In this conversation with Gargi Gupta, festival co-director Pramod Kumar KG explains how it has become an important platform for the exchange of ideas within Bhutan, and across southeast Asia.
The festival has grown by leaps and bounds. In the early years, the duration was much shorter, but now we've established programming of over three days. Also the number of speakers has gone up. The venue shifted some years ago to the Royal University of Bhutan's auditorium, the biggest in the country that can fit 300-odd people. Besides, there are screens outside for any spillover audience. Every year, we get a newer and younger audience.
I really feel that Mountain Echoes' location is definitely an advantage. When Bhutan is mentioned as the destination for a literary festival, we don't get the numbers. But most authors are thrilled to come. Also, there aren't too many distractions. The rarefied atmosphere of Bhutan makes the interactions between authors and the audience simpler, clearer and deeper. Unlike in India, where there are as many comments as questions, in Bhutan people ask very real questions.
There're quite a few of them - from India, Shashi Tharoor, Ashwin Sanghi, Barkha Dutt, Jerry Pinto and Devdutt Pattnaik. Among the 42 Bhutanese speakers this year, there's 11-year-old, debut author Yeshi Tsheyang Zam and Pawo Choyning Dorji, a travel writer and photographer. Internationally, there's Nadeem Aslam and Padma Lakshmi. Then, there are designers Mallika Verma, David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore, and filmmaker Imtiaz Ali.
This time there are nearly twice as many Bhutanese panelists as there are Indian (42 to barely 20-25). Initially, of course, there were fewer Bhutanese writers.
Yes, it definitely has. There are more bookstores, and more books being sold. Meeting writers and publishing bigwigs from India and across the world has brought a world of opportunity. There's been an exponential increase in the number of writers; some have been signed up by publishers elsewhere. But the book is not the only place where reading is happening these days; it's also happening through journals, magazines and blogs. We've had sessions on blog-writing in earlier years with the current prime minister and leading blogger, Tshering Tobgay, also taking part.
Mountain Echoes is primarily a literary festival, but the young audience of Bhutan is hugely interested in fashion, social media and food. Similarly, Bhutan attracts a lot of travel writers who come expecting some kind of faraway Shangrila, but realise there's much more to the country when they travel here. It's all these aspects that the festival covers.