists. While the lay monks perform-
ing the naked dance used to leave their faces exposed, they now put cloths over their faces to
obscure their identities. Interviewed monks were concerned that such changes would have conse-
quences for Bhutanese traditional culture, with one lamenting, “if we try to adapt our festivals to
suit modernization, this will degrade our culture and our value.” Some see such changes as existen-
tial threats at a fundamental level. As expressed by one interviewed abbot, “The naked dance sym-
bolizes the good deeds undertaken by yogis in the past to eradicate the disasters associated with
the four elements. Discontinuing such dances might gave rise to natural disasters in the regions
and bring discontent to those devoted people who receive blessing from this unique naked dance.”
Attempting to block changes in the form of the traditional religious festivals would be
unlikely to stem the tide of change in the local society, that comes with changing attitudes and
perceptions of the significance and role of these dances in that society. As an interviewed abbot
lamented, “In the past, the Tsechu festival used to be a day of historical remembrance for the
people and also to know the Buddhist values of cause and effect. But today, this important occa-
sion has become a platform for commercial activities.”
The mixing of locals and tourists in the audience of Bhutanese religious festivals is affecting
the nature of these festivals. There can no longer be an assumption of a shared symbolic uni-
verse and set of cultural references between the performers and all spectators, which is neces-
sary for a deep appreciation of the spiritual significance of the performances. At the same time,
the perception of local youth attending the festivals is mediated by aspirations and referents
external to Bhutan’s traditional culture and ways of living. Thus, these two groups among the
spectators can be seen as enacting performances of their own – performances of different, more
detached, ways of engaging these events – which affect the festival itself as a social context.
These two audience subgroups can be seen as agents of liquid modernity, accustomed to values,
practices and norms that are malleable, contingent and constantly evolving. International tourists
pop in and out of cultural contexts, perhaps with a sincere will to engage and understand them
12 W. SUNTIKUL

but always on the verge of disengaging and moving on to the next cultural context.
Demonstrating the Bhutanese version of a familiar symptom of modernity and modernization,
the “generation gap,” young people in developing countries like Bhutan perceive the norms and
assumptions held as inviolable by previous generations as contingent and adaptable.
Some of the factors that are considered important by scholars in the pursuit of cultural sus-
tainability in tourism would seem well-suited in addressing the challenges identified as being
faced by these festivals in the context of liquid modernity. Matero’s (2003) understanding of the
maintenance of cultural heritage assets as the “thoughtful management of change,” rather than
the defense of fixed forms, is immediately cogent. Ashworth and Tunbridge (1999) highlighted
the necessity for different modes of interpretation to accommodate the plurality of ways in
which different groups approach a given aspect of heritage. This corresponds directly with the
expressed desires of tourists to better understand the dances, but the more difficult challenge
may be in finding a mode of interpretation by which local youth can find relevance of these fes-
tivals within their lives and value systems. In sum, one implication for the sustainability of festi-
vals and other intangible cultural heritage in liquid modern times is the need for the conscious
management of these cultural forms as assets, in a way that constantly monitors and reacts to
changes in their cultural milieu.
The Atsaras, the comical-serious, sacred-profane “philosophy masters” who provide continu-
ity and interact with the audiences at the festivals, provide an apt model, at the same time
concrete and metaphorical, of a stance for maintaining cultural sustainability. Their mixing of
local and global references, adaptation of their performance to their audience and situation,
assumption of time-worn personas and tropes while testing the boundaries of the relevant,
possible and acceptable, are all aspects of a constant attitude of playful yet serious engage-
ment that seeks to keep a cultural form alive – in the moment and in the long term – as a liv-
ing and evolving entity within, and despite, an increasingly complex and every-changing
cultural environment.

Conclusion
This paper has examined the consequences of the juxtaposition of religious festivals – among
Bhutan’s most important cultural practices – with international tourism – a force of moderniza-
tion and globalization – through a discussion of findings on the changes in the behaviour and
perceptions of members of three subgroups of participants in these events: the monks, lay
monks, and abbots who run the festivals and perform in the dances, local Bhutanese young peo-
ple attending the events, and international tourists to Bhutan.
In any situation, such as tourism, in which members of different cultures encounter each other
in the context of cultural practices such as festivals, a constructivist perspective must be applied
to appreciate that the understanding of these practices, and perceptions of their meaning, will
vary greatly among members of the different groups represented, in a way that cannot be con-
solidated to a single, objectively “correct” understanding. Likewise, a given individual’s percep-
tion and perspective on these practices may very well change over the course of their lives. The
perspective of liquid modernity reveals, furthermore, that the identities of the participants are
not fixed but are constantly in a state of transition, and that these cultural practices themselves
are also not fixed, nor are they transitioning from one fixed state to another, but rather are also
in a state of perpetual flux.
In delineating these dynamics as found in present-day Bhutan, this paper has used the point
of view of the monks and abbots who run and perform in traditional rituals and festivals to
gauge changes over time in the religious festivals, particularly as manifested in the behavioural
patterns that abbots and monks have observed in tourists and local youth. In liquid modernity,
perspectives and identities are always provisional, contingent and in a constant state of flux, as
 JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 13

exemplified by these two different segments of the audiences in different ways. Tourists are
attracted by Bhutan’s cultural offerings and express a desire to gain a better understanding of a
culture and tradition from which they are excluded from becoming insiders. At the same time,
this culture and its traditions are also in a state of mutation. The younger generation of the local
society, ostensibly the heirs of this tradition, is possessed of ideals and experiences that distance
them from an ability to perceive the traditional meanings in the festivals, instead redefining reli-
gious festivals as social and entertainment events rather than sacred practices. This paper has
given a perspective on the ways in which liquid modernity manifests itself in this situation, in
which the identity of each group is influenced by their contact with the others in the context of
the festival, and the festival itself is in a state of fluid adaptation to maintain itself in the milieu
of changing attitudes, audiences and cultural context.
The future of Bhutan’s religious festivals is unlikely to take the form of a perpetuation or res-
toration of its traditional practices and significances. The interviewed abbots and monks see the
festivals as essential components of Bhutanese culture and anchors to the national and cultural
identity. Through their intimate relationship with the festivals and their keen observation of the
changing audiences, shifting attitudes and behaviors and evolving place of the naked dance and
the Tsechu in local society, a number of these monks and abbots seem to have taken on an atti-
tude very much in line with the liquid modernity perspective, recognizing that, if they are to
maintain their relevance in an evolving society, these rituals and dances also need to evolve, not
as a counterpart to modernity or bulwark against modernization, but as organic components of
a continuously shifting cultural ensemble.
Recognizing Bhutan’s religious festivals as contexts in which different life-worlds converge
calls attention to the need for increased focus on interpretation and education for attendees
who might not understand their underlying meaning. Because this includes not only
international tourists who attend these festivals but also local youth, such interpretation and
education may entail the introduction of more explicitly interpretative content as an integral
part of religious festivals, as well as measures to inform and prepare members of these two
groups prior to their attendance of the festivals, such as the introduction of curricular
elements in local schools and the integration of cultural education components into tour
itineraries. Such measures would help in bridging between traditional Bhutanese systems of
meaning and those of tourists and local youth (in which schoolteachers and tour guides
would be important mediators) and would enable tourists and local youth who attend these
festivals to understand and advocate for the sustaining of these important cultural practices.
As such, the future sustainability of the religious festivals, among Bhutan’s many traditional
cultural practices, will likely rely on multifaceted education and interpretation measures,
in conjunction with the measured and principled evolution of the form of the festi-
vals themselves.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author.

Notes on contributors
Dr Wantanee Suntikul is an Assistant Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University. Her core research interest and expertise are in cultural tourism destinations, political
and social aspects of tourism development, religion tourism, heritage tourism, and gastrodiplomacy and tourism.
She holds projects in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, China, Hong Kong, Macao and Bhutan. Dr Suntikul’s recent books
include “Tourism and Political Change,” “Tourism and Political Change” (2nd ed.), “Tourism and War,” and “Tourism
and Religion: Issues and Implication.” Dr Suntikul is also Joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Tourism, Culture &
Communication.”
14 W. SUNTIKUL

ORCID
Wantanee Suntikul http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5654-6024

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