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11th Mission

Kyoto University Bhutan Friendship Program(KU-Bhutan) sent the 11th mission to Bhutan from May 3 to May 7, 2013.

Members of the 11th Mission:


These following 8 persons below are members of the 11th mission.
  • Tetsuro Matsuzawa
    Leader
  • Michiaki Mishima
  • Kozo Matsubayashi
  • Sakiko Yoshikawa
  • Ryota Sakamoto
  • Kazuyo Ono
  • Ayako Ito
  • Emiko Kato



Destination:

  • The Royal University of Bhutan, etc.


Mission:

The mission brought the MoU signed by the president of Kyoto University, Prof Hiroshi Matsumoto. On behalf of the president, Prof Mishima, the vice-president of Kyoto University brought it to Bhutan. In return, the vice-chancellor of the Royal University of Bhutan, Dasho Pema Thinley, will also sign it when the interim government will be over in July 2013.

The mission also met the important people from the following organization:
Royal University of Medical Sciences
Royal Thimpu Hospital
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Agriculture and Forest
Chief of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign affaires

 
Kanchenjunga, 8,586 m (28,169 ft) high, the 3rd highest mountain in the world. The West Peak of Kangchenjunga, that is called Yalungkan (8505m), was first ascent by Academic Alpine Club of Kyoto led by Dr. Eizabro Nishibori in 1973. Matsuzawa was at the age of 22, the youngest member of the team. The mountain is so high that it is always popping up from the clouds. You can always see Kangchenjunga from the left-side window of the aircraft regardless of the weather condition.
Jomolahri (or Chomolhari), 7,326 m (24,035 ft), is the land mark of Bhutan Himalaya. It is located in the gateway to the Paro Internatinal Airport. If the weather is fine, you can enjoy the magnificent view from the aircraft. From their religious belief, the Snow mountains are the holy places for the Bhutanese people, so that the climbing activity is not allowed at the moment in Bhutan. Still you can enjoy the beautiful scenery by the trekking such as the "Snow-man trek", the longest and the hardest one in Bhutan.

Prof. Mishima gave a talk to the staffs of the Royal University of Medical Sciences (RUMS) and the Royal Thimpu Hospital (RTH). The talk introduced the outline of the Kyoto University, the activity of the Kyoto University Hospital and the potential contribution to Bhutan. Prof. Mishima is the vice president of the university and also the director of the hospital.
We visited the Royal Thimpu Hospital. Dr. Kinzang P. Tshering is the president of the RUMS and the former director of the RTH. He guided us to the hospital in which Yoriko Nishizawa, a research fellow of PRI, Kyoto University is working the medical doctor for Neonatology for the past 2 years.
Phunakha Dzong and the jacaranda flowers: The jacaranda tree originates in Central-South America.
The member of 11th mission
8 members standing in the rear row and the driver Dorji and the guide Sonam from Lohmen Tours in front row.
May 3rd morning: Paro International Airport. The flights are operated by Druk ASir, the Bhutanese airline company.
May 3rd afternoon: The meeting was held in Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). On behalf of the president Prof. Hiroshi Matsumoto of Kyoto University, Prof. Mishima as the vice-president came for the MoU exchange. Dasho Pema Thinley, the vice- chancellor of the RUB, welcome us. The wood-print made by Prof. Matsumoto when he was a high-school student was also given as souvenir to Dasho Pema Thinley.
May 4th noon: We visited College of Natural Resources (CNR) in the morning. CNR is one of the colleges of RUB, located in Lobesa. After the lunch we visited Punakha Dzong.
May 4th night: We enjoyed the dinner together with Mr. Karma Yeshey, Director of Department of School Education of Ministry of Education, and Dr. Kinzan Tsering, the president of University of Medical Sciences (UMS). The two Bhutanese have visited Japan in February 2013.
May 5th night: We were invited to have the dinner with the people from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The opportunity was arranged by Dr. Tashi Dorji. He was supervised by Prof. Yoshi Kawamoto of the Primate Research Institute. He got his PhD from the population genetics of the cattle.
 
Please click on the pictures to see the full-sized versions.