Khathun (ཁ་ཐུན་), meaning mouth (ཁ་) session (ཐུན་), refers to the traditional daily prayers chanted by Bhutanese elders, generally done early in the morning and/or late in the evening. Because the prayers are chanted at specific times and sessions, they are known as thun or sessions. Like the Book of Hours of medieval Christianity, books of common prayers called thunpé (ཐུན་དཔེ་) or Book of Sessions and chöchö (ཆོས་སྤྱོད་), Religious Practices, are compiled according to different traditions.

In Bhutan, the common thunpé or chöchö follows the Kagyu or the Nyingma tradition of Vajrayāna Buddhism. They begin with liturgies for the preliminary practices that sometimes begin with supplication to one’s guru known as calling the lama from afar (བླམ་རྒྱང་འབོད་). These are followed by several literary compositions in praise of the Buddha. Next are verses in praise of and supplication to Guru Rinpoche, the figure credited with introducing Buddhism to Bhutan, and continue through the lamas of the religious line including Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651), the founder of Bhutan.

The thunpé contains prayers to many other Buddhas and bodhisattvas, as well as short sūtras such as The Heart Sūtra and The Sūtra for Longevity. Towards the end, it also contains a large number of aspirational prayers (སྨོན་ལམ་) associated with different Buddhas. Besides chanting these prayers regularly on an individual basis, Bhutanese chant these prayers in groups as part of funerary ceremonies. The khathun may also contain as appendices liturgies for various specific purposes such prayers uttered before tea, before a meal, before snacks, before making a serkem (གསེར་སྐྱེམས་) or alcohol offering, for making sang (བསངས་) incense offering, and the prayers chanted for making the sur (བསུར་), or scent offering.

Many Bhutanese elders occupy themselves in the mornings and evenings with khathun. They chant some prayers only once but they may have an individual prayer or khathun that they chant over and over again. Many of them chant the prayers from memory and it is not uncommon to find a traditional elder who is functionally illiterate yet is very well versed in many types of khathun. Bhutanese believe that regularly chanting the khathun helps them avoid harm and misfortunes, achieve their wishes, live longer and healthier lives, accumulate merit for a better rebirth, and also help them reach enlightenment swiftly.

Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel as part of a series called Why We Do What We Do.