At a Bhutanese community event, Bhutan’s Prime Minister supports a permanent community center in New York

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS — It was an only-in-New York event. As the 7 train rumbled overhead, 300 Bhutanese in their finest traditional dress sat down to dinner with their Prime Minister in an Italian banquet hall serving Indian food on Saturday night.

The dinner was the largest social gathering for the community in months, and the Bhutanese Consulate was footing the bill. There was an open bar and, in the corner, traditional butter tea flowed from a large, steaming container brought in for the occasion.

In his dinner speech, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay announced his support of a proposal by the local community organization, the United Bhutanese Association of New York, for funds from the Bhutanese government to build a local community center in New York.

“We met on Monday and I encouraged the association to submit a proposal,” he said in Dzongkha, the Bhutanese national language. “Now the government will consider it.”

The $3 million project would be the first of its kind outside of Bhutan, and a sizeable investment for a country with a gross domestic product of $2.24 billion.

The proposal is now moving through the government’s grant-making process. Without government funding, building a local community center will be far more difficult for the small Bhutanese community group, whose largest donations generally run $1,000, and main base of donors mostly work in the service industry, many of them with expired visas.

“If it comes through, we will be happy because it will be useful to everyone,” said Chhimi Dolma, a board member of the association, who helped organize the event. “I think it might take another few years to come true. Money doesn’t come overnight.”

This is the first time the United Bhutanese Association of New York, which was founded in 2012, has petitioned the Bhutanese government for funds. Dolma said they are doing so this year because previously the community was not large enough or well-organized enough to have a clear proposal.

Tobgay shared the news in his speech to the community, which he opened with an anecdote. He told the crowd that the dinner marked a special occasion. His visit to the community, the first in two years, coincided with the Bhutanese national holiday Blessed Rainy Day. Speaking in English to address the youngest generation of Bhutanese Americans, Tobgay explained the significance of the national holiday through a comic strip.

“Calvin and Hobbes used to be one of my favorite cartoons — and it still is,” he said, before launching into a panel-by-panel description of a Calvin and Hobbes comic he had posted on Facebook earlier that day, which he felt captured the spirit of the holiday.

A lighthearted religious holiday in Bhutan, Blessed Rainy Day is the one day a year that all the water in the country is considered purified for religious ritual and cleansing. It is a joyous occasion celebrating nature.

The Bhutanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Damcho Dorji, and new U.N. Ambassador, Doma Tshering, also spoke, stressing the importance of cultural preservation and their desire to support the Bhutanese community in New York.

In a Q&A session that followed his speech, Prime Minister Tobgay fielded questions on topics from the potential new community center to passport renewal issues.

But for most present, the real focus was on making the most of the current community gathering, rather than the dream of a future community center. During the four-hour event, the hall never fell quiet. Conversations and gossip rose from around the room throughout the speeches and several performances of traditional song and dance.

“Everybody loves to come,” said Kesang Namgyel, a Bhutanese immigrant who has lived in the U.S. more than nine years. “We were not too much interested in the Prime Minister’s speech. We were busy talking and catching up.”

Namgyel recently moved from the New York area to Maryland for work. She made a special trip to the city for the community dinner.

Women who work long hours as nannies or housekeepers, with schedules that prevent them from frequent get-togethers, ate off white tablecloths, toasted free alcoholic beverages and texted each other selfies. A young boy with spiked hair and neon blue glasses in a traditional gho — a long robe with a checked pattern — chased a smaller girl wearing a kira — an embroidered silk shirt and skirt combination — around the room, a large sparkly bow flopping in her hair.

After over an hour of speeches and performance, dinner was served. As the buffet line formed, a group of 30-odd people gathered in a circle at the front of the room to continue singing and dancing. Ulap Leki, a Bhutanese singer and comedian who runs a grocery store in Queens led many of the songs. Tobgay even joined for a few verses.

In a corner, a group of women posed for pictures around a handsome man in a dark gho.

“That is Tshering Phuntsho, he is a Bhutanese movie star,” Dolma, the organizer, pointed out as she sat down for the first time that evening. It was almost 11 o’clock. She took in the activity around the room and made a contented sound, nodding.

“It is a good get-together.”