Student’s Bhutan adventure takes her from meeting the King to an MTV cameo

University of Wollongong (UOW) student Samantha Shepherd is undertaking a study placement in the most remote nation on Earth, with her attitude of saying “yes to everything” opening her up to meeting its king and making a cameo in an MTV video.

The Bachelor of Primary Education student headed off in February for five months to the Kingdom of Bhutan, a mountainous country located near the Himalayas which only switched on TV and the internet at the turn of the millennium.

Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, is also the only capital city in the world without traffic lights.

Believing one semester would be enough, Samantha only applied for a short placement through the Federal Government’s New Colombo Plan scholarship program, which supports undergraduate students to undertake study and internships in Indo-Pacific nations.

For Samantha, it has helped her take courses at a Bhutanese college and complete an internship at a preschool, which will inform her honours studies at UOW next year.

“Nearing the end, every time I saw the plane take off at the airport, which is right near my college in Bhutan, I was feeling anxious,” she said.

“I thought, I’m not ready to go. I’ve got more to learn here.”

Back home in the Illawarra for a month, she said she would now return for another five-month stint to teach in a primary school.

“I didn’t know anything about Bhutan before I left,” she said.

“I went over with a completely open mind, and it made the transition so smooth to the point where it feels like my second home and I’m excited to go back now.”

Samantha has completely immersed herself in the culture, learning the Dzongkha language, wearing traditional dress and being given the Bhutanese name, Meto Seldon.

“It’s a hidden gem. Everyone wears traditional dress in the college setting, in schools and in all professional settings, but I think it’s so rare in the world to preserve your culture in that way,” she said.

However, that wasn’t the only cultural element she embraced, having also taken part in Bhutanese dance.

“All traditional arts are really promoted through all of the schooling, but dancing is one I really got into,” she said, excitedly.

“We had a teachers’ day at the college, which was a big eight-hour event.

“All of the classes learned a Bhutanese dance. Our class had some really talented dancers, and they created a five-song mash-up for a modern Bhutanese dance.”

Samantha said someone took a TikTok video of her, which ended up going viral, including being downloaded from TikTok and shared over 100 times on Facebook.

She said that moment prompted her to start her own TikTok page with a good friend, where she shares her experiences as a foreigner in Bhutan and creates Bhutanese dances to Dzongkha songs.

“It really just snowballed,” she said.

“Then the King saw these TikToks and I was in shock.

“I was speaking at the Paro International Symposium on Reimagining Education about infusing the idea of gross national happiness into education, with education professionals from all over the world.

“I participated in a panel with students from China, Britain and India and there it was announced that the King was coming in about 30 minutes.

“We got into a circle, and he turned around and said, ‘Oh, I’ve seen your Tiktok videos. They’re very sweet’.

“I was blown away. There are a lot of protocols about meeting the King and I forgot all of them.

“It was amazing, because he’s so in touch with what’s happening in Bhutan.”

But the story doesn’t end there.

“I was just in a Bhutanese music video, which is quite crazy,” she said of it being released this month (July).

“I said yes to everything and then things like that happen, and you’re like: What is my life?”

Filmed by Rigdrol Films, responsible for many Bhutanese MTV videos, it was for up-and-coming young Bhutanese artist Androx.

“The song is amazing. I’ve been listening to it in the car while I’m in Australia driving around,” she said.

“I’m a cameo at the end.”

Samantha admitted being back home was a bit of a shock to the system after the slower paced Bhutan.

“I feel like I didn’t have culture shock when I went over but then coming back I got culture shock,” she said.

“It’s just so busy, so fast paced, and I haven’t had a moment to even sit down and process my time in Bhutan, because I’ve been on the go.

“I think it really shows that moving to a country like Bhutan really forces you to slow down and I think that’s really important.”

She said you couldn’t be on a schedule, because of something called “Bhutanese stretch time”.

“You just have to slow down and go with the flow,” she said.

“On my first day of college, I was walking to my orientation, and I was overtaking people thinking I’ve got to get there.

“Then by the second week, I’m like, wait, what’s the rush? Take in the beautiful river as you walk along, instead of rushing between places.”

When she returns, she will shift from a preschool to a primary school placement, which will form part of her honours next year on how to make the transition from preschool to primary school a smoother, continuous process.

The New Colombo Plan aims to create strong relationships between Australia and Indo-Pacific nations, with more than 34 UOW students having taken part since launching in 2014.