Agroup of men walk in and sit in a corner of the draying, a musical entertainment bar, in the heart of Thimphu city. A young girl approaches them for their order. After the men place their order, another girl with a notebook and a pen comes over to the group. She wants them to request for songs which she or her friends will sing or perform on the stage. It is 9.30 pm.
She puts on her best facial expression and body gestures to please the customers. She joins them in a seemingly hearty conversation punctuated by short, ringing giggles. Later, she joins them to drink. At long last, she lures one of the men into requesting for a song.
The man fishes out a 100 ngultrum note from a thick wallet. The minimum amount for a song is Nu 100. The girl leaves the table. Meanwhile, other girls try their luck with the same customers. It is 10 pm. Soon, another group of men come in. The girls move round and round and round the men.
This is the initial decent scene at a draying, a dimly-lit bar where young girls sing and dance and lure customers. The atmosphere is the same in all Thimphu’s more than 16 drayangs.
Each time a customer requests for a song, the money directly goes to the owner of the drayang. A book of account is maintained by the owner where the names of the girls and the amount they have collected are noted down. The amount the girls manage to collect decides their bonus at the end of the month.
Every girl is paid Nu 3000 plus a bonus which is determined by the number of song requests she has got. If a girl manages to get Nu 15,000, she gets Nu 1000 as bonus at the end of the month. If she makes Nu 20,000, she gets Nu 2000 as bonus.
“The bonus system is maintained because some girls work very hard to get requests while others don’t. This is to encourage the girls,” said the owner of a drayang.
Behind the hearty singing and merrymaking though, most drayang girls have sad stories to share.
Karma (name changed), 25, is one of some 90 girls who entertain customers in the drayangs. She studied till class VII with the support of her single mother. After her mother fell ill, she could not continue her studies.
She came to Thimphu chasing a dream of a decent life. She gave a try in one of the performing arts and music companies. But her knowledge of Bhutanese songs and quality of her voice fell far short of the qualification criteria.
“I stayed with a cousin and desperately wanted to get a job because I thought that I was a burden on my cousin who already had to look after five children,” she said.
After a long time, she got a job but that paid her too little. That is when she visited a drayang which was in need of female performers. She thought that the amount they paid her would be enough to sustain her.
She has been working with the drayang for the past four months and her contract with the owner is about to expire.
“It is frustrating at times when customers offer you money and ask you to come and spend a night with them. We have to handle such situations very carefully because, if we are rude, they won’t return so we just smile and say nothing,” said Karma. She said that her mother and cousin did not know that she worked as a performer in a drayang.
All the draying girls have signed a contract with the owners. “I don’t have any permanent girls because some of them marry and go away while others quit the job when they get a better opportunity,” said Dorji, the owner of Gyelwang Drayang.
Karma said that she performed in a draying because she did not have any other option. “After my contract is over, I will look for other jobs, and if I can’t get one, I may go back to my village,” she said.
Another draying girl, 23, is six months pregnant. But she still drags herself around because her husband does not support her. She cannot dance but sings. She said that she did not like the job but had to take it up for she was uneducated. “My husband does not treat me well so I have no other option but to work and be on my own,” she said. The girls in the drayangs work from 5 pm to 11 pm on weekdays and 5 pm to 12 pm on weekends.
Most customers in the drayangs are middle class people, according to Dorji. Men different ages come to the drayangs. Some are young boys. Dorji said a few of the customers tried to abuse girls physically but he did not allow that. If the customers did not listen to him, he called up the police for help.
He said, “The customers talk with the girls. Some of them, who know the girls well, fondle them. But the girls are not allowed to go anywhere until the drayang is closed. Once it is closed, I don’t know what the girls do.”
Dawa, a Thimphu resident enjoying in Zombala Drayang, said that he came to the drayang to reduce tensions and worries, but mainly to meet the young girls. He does not drink but requests a girl to sing for him after paying her Nu 100. This is the time when he gets to hug another girl who also tries to lure him into getting a request from him. This is how customers get so close that they make plans for the night.
“It is frustrating at times when customers
offer you money and ask you to come and spend a night with them. We have to handle
such situations very carefully because, if we are rude, they won’t return so we just smile and say nothing,” said Karma. She said that her mother and cousin did not know that she worked as a performer in a drayang.”
Jamyang (name changed), is also an entertainer in a drayang. She said that she did not mind the customers hugging and fondling her because all that mattered to her at the end of the day was her livelihood. And that she had to earn somehow. She added that she had to go to the extent of promising the night with the customer so that he would request for more songs, which meant more money for her.
Meanwhile, Kinley T Wangchuk, the Director of Bhutan Infocomm and Media Authority (BICMA), said that, during an inspection, they found that there were 16 drayangs in Thimphu operating illegally.
He said that they could not immediately shut down the drayangs because they employed a good number of people. “The drayangs have been made aware of the rules and regulations and the minimum standards they will have to maintain to operate and have been given a time of two months to fulfil them,” said Kinley T Wangchuk.
In mid May, BICMA will again do an inspection and if the drayangs are found operating without fulfilling the minimum standards, they will all be closed down.
An owner of a drayang said that not even a single drayang in Thimphu will be able to fulfil all the standards required by BICMA.
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