Soccer debuts in Bhutan

Source: kuenselonline.com

30 May, 2010 - In 1922, the people of Bumthang flocked to the holy grounds of Kurjey monastery to witness perhaps the first ever historic football match played in the country (see photo).
Capt. HRC Meade, a surveyor with the survey of India, took the photo. A keen photographer, Meade headed the survey party that accompanied maj. FM Bailey (1882-1967), the British political officer based in Gangtok, India, who visited Bhutan in 1922.

The photo is one of 53 he took during his visit to Bhutan. Currently, these photos are filed under loose prints, dated 1922 and archived with the royal geographical society in London.

According to records maj. FM Bailey, on his visit to Bhutan, started on 20 June, trekking the high passes of Chumbi and crossing several more passes to descend to the Bumthang valley. He returned to Gangtok in July 1922.

The prime objective of his visit was to present the first king, Ugyen Wangchuck (r.1907-1926), the insignia of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE). When capt. Meade joined the delegation to Bhutan the British were given permission, for the first time, to survey the land and hence used their plane-tables, theodolites and other instruments openly. Capt. Meade was also the first to do air survey reconnaissance of Bhutan. In 1925, the details of the survey were published in a 49-page book, ‘Air-survey in the Irrawaddy delta, 1923-24’ by Sir Clinton Gresham Lewis. Reconnaissance survey in Bhutan and South Tibet, 1922; by Captain HRC Meade I.A.

Meade’s photo also provides information on two monasteries in the background of the photo. Both were built by Trongsa Penlops, although 250 years apart. Trongsa Penlop Minjur Tempa built the first one (right) in 1652. Its salient feature is that it is built under a cypress tree and houses the cave where Guru Rinpoche meditated. The first King built the one on the left in the 1900s, as Trongsa Penlop.

Contributed by Tshering Tashi,
Co-author of Bold Bhutan Beckons