The viral picture on social media of a regional tourist standing on a Chorten in Dochula has caused a lot of commotions and uproar from the netizens yesterday.
Following the online complaints, The Punakha police tracked him down and took away his passport for further questionings. The police questioned the accused today. Having found that it was innocent wrongdoing, the police accepted an apology letter from the tourist and released him.
According to sources, the tourist from the Indian state of Maharashtra was a part of a 15 bike convoy headed by a Bhutanese team leader. The incident occurred while the group stopped for a rest at Dochula. They were on their way to Punakha from Thimphu.
Another source said that renovation of the stupas was going on and the tourist saw someone already on the top doing the renovation works. Seeing the idle ladder, the tourist climbed on the stupa thinking it was okay to do so since he saw the man working on another stupa.
While some blamed the ignorant tourist for his outrageous act, many others say it’s due to the flaws in our regional tourism policy/system. The Director-General for the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) said the incident was unfortunate and both the tourist and the TCB should take full responsibility.
“In yesterday’s case, they didn’t have a registered guide. They had a Bhutanese handler but they were not registered guides. Despite not being registered they did brief the tourist group about the dos and don’ts,” said Dorji Dradhul, the Director-General for TCB.
He further added that the regulation for regional tourism is in need of change and improvement:
“It’s an urgent call for us to introduce and mainstream this whole regional tourist and that they also follow these regulations. The basic requirement being that all tourist in Bhutan should be accompanied by a guide.”
The TCB hopes to regulate clear and new regulations for regional tourism by the end of this year.
Yeshi Dorji.
