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Night Hunting: Bhutan's Controversial Courtship

Night hunting was a traditional Bhutanese practice of boys sneaking into girls' homes at night for sexual intercourse or courtship, with or without consent. Ideally, the girl's parents would be present and intervene if she did not approve, but negative aspects included teenage pregnancy, STDs, and rape. While still aware of the tradition, most Bhutanese now consider it a dark custom, and modernization has led to more prudent approaches to courtship.

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Loryne Ramos
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28 views2 pages

Night Hunting: Bhutan's Controversial Courtship

Night hunting was a traditional Bhutanese practice of boys sneaking into girls' homes at night for sexual intercourse or courtship, with or without consent. Ideally, the girl's parents would be present and intervene if she did not approve, but negative aspects included teenage pregnancy, STDs, and rape. While still aware of the tradition, most Bhutanese now consider it a dark custom, and modernization has led to more prudent approaches to courtship.

Uploaded by

Loryne Ramos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ramos, Loryne M.

BSN 1C - Ethics
Paper # 2 (Any unique or obscure social practice in a particular community or culture)

There are a lot of unique and obscure practices here in the Philippines and in the
world that are still being practiced or not but there is one that actually caught my
attention which is the Night Hunting in Bhutan. Here in the Philippines, we have a
unique way of "Panliligaw" such as making "Harana" or singing love songs outside the
lady's house, giving dowry and letters, "Paninilbihan" or serving the family of the lady
and many more. But in Bhutan, there is a unique and obscure traditional courtship that
is practiced in eastern and central parts of the country called "Bomena", which means
"going towards a girl" in bhutanese language. This type of courting involves a boy
sneaking or going into a girl's home at night for sexual intercourse or wooing, with or
without her consent. It is a tradition that helps young people find love and get married.
Ideally, the procedure goes as the boy will express his intention to visit the girl and
usually the girl sleeps with her parents. Once the boy visits and the girl does not like the
visitor, she'll make a noise to wake up her parents, who will then send the boy away.
Alternatively, the boy's offer might be rejected by the girl, in which case he would have
to go aways. But some said that the act was consensual. Thus, it concludes that in the
morning when the boy is discovered on the girl's bed, it is a sign to pronounce them
husband and wife. Nearly all Bhutanese are aware of this tradition, but they would
rather not talk about it because it is a tradition that is considered a dark custom for the
reason that it can be predatory or misunderstood. According to research, some of the
tradition's darker aspects include teenage pregnancy, the spread of STDs, fathers
rejecting their children who were born outside of marriage, and even rape. The majority
of victims of non-consensual sex are single or unmarried women because they are the
most frequently targeted. Poverty and other conditions, such as a lack of family support
and ignorance of one's own rights, may worsen their vulnerability. But these days,
modernisation has been educating the bhutanese people to make a more prudent
approach to courtship.

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