The skilled house painters of Bhutan

The seven century old Tharpaling monastery opened my eyes. Seventeen years ago, almost to the date, we had tried to reach this monastery and parked on the road in the middle of the village below. Some people indicated a road and told us that it wasn’t far. After half an hour’s walk we gave up and went back to our car. We realized now that we had been on the right road, but we should have kept up for another couple of hours. The meaning of far depends on the context. But that was the more minor revelation on this day. The major discovery was that there are highly skilled painters of houses. I should have guessed, since I’d been photographing their work for a week, but it was only now, seeing one pursue his job poised on a platform one floor above the ground that it came home to me.

Painters who do elaborate work on monasteries, temples and dzongs are probably contractors. This door at the entrance of the monastery was absolutely dazzling. A group of carpenters was busy around the monastery and were calling back and forth to the painter. I guess they were part of one work gang.

But the country had employment in plenty for these painters. When it comes to upcoming departmental stores, like the one on the left, or a petrol pump, the one of the right, I’m not sure that their economics allow them to hire similar contractors. There could be a hierarchy of skills, with lesser painters working at a price that these small businesses would be able to afford. Another model would be for a business that lies between the numerous sawmills that we saw and the construction companies that require turning the planks into fitted beams of painted wood. That could easily be done, since I’d only seen fairly standardized designs. But I did not notice lumber shops that had pre-painted wood. In any case, this is an investigation into the entrepreneurship of Bhutan that can be left for another time.