'My girls have a new life'

It’s been two years since conjoined twins Nima and Dawa were separated by Australian doctors – and now, back at home, they’re flourishing. Samantha Trenoweth catches up with the little Bhutanese girls who stole the hearts of Australians.

- Samantha Trenoweth

It’s autumn in the steamy Bhutanese border town of Phuentsholing. The monsoon rains have passed and dappled sunlight filters through trees along the Torsa River, which tumbles down from the snowy peaks of Tibet and flows through Bhutan and on to India.

The sound of giggling fills the air, and into the park run the twins – wide smiles, sparkling eyes, holding hands and laughing with the unbridled joy of three-year-olds let loose after long weeks in COVID lockdown.

Nima and Dawa, whose names mean ‘Sun’ and ‘Moon’ in Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan, are dressed in matching yellow sundresses. Their mother, Bhumchu Zhangmo, explains the colour choice: as with all girls, she says, Nima and Dawa “like to choose the clothes they want to wear”. She did think of suggesting they each wear a different outfit to have their photos taken for The Weekly, but she knew that would get her nowhere. “When we dress them up with different kinds of clothes, they get furious. They always want to wear the same dress.”

So now Bhumchu buys two of everything – or at least two similar dresses in the same colour. For their third birthday, on July 14, they received identical pink dresses with My Little Pony designs, and they were delighted! There was also birthday cake and their favourite foods: “They love eating joktang [potatoes] and drinking fresh, local milk.

“We celebrated their birthday in our traditional way as well,” Bhumchu adds. “We lit butter lamps for them and wished them a long, healthy life” – something Nima and Dawa now seem very likely to enjoy.