Kunzang Choden, the first Bhutanese woman to be published in English, writes about her childhood

Throughout their lives we referred to our father as Acho or older brother and mother as Nene or paternal aunt. Following convention, a few days after my eldest brother Rinzin Dorji was born, in the year of the bull coinciding with 1949, his astrological chart was made. One of the findings was that the baby was not compatible with his parents. Father, who was also born in the year of the bull, and mother, who was born in the year of the sheep, were not suitable to be parents to their newborn baby. They were warned that if my brother acknowledged his parents as his parents, it would be harmful to all concerned. In my brother’s case the consequences would be dire. If he was to refer to them as his parents, their lives would be shortened. There was nothing alarming about such a prediction; such findings were common. Sometimes, in such cases, other people, relatives or friends are invited to become symbolic parents to babies. In my brother’s case, to avert any disaster, he was taught to call his father Acho, or older brother, and his mother became Nene or aunt. As often happens, those of us who followed...

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