Pema of Bhutan — The Girl Who Saves the Stories
Pema of Bhutan — The Girl Who Saves the Stories
Pema of Bhutan — The Girl Who Saves the Stories
Age: 12
Country: Bhutan
Pema believes there are two kinds of family recipes.
The ones that are written down.
And the ones that begin with:
"Oh, I don't measure it."
Pema finds the second kind deeply irresponsible.
Her grandmother finds this hilarious.
For as long as Pema can remember, some of her favorite afternoons have been spent in the kitchen, watching meals come together through a mysterious system involving handfuls, pinches, instinct, and instructions such as “You'll know when it's ready.”
Pema would like to know how she'll know.
This question has yet to receive a satisfactory answer.
So she started writing things down.
At first, it was recipes.
How much of this?
How long for that?What exactly constitutes a “little bit”?
But then Pema noticed something.
Her grandmother never tells her how to make a dish without telling her something else too.
Who taught her.
When they used to make it.
Who always asked for seconds.
The time somebody forgot an ingredient and nobody noticed.
The meal served at a wedding.
The one cooked when relatives came home after being away too long.
And suddenly Pema realized she wasn't collecting recipes.
She was collecting people.
Now she carries a notebook whenever she visits older relatives.
She asks questions.
Lots of questions.
Sometimes so many that her father tells her to let people finish eating.
She records recipes, sayings, childhood memories, family jokes, songs people remember only halfway, and stories that have been told so many times everyone knows exactly when to laugh.
Someday, Pema wants to become a historian and writer.
She wants to travel throughout Bhutan recording the everyday stories people rarely think belong in history books—the memories passed around dinner tables, told during long journeys, shared between generations, and tucked inside ordinary family traditions.
Because Pema thinks history shouldn't belong only to kings, battles, monuments, and important dates.
Sometimes history is sitting across the table.
And sometimes...
history is in the bowl.
Speaking of which, Pema's younger cousin has just asked if she can have a bite.
Pema looks at the bowl.
She looks at her cousin.
She takes another enormous spoonful.
Apparently some traditions are meant to be preserved.
This lunch is not one of them.
Her dream: To become a historian and writer, preserving the everyday stories that might otherwise disappear.
Her wonder: “How many stories can one family carry without ever writing them down?”
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