Dress Sense

I was waiting for my flight at Bangkok airport when I saw a person with vaguely Indian features sitting next to me. We got into conversation, and it turned out that he was not Indian, but a Bhutani. This was close enough to home, especially when you are in a foreign country, and so we warmed to each other.

 He looked fairly Indian, and also had Indian mannerisms. I was planning to go to Bhutan for a holiday, and had done a lot of reading about it, so I was able to ask him about the cities of Paro and Thimpu, the ‘Dzong’ monastery -fortresses, the black necked cranes of Phobjika, the 23 day snowman trek, etc. He was very happy that a foreigner knew some things about his country and told me all about them.

After some time he stretched luxuriously and said “It’s so nice to be casually dressed all the time. It makes a nice change.” 

I looked curiously at him. He was dressed fairly normally in jeans and T shirt. 

“Why? Don’t you dress like this at home?”

“Well, we can dress any way we like inside our house, but when we are in a public place we are supposed to wear only our national dress.”

“National dress?” I asked

“Oh yes. We have a national dress called the ‘Bakhu’, and we are very proud to wear it. We wear it all the time, and in fact it is compulsory to wear the ‘Bakhu’ in office.”

“Compulsory?”

“Oh yes. In fact, we are fined if we don’t wear our national dress in the office. Why, don’t you have a national dress?”

“Oh yes, of course. We have a rich variety of ethnic dresses. We have Dhoti, Kurta, Achkan, Salwar kameez, turbans…we have some pan national dresses, and every state has its individual dress. We also say that we are very proud of our dress and heritage.”

“But you don’t wear them much in public do you?”

I thought for a minute.

“No…we prefer to forget them, and prefer to wear the dress of our invaders – Shirt, pant, tie, coat, etc. In fact, we are ashamed of wearing our national dress in public. In your country and in your office you are punished for NOT wearing your national dress; and in our country and our offices, we are punished if we DO wear our national dress.

 In fact, if I come to work wearing a dhoti, kurta and chappals, I will be coldly asked whether I am participating in a fancy dress, and will be ordered to go home and come back properly dressed in shirt, pant and shoes.”

He thought about it for a moment and said “Strange ways you have in your country.”

I couldn't disagree.