A. K. Hellum

Following a teaching career at the University of Alberta, Hellum was offered a position in forest management research in Bhutan, a dream job for he had always been intrigued by Bhutan. During his two years there, he painted many of the plants using the experience as an exercise in meditation. The result is a charming book, with very pretty watercolours and stories of the gentle Bhutanese people.

"Above all, my two years in Bhutan taught me about silence and listening. My life before Bhutan had been so busy, so crowded with duties and passions and noise, that I had become completely submerged in my samsara. Do this, do that, say this, don't say that, go here, go there. Why isn't this done? And what about that? The litany was deafening. If one word describes life in Bhutan for me it is silence. It took a long time for this silence to find passage into my subconscious."

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to.… (meer)

This isn't the kind of book I'd normally pick up, but I'm glad I did. The author spent two years researching the flora of Bhutan, a tiny country tucked away in the Himalayas that most people have never heard of. His book is beautifully illustrated with intricate drawings of flowers from Bhutan, and much of text is details about the nation and its people, whose culture is vastly different from that of the West. (For instance, they measure Gross National Happiness instead of Gross Domestic Product. How cool is that?) I've been interested in Bhutan for over ten years now and I learned a lot from this book, even though the botany part didn't interest me. I would recommend this to anyone studying either Asian botany or Bhutan.… (meer)