A farmer’s thought

Sangay Rinchen has decided to live through human culture and society which happens to be farming and agriculture. He is a farmer living a lifestyle of an entrepreneur in order to survive in the modern ecosystem where the society is attached to speculative market values over morality. He hopes to stand in the front line of evolutionary process of the world believing in science and technologies.

The 35 year old stoic farmer said that working in the field is like being in a classroom where it opens up his mind and rejuvenates his physical body. He views the world and the existence of everything through his work with the natural world and that is why he says that he is a “farmer by occupation”.

Popularly known as Farmer Sangay, his team has won several international awards including D-prize Award, Swiss ReSocial Entrepreneur Award, Ben and Jerry Award, Ashoka Mentorship and Launchpat Awards among others. The Energy Globe Award was awarded to his team this week; in recognition of their project Dazin for saving lives by eliminating deadly cooking smoke. The project provides a combination of Fuel Cookies made of forestry wood waste, which is used in high efficiency smokeless stove called Gasifying Stoves for cooking and heating.

Dazin has many members ranging from school going kids to adults. It is a humble group of people who came together and started building innovative business models for community development projects in rural Bhutan. When asked to describe himself, Farmer Sangay told that he is a “Philosopher by cognition”. He likes to experiment his thought into action with sheer willpower. He said, “Intellectually, one thing that fascinated me and always lived with me until now since childhood is, the power of my stupid mind.” He also said that his clarity of mind that expects nothing in return from his work and the detachment from all material things including the essence of fame helps him understand people as they are. He added that he can empower himself and get inspired from anything or anyone and believes that humans are self empowering organisms.

On the contrary, he also clarified that the mind is his weakness as well. He said that these thoughts sometimes lead him to places of greater risk and collateral damages. He confessed that he has not considered any economic plans for the future. “It often kills me deep within, how the mainstream modern economic consumerist society takes away their freedom of thoughts and moral values,” farmer Sangay said.

He also shared about his practices of trying to be a good human who thinks positive and undertakes positive activities to create positive experiences with the people around him. “The biggest value I have learnt so far is the values of sharing and collective usefulness as a society or nation,” he said. Apart from farming, farmer Sangay likes to sketch and paint. He said, “As a kid, I used to make a decent amount of money by selling them while walking around the small, old Thimphu town.” He also narrated about the days when he first heard the sound of the Dramgyen at the age of seven and making the instrument out of wood with nylon strings cut from cattle’s tie robe.

He added that he has played on a stage as a theatre artist and always had a passion to speak in front of the public since childhood. He is looking forward to experience different point of self realization and wishes to write about them. The farmer feels that every human are an amazing creature and generally good. He believes that human can grow and perform miracles in conducive environment, without having to go through modern individualistic centrism and rules of lower behavioural punishments. He said, “I have decided to be happy without being angry and it has already been two years now.”

 

By Kinley Wangchuk