Welcoming the Cranes to Bhutan – A Beautiful Connection Between Art and Nature

Yesterday, our Environmental Club  travelled all the way to Bhutan! We learned about the beautiful Black-Necked Crane Festival, a special celebration held every year in the Phobjikha Valley, surrounded by the magnificent Himalayas.

Every November, these beautiful cranes arrive in Bhutan after flying from the Tibetan Plateau to spend the winter in the valley. The local people welcome them with a special festival, celebrating their arrival and reminding everyone how important it is to protect these wonderful birds and their natural environment.

The festival is full of color, music and traditional performances. Local people wear their beautiful Bhutanese traditional clothes, while monks perform masked dances and children take part in folk dances, songs and the famous crane dance. The children move like the cranes, showing their special way of walking and dancing. Families and visitors also come together to enjoy the celebration, share food and spend time as a community.

But this festival is about much more than dancing and having fun. The black-necked cranes are precious visitors to Bhutan, and the festival helps people understand why protecting them and their beautiful home is so important.

Inspired by this Festival, our students created their own beautiful paper cranes and placed them into the environment of Bhutan. Some chose the magnificent mountains of the Himalayas as their background, while others created peaceful villages, traditional Bhutanese houses and pagoda-like buildings. Each child imagined a different place where their crane could live.

The children’s artwork looks absolutely outstanding! Every picture tells its own little story and shows how these beautiful birds belong to the world around them.

Ms. Eva Gogova