Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan

Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan is a novel authored by Kunzang Choden. This is a prescribed text for class IXs in Bhutanese schools, as part of their English literature curriculum. The following is a review initially written by Jigme Wangchuk, a teacher of Drugyal high school in Paro. Where possible, amendments and additional resources had been sourced to make the interpretations and explanations as simple as possible.

The Giver

The Giver is authored by Lois Lowry, and a requisite text for class Xs in Bhutan. This is the second novel that is introduced formally to high-school students in Bhutan. The following post gives a brief background of the novel.

Once upon a Greek stage

| Mythological Background | Importance of Burial in Greek Religion | History | Introduction | Greek Tragedy | Sequence of Events | Characters | Places | Summary |

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Summary

Oedipus and Jocasta had been the king and the Queen of Thebes respectively. There were four children in the royal family; Antigone, Ismene her sister and two brothers Polynices and Eteocles; who were twins. When King Oedipus and Jocasta died, the twin sons were both eligible to succeed their father and both of them wanted to rule Thebes.

Later they came up with what seemed like a reasonable solution. Eteocles was to rule for one year and Polynices for the next. Whichever one was having his year off was to leave Thebes. But it didn’t work. It was full of loopholes. When Eteocles year of ruling was over, he decided he didn’t want to give up the throne. Polynices wasn’t about to let him away with that. So, he gathered an army and attacked Thebes. Somehow in the scuffle, he and Eteocles got into a hand to hand fight right at the edge of the city and killed each other.

Layaps have come a long way

This article by Dawa Gyelmo from Punakha was written for Kuenselonline dated March 7, 2015. This can be read in conjunction with Kinley Dorji's 'The Layaps Go Home' in Class X English Reading & Literature text.