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WFP in Bhutan: A lifetime of cooking - Ata Thaptshangpa: cooking for generations
Bhutanese style kitchen
People say he epitomises being dirty and ugly but there is no count of how many children who literally ate from his hand. Today he feeds the children of parents who, once as students, ate what he prepared.

Rinchen Wangdi, better known as Ata thaptshangpa (cook), has been cooking meals for students of Galing Primary School in Shongphu gewog for the past 27 years.

Former students remember him from day one of their schooling years when they nervously lined up to be served food.

Ata thaptshangpa would use a big ladle to scoop the food, wipe off the mound with his hand, and serve them. He was the liveliest figure in the otherwise serious atmosphere of school.

"I cooked for students in Galing ever since the school introduced food," 50-year old Rinchen Wangdi, said. "The drangpons and many senior government officials and entrepreneurs of today ate what I cooked for them."

The school was earlier located at a place called Chuthung. When the school moved to its present more central location seven years ago, Ata thaptsangpa also moved along.

He now has a mud house kitchen, which he claims to have built himself. "I missed the kitchen and dining hall in Chuthung," he said. "The new location did not even have a proper kitchen. Then it was just a bamboo hut."

The World Food Programme's (WFP) Bong kharang (grounded wheat) and Levi bokpi (soya bean flour) was the staple menu then recalled Ata thaptsangpa.

"I felt bad those days because the food had to be rationed and the kids always wanted to eat more," he said.

Today with a variety of nutritious food on the menu supplied by the WFP, Rinchen Wangdi said the students were fortunate and could eat as much as they wanted. The menu included rice, kharang, potato, fish and dal (lentils).

Ata thaptshangpa's said that he was on his way to becoming a farmer as any of his village friends when the head teacher of the school enrolled him as the school cook. "I am glad I got the opportunity," he said.

Ata thaptshangpa's day started at six in the morning when he walked from his house and prepared breakfast to be served an hour and a half latter. And his work continued till 6:30 pm.

Cooking for more than hundred heads was not an easy task, especially when they demanded quality and quantity. "I was alone without a helper for seven years, but I enjoy my job and that keeps me going," he said.

Back home, the father of seven hardly cooked for his family, except on rare occasions like Losar (new year). "But I feel proud that I have cooked for thousands of children and I intend to continue doing that," he said.

A Galing primary school graduate, who had come to vote for the general mock election, said that he was surprised to see Ata thaptsangpa still with the school.

"He was young and energetic during our days. We used to be very fond of him and enjoyed what ever he cooked for us," he said.

Galing primary school today has 170 students.

Contributed by Kesang Dema, Kuensel, Bhutan's National Newspaper, 2007

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