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World’s biggest published book is about the smallest Himalayan kingdom.
National Library
Established in 1967 with the primary objective of collecting and preserving mainly ancient Bhutanese written and printed resources, the National Library of Bhutan located in an imposing structure north of Thimpu city was an important place of interest for me. “Library? Why would someone visit a library?” I don’t know, but I have a thing for libraries. It reflects the prosperity of a country and this library in particular was very interesting indeed.
Largest published book in the world
On the ground floor, among other things, is a copy of the world’s largest published book ‘Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom.’ The book weighs 133 pounds (over 60 kilos), and is about five by seven feet in size. Every month, a new page of this illustrated book is turned and opened for viewing. For mere $15,000, this book can be yours. Yes, fifteen thousand dollars, that too American. 
Inside the National Library
The library has four floors and is wonderfully decorated and kept.
First floor (ground floor) has the world’s largest book and a shrine containing 8 stupas – one each corresponding to a major event in Buddha’s life. Second floor of the library has a collection of traditional books in Chokey, the classical written language of the Himalyan Buddhist world. Topics range from the traditions of Tibet, traditional medicine, astrology, grammar, poetry and the arts. The third floor contains more books in Chokey on the traditions of Bhutan and Tibet. The fourth floor has texts in Kagyu language, several editions of the Buddhist Scriptures (Kagyur and Tengyur) which were originally translated into Chokey from Sanskrit. Don’t miss the section exhibiting tools and writing instruments and displays of Bhutanese calligraphy.
It’s a different story that the Bhutanese / Tibetian script is so beautiful, that anything you write looks stunning anyway!
Page of a book and bookshelves
Books and manuscripts are pretty old and carefully preserved. The pages are rectangular (like seen above) with a very high length:width ratio. Sometimes, there are holes on the smaller side of the rectangle through which a string is passed. Sheets are kept over each other and the string running thru them keeps them intact. The whole thing is then kept in a skinny long wooden box and ornately wrapped by decorated silk cloth. It’s a very different type of ‘book’ indeed!
A shrine inside the National Library
It was my first day in Bhutan (if you ignore the day spent at the border making entry permits and riding a bus) and I was still getting used to this ‘happy’ feeling. Why was everyone looking so happy? Why was everyone calm and smiling? Why, when I thanked a stranger for picking up my sweater which I accidentally dropped on the street, do people respond in such a welcoming fashion that makes you feel a part of their family for years?
I was searching answers for these questions for rest of my journey.
And I was only left asking more questions.
Reading my guidebook inside the National Library
Since I couldn’t come to the library and NOT read anything, I chose to sit on that study desk, open my guidebook and read about Zorig Chusum, the school of arts where I was going to walk next. A group of British tourists walked past and looked at me with absolutely confused glances. Then I moved slightly and pheww, they were relieved to know that I wasn’t a part of the library art.
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It is such a pity that one can’t walk in and read through the whole book, but will have to do with the two pages displayed.
There is something about this bubbling enthusiasm of Tibetan Buddhists of the Himalayan kingdoms. It must be in their way of life and religious nature.
Arun, maybe we can find blogs of people who have visited the library at different times, that way we can see the whole book … heheh!
Great find! Smallest Himalayan – an oxymoron! A Himalayan discovery indeed.
LOL, yes yes you said it Gopi!
The library is beautiful. Reminds me of the beautiful paintings on the hills in Dalhausie which I have always admired.
And they should put some electronic mechanism in place which could turn the pages automatically!
Hi Amit,
The library building was really beautiful, with traditional decorations and all. Insides smelled nice – like wood and incense.
interesting. i ‘ve probably never consciously thought of a library as a place to visit. though i did drop by the nyc library, when i was there – i think i became interested because they were celebrating some library day or library walk of some sort!
so, u did get the ‘happy feeling’ there?
. hoping u r going to give ur take on this fancy metric!
Hey Neeraja,
Yes I will write about this Happiness Index of Bhutan. I felt that the country was really putting into practise what it preached.
I have good memories of visiting the National Library in Lima, Peru. It was huge, and I was given an exclusive tour. Very nice indeed.
Interesting post. Even I notice the people living in the rugged Himalayan mountains generally look happier.
Chokey..is it the same as what they say is Bhutanese language? I wonder if they are characteristic of Sanskrit or the Chinese languages..
Celine, I agree, the further one goes from the city, the more s/he finds happy people. Somehow its an inverse proportion
Bhutanese language is called Dzonkha, and it is very similar to Tibetian. These languages are more similar to Sanskrit than Chinese, with many Sanskrit religious texts absorbed into their languages. Writing is similar Brahmic pattern (same as most of south and south east asia and Hebrew.)
Thank you very much for the interesting info here on Dzonkha. Good to know that even though presently Sanskrit isn’t spoken widely it has been however absorbed, to a good degree, into so many other languages.
Thanks Celine. Indeed, like Latin, Sanskrit has a large influence on many languages!
Nice ending to the travelogue! I can see that guidebook you have is a Lonely Planet?
Did you travel independently in Bhutan? It’s in my list too, but possibly not in the near future, since my citizenship requires me a Bhutanese visa, and it seems that getting them needs some sponsorship from the travel agency. I was wondering if I can get the sponsorship but still travel independently. I have an allergy for tour groups…
Hey LIW,
Oh wait, the travelog isn’t over! Bhutan travel stories will continue for another 15 posts or so, hehe…!
I’ll send you an email, traveling in touristic travel groups is a scary thought for me too….
What I meant was your shot of pensive reading a Lonely Planet guide was a nice ending to this episode. Of course I want more Bhutan! I was assuming you have more posts about it than what you have so far.
LIW, Ah, got it now
Thanks!
For a moment, I could not figure out what you meant by large – I thought number of pages. You should have taken this picture with someone in it. Very interesting!
Shantanu, yes that would have been a good idea. But I have given the dimension statistics, maybe you can visualize!
I used to frequent Libraries all the time before the net, or as I like to call it BTN,lol, great shots and awesome library.
BTN
Things have changed radically ATN 
[...] In Thimpu, while my tourist permit was getting extended in the government office and my friend was sick (he probably couldn’t take the clean air and calm streets), I visited the Zorig Chusum school. It is located in the north of the city, few minutes away from the National Library. [...]
It looks like a great place to get lost and understand the culture of the country ..
Lakshmi, yeah to some extent. However, most (if not all) books are in Dzonkha or Tibetian!
Thank you for visiting the library and sharing these wonderful experiences! It is just beautiful.
Your thoughts regarding why everyone was being so happy and welcoming brought back memories of my travelogue where I think I’ve wondered about the innate humility and friendliness that is common to people living in the Himalayas…
Mahendra, yes I remember, most of us visiting the himalayan people feel the same
The biggest book looks stunning. It would be great to be able to thumb through a few pages – I guess that this takes lots of visits to read the two new pages each day…
Hi Mark, indeed it’d be great to see this book, but the price is prohibitive. Oh and the pages turn once every month, so it would take a very long stay in Bhutan to read them all. I wonder if anyone has done that…