Shingkhar Rabney Part 4

Yeedam

The life size copper statue of Buddha, known as the yeedam to locality is one of the most sanctified and chief relic housed in Shingkhar Lhakhnag. It is also known as Yeedam Khamsum Zoelnon. Although its history and origin are not much known, (even to the majority of the locals) the statue is revered to as the wish granting object besides being worshipped as Buddhist artifact. 

This wish granting stuff might sound little naive and silly. But if you are a Buddhist, then It might sound little remarkable and captivating.

Long time ago, a tax collector from the court of erstwhile Debraja visited Shingkhar. Little did he realize that he was there for a dual purpose? –he was there to not only collect taxes, but on repeated persuasion from the locals, he was also there to make a secret wish that was going to have a lasting impact in his life. 

Although, his wishes were not explicitly revealed, implicitly, it was his wish to become Paro Penlop in a very foreseeable future. Should the wish come true, he then made a secret vow to install Golden Pinnacle (serthok) on the roof of Shingkhar Lhakhang in gratitude.

Amazingly, the tax collector, popularly known as Agay Haap became Paro Penlop shortly. Not only that, he also become the first person to install serthok on the roof Shingkhar Lhakhang as promised.

There are many such stories. If anybody is interested, then please visit Shingkhar Lhakhang. Remember me, if your wishes come true.

Serthok of Shingkhar Lhakhang 

Shingkhar Rabney, Part 3

Shingkhar has been a place of mystery for eons. It still continues to be. Shingkhar is a place known not only  for innocent yet intriguing people, but is also known for its rituals and relics it has in abundance. 

Of many such relics, the the mask dance of Lhamo and Gyembo are the towering show piece by any measure. Perchance, they are the specialty of the region whose sacredness awes many mortals. By locals' definition, the history of these dance are as old and as untraceable as the history of the universe itself.

However, sources, tend to suggest that, those mask dances were initially composed and initiated by second Shingkhar Lama, known as Lama Jabodma. Lama Jabodma was the son of first Shingkhar Lam, Tsezang Thaye Drakpa, who in turn was the great gand son of great Nyingmapa master Longchen Rabjam.

The current mask of Lhamo and Gyembo are believed to have been curved by Lama Jabodma himself.  It was  believed that Lama Jabodma and many other magical powers. 

According to locals', Lama had the supernatural power with which he toured India and Tibet in a single day. Perhaps, that's why he was named Lama Ja (meaning India) Bod (meaning Tibet)

 Literally, Lhamo is a female Goddess and Gyembo is a Male God. Lhamo is in white clad, Gyembo in dark blue. They are considered as the Choesungs (the guardian deities, who protect Buddha, Dharma and Sangya) of the region. In Bhutan there are many such Lhamos and Gyembos. Accordingly, Lhamo in Shingkhar is  Durthrod Lhamo (?) and Gyembo, Gyembo Maning.  

Shingkhar Rabney is the only occasion to see these dances. 

Shingkhar Rabney, Part 2

Dear friends and folks,

Chath Dorji here.

Well, the thing of Rabney is long over and gone. I am now back in Golaipang, safe and sound with my family. I had the most memorable Rabney of my life. I think I will never forget the happy moments I had with happy folks of Shingkhar. 

When I was a young boy, My mysterious father and mother would always tell me stories about the mythical Lhamo and  terrifying Gyembo. One story that I vividly remember is the story  about Choejong, their Yak,  who farted so bad that  it blew up the nose of Gyembo on their way back to Golaipang after Rabney. That's why  today, Gyembo has a nose, that looks somewhat flattened with its tip raised.

That is just one side of the story. (especially for curious kids) 

The real story, as far as the history goes is that, it goes as back to the time of great Nyingpa master, Longchen  Rabjam himself. It is believed that when Longchenpa was mediating in the Tibetan region called Gangri Thoed Kar, the mermaid, (Tshomen) who resided in the lake called Mapham Yumtsho invited the master on many occasions. Although he rejected the initial invitations, he however consented at last to visit the lake once. 

When he finally visited the lake, the mermaid requested him to discover something from the lake as Ter (treasure). As requested, Longchenpa discovered a pair of white horn that belonged to a yak. 

The master carried those pair of horns with him to Shingkhar. Later when Longchenpa established his seat in Shingkhar, those pair of horns became the main relic of Shingkhar Lhakhang. 

Many years after Longchenpa, his disciples composed a dance of a yak. They used the same horn which Longchenpa carried from Tibet. It came to be known as Choejong.  Today it is considered as the most sacred relic of the valley. 

This is Our New Year

Picture Courtesy: Facebook (Turtle tree)

Going by the Bhutanese calender, our new year starts today. Today marks the beginning of lunar-male-water-dragon year. We call it Losar, -the new year.

Even though Losar is traditionally a new year, It mean lot more than that.  There are people who consider it as holy and auspicious. People make resolutions, exchange gifts and make endless good wishes for each other. 

For me, Losars are always a great moments. It brings me immense joy, both in terms of remembering the past and valuing the present. It gives me the strength and will power to march into an uncertain future with an air of confidence.  

In the words of my Hero, -My father, he told me that, on Losar days, one should never indulge into something that is just as bad as the 'bad' because, Losars are time to celebrate good moments and forgive and forget the harsh experiences. He also told me that, one should sing aloud and smile a lot, because its only when you sing and smile, that the world around you sings and smiles back at you.

With this I would like to wish all my readers a happy and fulfilling year of Dragon.

Tashi Delek

For My King on His Birthday

Our Beloved King

Long time a go when I was a care free lad,

I celebrated my King's Birthday. 

My King's Birthday meant only few things;

Feasting, Dancing, Singing, Playing and Going home

Now that I am 32 like my King,

I celebrate my King's Birthday.

But for a reason so dear and precious

I celebrate many things now;

I celebrate the Humility and Humanity of my King,

I celebrate the Wisdom and Simplicity of my King

I celebrate the Visions and Dreams of my King

I celebrate  the The Buddha Nature of my King 

And Many more..

Your Majesty,

I wish you all the joys and all the Happiness 

May you continue to lead us in to the era of 

more peace 

Long Live my King

Continued.....Sleeping Bull and Plunging Tiger

Picture Courtesy: Wikipedia

I had to come home rejected and dejected because, my set of documents would never work. It meant that that I had to take internet connection in one of my friend's name (My Indian friend)

Then the next day, I went to the same office. I had all the documents ready. I was so eager and was dying to get my connection back. I told the lady at the counter to make haste and provide me the fastest possible service. As a customer, I thought I was King and I expected the commercial world to treat me like one. But ironically, I ended up becoming a king that begged. Even after the submission of documents, I was told to wait for 72 hours. Things took crazier turns and I became ever more aware about how that company was robbing me off!

I was not only the most infuriated customer that day. There were several others who sounded more disappointed and more unhappy about the services. 

With deep sense of regret, I finally returned home. 72 hours wait was long enough loose all my trust in that company (especially customer care). With the exclusion of weekends from those 72 hours, my wait became even longer. I had to wait for more than 5 more days! 

After those 5 grueling days. It was even more disappointing. I was still barred from using the net work. By then I was angry beyond the plunging tiger. I have already spent few hundreds going to that office and calling different people. I knew I was wasting not only my resources but I was also loosing lot of energy and time. Most important of all, I was loosing my patience.

I went there in person as to find what the f* problem was. But the lady in the counter, with an air of confidence told me that, I would be connected to net by evening. But I never felt assured.

True to my prediction There was no net even after all those waiting hours. I felt exhausted and tired, I felt the strongest sense of betrayal. I rushed to the office Thinking it could be my last, but only to find out that my connection request being rejected for apparently no big reason. I felt ashamed. More than that I felt miserable and humiliated.   

I asked the person as to what I should do to get the connection. I also asked him what was the big deal in it. It was even more painful because, those people were not understanding what I had to say. Their English was equally miserable like their Hindi. (may be they preferred speaking Gujarati in order to avoid me)

I went back to the lady in the counter and made my last plea. After few minutes, she referred me to her colleague. Her colleague looked energetic and was full of energy. He showed my rejected application form. He also told me the reason for the rejection. It was the signature of my friend where c and e were slightly different in their size. Wooww what an observation !!!!!!

The event that followed was even more shocking. He filled up a new form for me and then FORGED my friend's signature. Spellbound and dazed, I asked him whether that was OK. He nodded 'yes'. He told me to wait for at least 24 hours.

The next morning was a miracle, His forged signature worked and I got the internet connection.

Sleeping Bull and Plunging Tiger!

Picture Courtesy: Google

Picture Courtesy: Google

Of all the predictions made by an astrologer about me, two of his predictions have always bewildered me. He predicted that I could be anything between a sleeping bull and a plunging tiger! 

I am not aware and sure as to whether I am a sleeping lazy bull or a furious plunging tiger. All I can say is that, by nature, I am a very patient, calm and peace loving man. Just like my Buddhist Gurus, I do believe in being patient, calm and compassionate to other beings around. 

But that was until I met an over enthusiastic sales person who came to deliver the data card for Internet connection (I am  not naming the company) to my room. As I paid the money, the sales person with his bright smile, assured that I would be given the best possible services. For this I only had to complete a small formality which consisted of submitting my student ID card and a small passport size photograph. 

For a moment I thought “what a customer service” 

But sadly after few days, I wasn’t able to get the connection. I called the same person immediately and as expected he was swift to respond to my call. He told me that formalities will be completed towards the evening after which I would be getting the (internet) services. 

In a mean time, I also called the customer care service center several times. but to my dismay the person on the phone kept on telling me that I am yet to complete my formalities. In a mean time I kept my fingers crossed and waited for the net to return. 

But when I failed to receive the services after three long days, I became little concerned. I became more anxious. So I called him again. But that time it was a lady on the other end. She spoke to me in Hindi and told he that the concern person was out for a wedding party. But very outrageously, I overheard someone murmuring in the phone and the lady was simply parroting the same. As soon as she finished parroting, she puts off the phone. Damn it! 

I called him the next morning. To my amazement he told me I should go myself to the office to complete my formalities. If that was the case then why did he take my documents in the first place? I also questioned him as to why he failed to inform me about the impending problem. Surprisingly, that sales man was not in a mood of consoling his customer, but rather he was in a mood to argue with his customer. I yelled at him and he yelled at me even louder. And to avoid my other round of ramblings, he puts off his phone. 

It was the most horrible state of affair. I felt my blood pressure surge. I could even sense myself becoming deaf, blind and dumb. More than the money I lost, it was painful, losing my temper. I realized how an angry man loses his reasoning power. 

The next day I went to the office myself but had to come back more dejected and rejected......

To be continued..................

Dzongkha Typing Practice

བུ་མོ་་

བུ་ལེགས་པའི་དགའ་མཛུམ་འདི་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་་ཧིངས་ཚ་བས།།

ཧིངས་ཚ་བའི་ཞལ་རས་འདི་་་་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་་དཀར་གསལ་་འདྲ།།

བུ་ཚུ་་

ངེའི་བུ་མོའི་གསུངས་སྐད་འདི་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་་ཁུ་འབྱུ་འདྲ།།

གསུངས་ཧན་པའི་ཁུ་འབྱུ་འདི་་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་་ཁྲུལ་ལྷང་ལྷང་།།

བུ་མོ་

མཛེས་པའི་དཀར་གསལ་ཟླ་བ་འདི།།  དགའ་མཛུམ་ལེགས་པའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཤར།།

གཟུགས་གཞི་ལེགས་པའི་མེ་ཏོ་འདི།།  ཡུམ་ཡུམ་རླུང་གྱིས་དཀྲོག་དོ་བཟུམ།།

བུ་ཚུ་་ 

ཤོག་་་ཤོག་་ཤོག་ཤོག་ཚུར་ཤོག།  ལེགས་པའི་བཟང་མོ་ཤོག།

བུ་ཚུ་་ 

གསུངས་ཧན་པའི་ཁུ་འབྱུ་འདི་་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་འཕུར་མ་སོང་།།

ངེས་སེམས་ཀྱི་ལྗོན་ཤིང་འགུར་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་བཞུགས་གནང་མས།།

བུ་མོ་་

ཟེར་གསལ་བའི་དཀར་གསལ་འདི་་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་་ནུབ་མ་སོང་།།

ངེས་སེམས་ཀྱི་འཛམ་གླིང་ནང་་་་་་་་་ཨའི་་་་ཤར་གནང་མས།།

བུ་ཚུ་་ 

བྱམ་རྩེ་ཆེ་བའི་བུམོ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི།།  མཉམ་ཆུང་ངེས་ཀྱི་གདོང་འདི་སྨོ།།

དཀར་གསལ་ཟླཝ་ལུ་འགྱུར་མི་འདི།།  དགའ་ཚོར་སེམས་ཀྱི་འབག་མ་འཐད།།

ཕོ་དང་མོ་་

ཤོ་་་་་་་ཤོ་་ཤོ་ཤོ་ཚུར་ཤོག།  ལེགས་པའི་བཟང་མོ་ཤོག།

To My Dearest Wife, My Home

Away from you,

Separated by time, space and distance,

I start my days mostly bewildered,

At times lonely,

And mostly with my heart,

Ever aching and ever more yearning

Without you, solitude is no bliss;

It’s a lonesome in excess,

Often do I lament in surfeit,

Not because I like my present least,

But, I love my home more

Home is a place of grace,

It endows love in bountiful.

Home is a hearth,

It endows warmth in abundance 

Home is the star of North,

That misleads not a soul

Home brings eternal delight.

It transforms dreams to reality.

Home takes your hand,

But touches your heart

O Dear,

I am so grateful; I have a home like you

With my warmest regards and felicitation,

I write this epistle

To let you know

That you are my Life’s drawing that needs no eraser.

Love you and happy Valentine’s Day

Can Love Happen Twice?

I have finished reading “Can Love Happen Twice” By Ravindher Singh. It is continuation of his first book “I Too Had a Love Story”. As is obvious from the title, it’s a love story. It’s a love story that has touched the hearts of millions around the world. As claimed by some, it has truly been the most sensational and heart melting book ever written by an Indian author in his prime age. 

The way Ravin brings forth his story is mesmerizing. His free flowing lines with powerful feelings are touching and unforgettable. His absolute sense of humility is what brings his readers even closer to him. He portrays himself as a fun loving, caring, committed, dedicated, hard working and honest man. This means that he was a very good human being. 

But most often than not, bad things only happens to good people. Ravin was one such person. When bad things happens to good people, even gods are helpless. God couldn't help Ravin in realizing his beautiful days with his charming Lady of life, -Khushi, whom he met online but loved her so dearly. 

As tragedy befalls tragedy, Ravin succumbs to yet another tragedy in his miserable and grief stricken life. His hope of new beginning. -the beginning that was as colorful and as radiant as the rainbow of the prime spring fades just like the the one. His new found love and hope, Simar, leaves him alone once again. Dejected and heart broken, Ravin looses everything, but fortunately or unfortunately, he survives a fatal hit by a speeding truck in the traffic. 

That is not the end.

Author of bestselling book lands up in a rehabilitation center. Credit goes to women wine and.........(i forgot the other one) they are nothing but men's weakness. 

There is lot more. So find it out........

Shingkhar Rabney, Part I

Shingkhar Ranbey 2008

Shingkhar Rabney concluded on 2nd Feb 2012, (which coincides with the 10th day of 12th month in Bhutanese calendar) It’s an annual event that lasts for 5 days. Locally, those five days are considered auspicious and sacred. They are considered most important for many reasons. 

Firstly, even though the significance of Rabney extends far beyond, for locals, it is considered as an annual event honoring our local deities for all the blessings and protections they have rendered in the past year. Besides, it is also an event where folks celebrate their past success and embark on the new beginning. 

Secondly, Rabney is a unique local event, observed in the loving memory of our ancestors. They are remembered for all the hardships and pains they have endured to preserve this beautiful culture and tradition. It is with each passing Rabney, that the architects of Shingkhar are immortalized in the hearts of Shingkharpas. 

Thirdly, Rabney is an important social event that unites the family and long lost relatives. It is often on Rabney that parents see their children who have moved to a far off place. It is also time for all the folks to call off the days form mundanely chores and sing and soak, heart and soul  in local brew -ara and cingchang.

Not My Resolutions Please

New year eve is long gone and dead. This means that the time to make resolutions, promises and wishes are over for now (at least)  

But writing this piece, I find it rather strange. It surely looks like I am penning my resolutions and bucket list. But mind you, I have never made any new year resolutions till date. I believe resolutions can be made anytime. There is no rule of thumb which says that resolutions, promises and wishes can be only made during new year time. I believe that each day in it self is new beginning and that there is no requirement to bring out list of resolutions that  are surely going to be ignored or forgotten.

So, here are some of the things that lingers in my mind. But once again, these are not my resolutions or promises in their remotest sense. 

1.  Always begin my day with a prayer. 

2.  I will never bite more than I can actually chew.

3.  Love my family more. 

4.  Treat my health as my ultimate wealth

5.  Someday learn to ride bicycle

6.  Never say things which I don't mean it

7.  Read more and write more.

8.  Thank my parents everyday for making me who I am

9.  Always remember Life is not long 

10. Thank god for giving me this wonderful life.