A 47-year-old Bhutanese businessman has found a new passion for cleaning and whitewashing stupas and then carving shlokas on them. Yeshi Nidup’s business was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns that followed.

But it didn’t leave him dejected. Instead, he thought of volunteering by doing social service and found his passion in cleaning and whitewashing neglected and unattended stupas that needed urgent maintenance work.

He started cleaning these age-old stupas when the second lockdown restrictions were lifted earlier this year. And started spending most of his time cleaning these stupas.

He first whitewashes the stupas that have remained unattended for ages and then rewrite the mantras that have long faded. So far, he has worked on maintaining five stupas.

“Most mantras written or inscribed on old stupas are disappearing. We hardly see people trying to revive them. So, having studied the art, I am rewriting the mantras,” Nidup was quoted by The Bhutanese Expression.

Happy with what he is doing with his life today, he next plans to whitewash stupas across the country that have become old and require maintenance.

He is also planning to get a loan to buy a machine which would make it easy for him to carve mantras on stones and marble slabs. This will help him save time and labour, he said.

“In the past, people used to carve mantras on stones manually. But these days, there are machines to do the job. If I get a loan to buy such a machine, I can carve mantras on stones and marbles and promote them,” he added.

For now, he is managing with whatever resources are at his disposal.  He knows he has taken a laborious job but feels that his newfound passion will help regain Bhutan its cultural heritage.