The farmer innovator

Sonam Lhamo, Samtse
Jan 25, 2012

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Budhiman Monger, 48, is a busy man. Known as a local engineer, Budhiman from Sibsoo Gewog in Samtse is doing a lucrative business selling his home made Television dish. He not only makes TV dish but also has quite a few innovations to his name.

A farmer by profession, he studied till class III. Budhiman said he’s always been fascinated by machines since childhood.  As he grew up, he started toying with his ideas making simple, easy to use, farm tools from scraps and discarded spare parts from old worn out machines.

He first designed the dish to watch BBS in 2006.After being successful in receiving clear BBS channel, his friends asked him to make more TV dish. Budhiman’s homemade TV dish soon became popular in the villages where there were no cable operators.

He gets orders from as far and remote as Sephu Gewog in Wangdue among others.

Along with his TV Dish, he also sends his assistant to install the Dish in the villages.

Apart from his homemade TV dish, Budhiman has invented an electrically operated milk churner. The machine caught the eye of agriculture officials during an expo in 2010.  He was then asked by the National Feed and Fodder Programme office in Bumthang to design a grass cutter machine.

Using a rickshaw flywheel, a bike chain, spokes, a maruti van axle and a motor he designed the grass cutting machine in June, last year. It took him two months to design the grass cutting machine.

Budhiman is an engineer and an inventor in his own right despite lack of qualification. His interest and passion for designing and then developing such tools, and interest from the people keeps him going.

Budhiman says he aims to a helicopter. “Not a real big helicopter,” he giggles. “I want to design something small, like a helicopter, which can fly for a while.” Looking at his passion for machines, one never know what he might come up with in future.