Bodily Comportment

Physical comportment or bodily manners are very important in the Bhutanese social context. The Bhutanese, through influence from Buddhism, treat the body as a sacred and special object. Thus, it is considered a bad manner to step over or show disrepect to other people's body. As the bodily actions are manifestations of the inner mind, subdued and humble postures are seen as positive and virtuous, and haughty and pompous gestures are shunned. For example, to show humility, people often bow and make prostrations. They also stoop to show respect to others and move gently and cautiously. To show modesty, when given, things are received with two hands. When sitting, one should not stretch one's legs at someone or adopt inappropriate postures.