Mermen: The Compassionate Warriors

When you get hold of a good book to read, you feel happy. But when you could grab a book written by your own friend, it simply thrills you, out of this world. 

Exactly why, this is what has happened to me!

Recently, very recently, my friend Sangay Wangchuk who is the Lecturer at Samtse College of Education has published a book, “Mermen: The Compassionate Warriors”. It’s such a great pleasure and beautiful feeling to go through a book written someone close to me.

This 122-page fictitious novella is set in a fantastical world and it’s a story about the evolution of humankind and mer-people. The story unfolds once upon a time, when ancestors of humankind and mer-people coexisted in harmony as one distinct species, apes. “During that time there were no rules and laws - those were redundant, rather, for deception, distrust and greed were alien on earth” (Page 1).

However, as civilization grows, the blood of ancestral apes becomes grimier. The greedier ones rule, retain and claim the forest. They pursue their territorial expansion, chasing their insatiable greed through the land, mountains and forests. The humbler ones, who choose not to fight, are forced into the seas. 

Then real dramatic scenes are revealed one after another, keeping you hooked to the book flipping through pages. It was like watching a motion picture with a lot of actions, imageries, dialogues and suspensions.

Much of this book tells you what happen to those apes that were forced into the seas, how they evolve in the oceanic world. It tells you over a million of years how they become a part of the sea, known as mer-people-the mermen and mermaids.

The mer-people are generally described as “compassionate hearts”, “deep softness”, prosperous and happy under the rule of King Khesar. There are semblance the way the author described the mer-people and King Khesar with our own country Bhutan and kind and benevolent Dharma Kings.The aquatic world is seen as kingdom selfless protecting its aquatic nature and its pristine source of life.

However, the actual climax of the story develops when the greed-infected humans of a nation called Valican again intervenes the world of mer-people. They dump illegal toxic and unlawfully forcefully wage warsto exterminate the marine creatures.

The author justifies that this story is written as a movie, not as a novel with action and sequence befitting an animated movie. The writer aims to introduce the Buddhist values of compassion and co-existence to the outside world through this beautiful story. Salute to the author for this ability!

The book is very well written. I’m not saying this, as the author is my friend. The language is superb. The description and character development is equally good. What amazed me the most is the knowledge and terminologies the author expressed in the book about the sea, underwater species, and war and weapons.

Whether you are home or travelling or on a vacation, the “Mermen: The Compassionate Warriors” is a book to pick up for a real reading pleasure.

Congratulations Sangay! Waiting for more to read from you.