A few blog followers, after reading His Majesty, the Fifth King’s speech, asked what a Desuup was, the King mentioning an accelerated training program to increase the number of Desuups to assist with COVID 19 response. We met many Desuups during our stay in Bhutan, the first ones at a tug-of-war competition with the Bhutan Volleyball Federation.
De-Suung, The Guardians of Peace, are a non-military, volunteer force created in 2011, primarily for disaster management. I believe they are mostly civil servants with education of at least a Bachelor’s degree. From what we learned in Bhutan, they undergo 45 days of training in a boot-camp type setting with a focus on nation building and disaster management. Our primary contacts with the Desuup were with their role in crowd coordination at large events such as Tsechu or when a high lama came to the hospital for blessings.
Bhutan, however, has historically suffered many earthquakes and floods. Bhutan is in one of the seismically most active zones in the world. In the last 130 years there have been four earthquakes exceeding 8 on the Richter scale in the Himalayan belt, ten exceeding 7.5 in the past 100 years. Glacial Lake Outburst Floods may be the most serious natural hazards the country faces today, 24 currently at high risk in the context of global warming and the melting of Himalayan glaciers, posing serious threats to downstream population centers, agricultural land and hydroelectric installations. Flash flooding and landslides during monsoon are common as well as forest fires. The Kings of Bhutan have always been intimately and directly involved with the Bhutanese people and creation of the Desuung is a direct result of this involvement.
To learn more about the Desuung and the Desuups:
https://dailybhutan.com/article/dessuups-the-guardians-of-peace
Our Seasons in Shangri la 