The home minister, Lyonpo Minjur Dorji with the three recipient heads

The chodey lhengtshog (religious commission) has issued registration certificates to three religious organisations on July 20, taking the registered religious organisations in the country to 16.

The home minister, Lyonpo Minjur Dorji, issued the registration certificates to representatives from a nunnery in Trongsa, Karma Drubdey Pelmo Choekey Dingkha, commonly known as the Kuengarabten Anim dratshang, Tenchoekhor dratshang in Paro and Dungkhar Chodhey in Deothang, Samdrupjongkhar.

The other 13 religious organisations were registered in 2009.

The religious organisations act of Bhutan, 2007, states that religious organisations are associations, societies, foundations, charitable trusts or other non-profit entities, that do not distribute any income or profit to their members, founders, donors or trustees, and whose purpose and objectives are solely for the benefit of religious institutions and the spiritual heritage of Bhutan.

Lyonpo Minjur Dorji said that the registered religious organisation shall be exempt from the payment of custom duties in procuring any material for any developmental activities for the organisation.

The principal of Karma Drubdey Pelmo Choekey Dinkgha, Yeshi Chodron, said that the tax exemption would benefit the nunnery a lot.

She said that the nunnery had to pay 10 percent tax when they bought material from Jaigaon to construct additional houses in the nunnery. “We had to pay about Nu 50,000 once as tax, which could have been otherwise used for some other purposes.”

According to the 53-year-old principal, who joined the nunnery at 17, the 110 nuns in Kuengarabten, will now feel secure as a registered organisation. “We’ll live in accordance to the choedey lhentshog’s code of conduct,” she said.

Karma Wangchuk, the store-in-charge of Tenchoekhor dratshang in Paro said that their dratshang, which has about 20 monks, is a small, one-storied house with CGI walls.

He said that, with the registration, the dratshang will plan to construct a monastery above Tadzong, where their lam has been meditating for the last 10 years.

According to chodey lhentshog’s Phurba Dorji, the religious organisations were supposed to register within three months of the commencement of the religious organisations act, 2007. “But we issue the certificates as long as the organisations come with application and required details as per the act,” he said.

Meanwhile, the commission is also defining and categorising religious personnel as a religious person cannot vote during elections.

During the commission’s fourth meeting held in Kuengarabten, Trongsa, the lhengtshog, chaired by the home minister, broadly categorised religious personnel into lams, trulkus, khenpos, tsibs, koenyer, gomchens and tsampas for Buddhist practitioners; and pandits, pujaria, jotishi and brahmachari for Hindu practitioners. “We’ve finished our work, but we need to discuss with the election commissioner to comply with their act,” Phurba Dorji said.  Source: Kuenselonline