Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan’

Lines 1–6

In the introductory paragraph, the writer gives a poetic description of the Himalayan mountain range, with only a single reference to Bhutan itself. Although it’s in the first person, she also does not discuss her thoughts and feelings – the text is entirely focused on the size and beauty of the mountains.

The language is poetic. It engages the reader right from the start and sets the tone for the rest of the text. Long sentences create the impression of an endless range of mountains. The final sentence contains both metaphor and listing to create imagery. This introduces the reader to two techniques which she will use extensively throughout the rest of the text.

Next, the writer talks about her own journey and experiences. She describes the distance that she travelled and the hotel where she is staying. She discusses her own journey and the journeys of the two other people there in detail. This adds a personal element and a loose narrative to the descriptions of the location. It also keeps the text flowing smoothly.

The use of personification (‘meet the moon’), metaphor (‘the immediate wall in front of you’) and listing appear in several places throughout this section – for example, when describing her flight path and the breakfast – as well as simple tricolons (‘on the other side of mountains are mountains, more mountains, and mountains again’ and ‘thin and dry and very cold’).

Lines 30–53

Here, the writer switches back to describing the location, with a focus this time on the city. She alternates back and forth between discussing the place and the people in order to keep the text interesting and dynamic, and also to include as much information as possible.

Zeppa uses contrast to highlight aspects of the city of Thimphu, even stating directly that ‘these signs of cultural infiltration are few, but they are startling against the Bhutanese-ness of everything else’. She uses the same technique in the following paragraph, with one of her local contacts comparing the city to New York and her impression that ‘Thimphu will never look like New York to me, I think.’

Lines 54–69

After establishing what the city is like, the writer turns her attention towards the people who live there. She says that they are a ‘handsome’ people and supports her statement with a quote from an eighteenth-century British emissary (diplomat or representative). She then describes their physical characteristics as well as their clothing, using local terminology and culture-specific words to describe how they dress.

In this section, the narrator’s tone also begins to shift from awe at the landscape and a more factual, objective description of the location and events, to a tone with which she expresses a positive opinion, naming several qualities that impress her most – the Bhutanese people’s ‘dignity, unselfconsciousness, good humor, grace’.

Lines 70–86

In this section, Zeppa conveys what she learned about the history of Bhutan during a ‘week-long orientation session’. In one long paragraph, she provides a large amount of information in the form of facts, dates, and the names of key figures in history. A large portion of this section is about the history of the name of the country, with an extensive list of past names that she describes as ‘beautiful’. The focus of this passage is regional, discussing the small, isolated kingdoms, as well as relations with Tibetan leaders and Indian religious figures, presenting these in a relatively unemotional way.

Lines 87–98

In the final section, the author’s focus shifts to historical relations with Western powers. These are described with more subjective and emotive language. Phrases such as ‘cordial visits’, ‘overrun by Europeans’ and ‘nasty turn’ are distinctly different from the previous section, as they describe Bhutan’s relations with its neighbours in a more objective manner.

The text ends with the writer expressing additional positive opinions of the country. She notes that it is ‘remarkable’ that Bhutan was able to keep its independence and that she is ‘full of admiration for this small country’.