As one of the conventional skills, China Engraved Block Printing Technique includes a series of processes: cutting tools are applied to the engraving of characters or patterns on wooden blocks, ink and paper are utilized for printing purpose and the printed book pages are bound into books. Historical cultural relics show the application of engraved block printing technique dates back to the end of the 6th century and early 7th century. The invention and application of engraved block printing technique in China has made tremendous contributions to the progress and development of human civilization thanks to its functions typical of recording and transmitting thoughts, knowledge and experience of human society.

China 2009

Enchoro or Enchorom is a native festival of a Kalizingkha village under Tseza Gewog (block) in Dagana with unique lyrics and melodies. It is performed by the people of Kalizingkha particularly by the children (both boys and girls) aged below 12 on the 30th day of the 11th Bhutanese month every year. Even today, the festival is still vibrant and popular in the community without any major transformations. There are minor transformations in terms of the path followed by children from the starting point until the village temple (traditionally from school campus but now from the way which leads to Gophu Gonpa (monastery) from Dzong (Fortress) and the meals served during the three days celebration. However, owing to the current pandemic and the government policies, the community could not celebrate this festival for the past two years but the locals are now very much hopeful that everything will become normal again with the government's new normal policies. The origin of this festival remains unknown. The locals believed in performing this festival mainly to drive away the evil forces, diseases and misfortunes from their household and their community and to wish for a successful and prosperous year and good luck for the people living in the locality.

A unique female-dominated performance held only on the 8th and 9th day of the 7th lunar month in the two communities of Ura-ma-krong (main village of Ura) and Shingkhar, the farthest settlement under Ura gewog (block) in Bumthang Dzongkhag (district). In Ura dialect, Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is usually called Saang (smoke offering). It is said that in the old days, when there were yak herders who usually came from their village to raise the yaks at Purshey la (one of the mountains overlooking Ura village), they welcomed the female performers by burning sang at Korgang (the place believed to be the place where the deity descends or dwells and where the female performers circumambulate the stupa). Hence, community members refer to the festival as Sang or Sang na gai-sang (on the way to the Sang offering). Another interpretation states that the female participants begin their offering by making various medicinal herbs and other fresh offerings go up in smoke while appeasing the main female deity named A-shey Lhamo and her entourage, namely Gawa Lhamo, Kiba Lhamo, Champa Lhamo, and Dropa Lhamo. However, in addition to the aforementioned attendant goddesses, Shingkhar A-zhi (pronounced locally) Lhamo has Lam-dron Lhamo forming five attendant goddesses. Therefore, the festival and performance were called Sang from the first offering. The other name of the festival, A-shey Lhamo, is interpreted literally by outsiders and some learned community members as the lyrics of the religious song sung and danced in honor of the deity A-shey Lhamo. Colloquially, the term A-shey is addressed to either the queen or the elder sisters, and Lhamo is a general term for the divine goddess. The origin of Sang or A-shey Lhamo is that during the Dung Lhawang Rabgay (local ruler), not long before the emergence of the Dung caste system in Bhutan around the 10th-11th century, there was a misfortune of Shey-ned (diarrheal infection) that spread among the children of the Ura community. People sought the advice of their ruler as there was no tradition of performing rituals or treatments. Thus, Dung Lhawang introduced Drakpa, who had a divine bloodline, to appease the female local deity by performing dances. He composed the lyrics in the typical Ura dialect and ordered that they be performed by female members of the community. The Lord also determined the place: Pur-shey la (written Pur-gyal la) along with the things to be sacrificed and also the steps. Following the advice, the women performed the dance, which gradually helped the children recover from the epidemic. After that, the performance of A-shey Lhamo was practiced. According to the origin, A-shey Lhamo and the goddesses accompanying her are both the deities of the place and deities of the Bon khar tradition. Perhaps they are the other form of Tshering chey nga (the five sisters of longevity) who appeared in the Bon tradition before they were introduced by Guru Padsambava as the tutelary deity of Buddhism, just as many Bonpo deities were later transformed as protectors of the sacred teachings of the Buddha. In the poetry of A-shey Lhamo, it is mentioned that they reside in the high mountains Gang-toed thoen po. The road to their citadel is like a mule track, filled with the sweet fragrance of Ba-loo (Rhododendron ciliatum) and Su-loo (Rhododendron setosum). She delights in the first share of Mar-chang Ara (locally brewed wine) and Kara and Buram (honey and brown sugar) and sits down on the white sheepskin mat. She resides gracefully in a palace of precious gems with golden columns and silver windows. Apart from the above description of her residence, there is no text describing her appearance, only the names of her sisters and the goddess herself. This ICh element is still alive in Ura and Singkhar communities. However, there are some changes: The sang is now prepared and offered by themselves since there are no more highlanders at Pur-shey la, and the other is that, according to tradition, the sang is generally performed on the 8th and 9th day of the lunar month but, the community members decided to either coordinate the festival on 15th day if the time and weather is not favourable.

In Eastern Bhutan, the Tsangla (Eastern Bhutanese dialect) term Serga Mathang and Khothkin which directly translates to “golden cousins” refers to consanguineous marriage with the child of a parent’s sibling. The name serga mathang uses a metaphor for cross-cousin marriage tradition gold (ser) to suggests that marrying into a consanguineous family is similar to amassing a significant amount of money. In Tsangla kinship terminologies, Mathang denotes a female cross-cousin while Khothkin denotes a male cross-cousin. On a related note, we should be aware that in Tsangla kinship terminologies, the terms Mathang and Kothkin are used to refer to one's brother's wife and sister's husband, respectively, even though they are not blood relatives. However, the absence of the prefix serga, golden, indicates that these terms are used for non-cousin relationships. There are three types of cross-cousin marriage in the Eastern districts of Bhutan. A man marries the daughter of his mother's brother (ajang) in a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage. In a patrilateral cross-cousin marriage, a man marries the daughter of his father's sister (ani). In a bilateral cross-cousin marriage, a man marries a woman who is also the daughter of his father's sister and mother's brother. As per the research done by Dorji (2003), The mother’s brother is known in the Tshangla society as Ajang ngama rinpoche, which translates to "precious maternal uncle," and his nephews (tshowo) are expected to appease him by carrying out his wishes, which are typically fulfilled by marrying his daughters. According to social custom, nephew marriages cannot go against the wishes of their maternal uncles, who are given the same respect as the couple's biological parents. Matrilocal residence laws frequently compel men to move to their uncle’s house to become the husband of the uncle’s daughter. If nephews happen to marry outsiders, this custom physically separates them from maternal uncles, depriving them of the respect and assistance they would typically receive from their nearby nephews. For that reason, it is believed that the Ajang (uncle) encourages marriages among family members. The social obligation that maternal uncles have toward their nephews fosters their mutually emotional bonds, which may account for the frequency of matrilateral cross-kin partnerships. Unlike exogamous marriage ceremonies, a cross-cousin marriage ceremony typically does not include an elaborate or formal process, the consanguineous couple simply elopes. The prevalence of informal pre-elopement interactions for cross-cousin couples, as well as social values associated with cross-cousin marriage typically results in a union that is approved by the parents. To understand the concept of pre-elopement, he idea of Chungnyen (childhood engagement) is when both sets of parents make a vow to support marriage between their children in the future in order to preserve the wealth between the two close families. Moreover, some parents would negotiate cross-cousin weddings without official demands for bridegroom payment, while others may not even arrange marriage ceremonies. Historically, cross-cousin marriages were typically permitted by the parents because of the associated social values. Despite the fact that this marriage custom predominated in the past, it is largely on the decline because of globalization. Modern legal rules start to question the taboo nature of such marriages as potential incest. Moreover, medical and educational sectors led to a diminishing of cross-cousin marriage customs in Bhutan because it is believed that a cross-cousin union enhances the likelihood that undesirable genes will be manifest in the offspring. A child’s defects in phenotypic traits are the result of a mix of potentially harmful genes received from married cousins. An offspring of married cousins may exhibit positive qualities and good health due to the pairing of favorable genes, but not to the same extent as those of unrelated spouses.

The Neypo ritual is a seasonal offering performed across Bhutan to appease local deities, Ney village in Lhuentse to the northeast is one of many villages to perform this ritual. Neypo literally means "Zhidag", a category of deity who protects the area under their control or certain parts of the valley. The identity of the protector figure varies from region to region, as does the ritual. In Ney village, the Neypo ritual is performed every year on the 15th day of the third lunar month of the Bhutanese calendar. The ritual is performed in their Lhakhang, temple, in order to appease the local deity Zhidag Drakpa Gyalpo with offerings. In return, the community asks for his protection of their farms from wild animals. The Zhidag is believed to dwell below the village in a dense forest on the left side of Kurichu. Zhidag Drakpa Gyalpo has a grim appearance with a black face, dark clothes, and a reindeer mount with ten horns. He has one face and two hands; in his right hand he holds a flaming sword and in his left hand he holds a robe or Zhagpa sling. Within a single second he could cover the distance between any two places. Eighth century tantric master Guru Rinpoche (Skt. Padmasambhava) bound Drakpa Gyalpo by oath and made him the protector of the East Gate of the hidden land Baeyul Khempajong, and sworn to be the Dharma protector in the region. During the Neypo ritual, the entrance to the dense forest is sealed off for people which will last for a whole season, which is called Rigya lungya dam or Ridam. Ridam is a common practice of mountain closure in which the path to the Zhidag Phodrang, deity’s abode, and the surrounding dense forest are closed to human access from spring to autumn until the rice harvest. During this period, people are generally not allowed to enter the area to collect natural resources or visit any place in the area. After performing rituals, no one is allowed to go there unless except for exceptional occasions. This restriction applies to outsiders as well as people from the village.

The festival commonly known as Prew is celebrated in the Kurtoe region under Lhuentse Dzongkhag. Originally it was called Treu-choed, or “Monkey Month Offering,” but later became popularly known as Prew. The name Treu is derived from the year of birth of Guru Rinpoche (Skt. Padmasambhava), as he was born in the year of the monkey in the eighth century. The word Choed means "offering." The Prew festival of Kurtoe is associated with Guru Rinpoche, he visited Jasabe village via the hidden land of Baeyul Khenpajong and gave his blessings to the locals. Since then, they have been celebrating this festival out of gratitude to him for the blessings he gave them and their whole community. They also believe that Prew is a festival to honor Guru Rinpoche’s birthday. This festival is celebrated in almost all Gewog village blocks of Lhuentse Dzongkhag or district. The community of Ney celebrates its local festival every year on the 10th day of the fourth lunar month according to the Bhutanese calendar. The festival takes place in the local Lhakhang, temple, in the center of the community, as well as in each individual house. The men often play games such as archery, while the women have a picnic. Prew is similarly celebrated in Jasabe Chiwog at Tergang Lhakhang. On the 9th day of the fourth lunar month of the Bhutanese calendar, people gather at the Lhakhang to perform a ritual and make offerings. The next day, the 10th day of the fourth lunar month, they return to their village with Norjan chants, and spend a day singing and dancing in their village. The festival in part indicates the arrival of the agricultural season. Villagers offer prayers and sacrifices for good health and a good harvest without pest infestations and natural disasters.

Held from the 10th through the 15th days of the second lunar month, main foci of this festival are paying tribute to Guru Rinpoche and the performance of ritual prayers dedicated to Tshepamed (Buddha of Long Life) and local protective deities on the 10th and the 11th days. Events take place in community temples and are presided over by lamas and monks, and/or locally-based gomchens (Leymen). On the 12th to 15th days, games and sports are organized, especially archery and Khuru (Traditional dart) are played. At night, the Blessing Round or Changkor (Wandering) takes place as a presiding lama or monk leads a group to visit every household in their respective villages and bless them with auspiciousness. The community members drink, sing and dance, and relish good foods during the period. The festival is not only meant to pay tribute to Guru Rinpoche and the protective deities but is also an occasion for community members to get together to relax away from the usual toils of agrarian life. During Tala Chodpa, most of the villages conduct certain ritual prayers. Often the dagkey, or main ritual prayer, is either the Lama Norbu Jamtsho of Pema Lingpa or dedicated to Tshepamed, the Buddha of Long Life. These are often followed by ritual prayers conducted on the individual household level or at the community’s choesung, and include Guru Soeldeb, prayers to Guru Rinpoche. Groups of seven or eight monks from Nyimalung Dratshang preside over the Chodpa ritual prayers and rituals in different villages. The monks of Buli Gonpa also preside over Chodpa ritual prayers in upper Chume. It is said that previously monks from Tharpaling Monastery also presided over the Chodpa rituals in the upper villages of Chume like Uruk and Gaytsa, but now they are no longer available due to activities in their home monastery. Wherever monks are not available, local gomchens take their places. It is said that gomchens are playing an increasingly prominent role as monks are busy with their monastic activities as well as due to other disciplinary issues. In all the community Lhakhangs (Temple), the ritual prayers take place on the 10th and 11th days, followed by associated programming that continues through the 15th day. Between the 12th and 15th days, different villages organize traditional games, including archery, Doegor (stone-throwing) and khuru (darts), as well as singing and dancing by almost all the local residents. At night, they organize the Changkor, during which they bring Torma or sacrificial cakes from their respective community temples and carry them from house to house, spreading blessings.

Karmey: (Butter lamp Offering) during A-shey Lhamo Dance is an indigenous tradition practiced exclusively by women in the communities of Shingkhar, Somthrang, Pangkhar and Ura in Ura Gewog (block), Bumthang Dzongkhag (district). Colloquially, Karmey means offering butter lamps in all temples and monasteries in and around these communities. The element is closely related to an annual offering of Saang (smoke offering), popularly known as A-shey Lhamo which is normally conducted from 8th and 9th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. The Karmey program is the last and concluding event of the three-day A-shey Lhamo festival which is held on the 10th day of the 7th month coinciding the birth anniversary of Guru Padsambava. The origin of Karmey is identical to that of A-shey Lhamo, although A-shey Lhamo is considered a Bon-kar (transformed Bon practices) and the other explicitly a Buddhist tradition. The establishment of the A-shey Lhamo festival dates back to the reign of Dung Lhawang Rabgay (local ruler) of the Ura community, not long before the advent of the Dung caste system in Bhutan around the 10th and 11th centuries. It is said that the misfortune of shey-ned (diarrhoeal infection) spread among the children of the Ura community, and to cure such epidemic diseases, Dung Lhawang Drakpa introduced the performance of the A-shey Lhamo dance, an offering to appease the female local deity on the eighth and ninth days of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. For most Bon practitioners throughout the country, this is a special day when they make confirmation offerings to their respective deities and ask for blessings of peace and happiness for the individual as well as for the entire community, country and all sentient beings in the world. According to older members of these communities, they have noticed a decline and disappearance of this ancient practice over the years. They say that they remember crowds of women from communities like Ura, Pangkhar, Somthrang and even Singkhar singing and running to all the temples and monasteries to offer butter lamps and tshogs (offerings) and perform melodious folk dances right after the A-shey Lhamo festival was celebrated. There are also some native songs and dances that are sung and performed only on Karmey Day. It is believed that after the annual offering to the A-shey Lhamo deities according to the Bon Kar tradition, people also wanted to observe the Buddhist way of offering to the scattered temples and monasteries, which falls exactly on the 10th day of the month, which is revered as the birthday of Guru Padsambava, one of the highly revered saints who introduced Vajrayana Buddhism in the mid-8th century. However, over time, the villages of Somthrang and Pangkhar have discontinued this tradition along with the performance of A-shey Lhamo, and today Shingkhar and Ura are the only two communities that follow and maintain this tradition.

Agriculture is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock and over centuries, rise in agricultural has contributed in the growth civilization. Early people have developed and improved varieties of plants and till date the practice is considered to be the important aspect of Bhutanese livelihood. It is one of the sources of income as over69% of the population here, directly depends on it for their livelihood (MoAF, 2011). In 2011, agriculture sector accounted for about 17.7% of the total GDP of the country (RNR Statistics, 2012) Asham (Maize) plays a critical role in the entire life of given economy and is a pre-dominant cereal crop for the eastern part of the Bhutan for many years contributing to more than half of total maize production in the country. Asham cultivation was one of the main cereal as well as cash crops that supported and supports lively hood for major households in the part of the country. To these days, the practice and culture of maize cultivation is one of the main live hood and sources of income. Most communities in the eastern part of the country depend on cultivation of Asham to produce following products: •\tKharang- grits, grind maize used as staple food •\tAsham me-gogni- roasted corn •\tAsham bokpi- corn flour •\tTengma- roasted and pounded maize •\tAsham mu-nang- a local term for popcorn •\tZhu- brewed alcohol Apart from above products, asham is also used as cereals for bartering during the olden days to exchange with wooden and bamboo products produced from other parts of the Dzongkhags. Moreover people also used to exchange with rice, chili, meat and dairy products within or outside the community. People used to offer asham, kharang and bokpi to monks and gomchen(great meditation masters) as they visit begging for cash and kind. Asham and its product were also used during the religious rituals at households. Crafting of Torma (Sacrificial ritual cakes) and Sur (Smoke offering) during the rituals were done by using corn flour. There has been lots of transformation in the culture, practice and process in cultivation maize in the region due to introduction of hybrid seeds, improve in tools and technologies used compared to old and traditional ways of cultivation.

Lha-soel (Lha means local deity and soel means offerings) is the ritual performed annually seeking assistance and blessing from the local deities with the offering and recitation of religious scriptures. Unlike rituals in other places in western Bhutan depending on the need and purposes, the people of Bem si-si, under Toebesa Gewog (block) perform this Lha-soel annually mostly towards the end of the year beginning from October till December month with the presence of the entire family members. As far as history is concerned there is no exact date of origin of this ritual. However, the village households herein perform Lha-soel that is passed down from the forefathers. This ritual originated from the Bonism commonly known as Nak-choe (ritual requiring animal sacrifices) wherein animals such as pigs and oxen were slaughtered for the offering. However, on later dates as per respondents, with blessing and order from the 70th Je-Khenpo (Chief Abbot) Trulku Jigme Chhoeda (1955- ) to avoid killing animals for the purpose of the rituals. The locals in Bem si-si started to offer butter, cheese, and fruits unlike before who used to offer meat, lungs, and blood along with the ritual cakes. Oral traditions say that Lha-soel is considered the most festive occasion of an individual household to gather all the family members who are now in challenge due to expenditures and lack of manpower. However, people in villages believe that these ritual practices are embedded in the lifestyles and traditions for ensuring prosperity, wealth, and long life besides the adoption of it as a medium for the higher Buddhist spiritual message, thus, individual households never fail to perform despite the challenges. The challenges the Lha-soel undergo is accrued that the too many of the present generations are engaged in the schools, colleges, and universities and gives priority to the curriculum in schools that lacks the knowledge of this very ritual in particular. Therefore, the children, unlike in the past who resided in villages, knew and easily inherited the cultural and traditional legacies of their time which decline today. Even though the majority of the younger population resides in the urban areas, therefore, only the older people are left in the villages observing rituals on behalf of all the family members.

The different species of nettle grow at different altitudes between 1200 and 3000 meters. The tradition of weaving cloth from nettle yarn, which was practiced for decades by the women of Ney village in Gangzur Gewog (block) in Lhuentse Dzongkhag (district), had once disappeared from the village. According to them, it has been more than 40 years since they saw their grandparents weaving cloth from the nettle plant. People used to make thak-pa (rope), khor-ga (bag), shing-ka (old women's clothes), pha-tsa (sacks), bra-gar (old men's clothes), etc. Nettle fabrics are still used for traditional bowstrings in different parts of the country. Nettle plants are readily available in villages, but a series of processes are required to turn them into a fine yarn. It is said that making yarn from nettle plants lost popularity after cotton became readily available. This is also because it is available as a finished product, which reduces the workload. An elderly resident from Ney, Tenzin Wangmo, tells how they use nettle fiber for weaving. She tells that they used to use a different process. First, a hole was dug in which the nettle bark and the hardwoods needed were placed to heat the stone. Then ash mixed with water was applied to the nettle bark and it was placed in the previously dug hole. The bark coated with ash and the hot stone were alternately placed in the hole and covered with thick ash to prevent the fibers from being destroyed by combustion, and kept for 2 to 3 nights. The last process was washing the fibers in a draining river by continuous beating until they were white.

In Ney, a village in Lhuentse, northeast Bhutan, Chotpa gathers villagers together to make offerings to protective deities, dakinis, great teachers, and the protectors of Buddhist practitioners for the prosperous year. The ritual has a literal name that evokes the yearly celebration of a community gathering to make offerings. On 15th day of eleventh lunar month according to the Bhutanese calendar, Ney villagers gather at the local Lhakhang, temple, in the middle of the village. The Chotpa ritual is mainly to thank for the protection and blessing they received during entire year without any problem in their communities. They appease their guardian deities for ensuring well-being, health, and blessing good fortune for entire communities. They also seek protection on agricultural farm from natural disaster, wild animal, and pest in the forthcoming year as well. Chotpa is thus both a religious and social celebration for the year. On the day of Chotpa, people all gather at the lhakhang. Throughout the day, they chant mantras to make amends for wrong doings and to offer gratitude for the blessing and to request for enhanced wealth and peace. While a lack of definitive sources makes it hard to trace the history of this occasion, the community believe that this ritual dates to early human settlement of the region. Community members consider it an important occasion, and it is a tradition which has continued for potentially centuries.