After I heard the history of Terton Sherab Mebar I found the
attribution of origin of Mebar Tsho’s name to Terton Pema Lingpa not so
convincing. The popular narrative has it that after Pema Lingpa reappeared from
the river with the treasures and the butter lamp still burning, the portion of
river came to be known as Mebar Tsho, meaning burning lake because of the burning lamp.
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| Picture Courtesy: TCB |
If the name of the lake originated from Pema Lingpa’s time,
then why wasn’t it ‘Marme Tsho’
(Butter Lamp Lake)? Or why not ‘Terma
Tsho’ (Hidden Treasure Lake)? Or ‘Pema
Tsho’? Why did it have to be Mebar
Tsho when the lake hadn’t burned in any sense?
Historian Karma Phuntsho, in his
book History of Bhutan, says Terton Sherab Mebar “is perhaps remembered more
for his failures than successes.” His failure began in Bumthang, through
Pasakha to Nobtshona Patra in Haa (Read about this incidences). Therefore he is
not in the good book of history and perhaps that’s how his association with
Mebar Tsho was unacknowledged, and worse given it to the more popular figure in history.
Discussing about Mebar Tsho, it’s hard to forget the recent
incident where a French tourist and his guide lost their lives. The tourist
slipped into the lake accidentally but the guide jumped intentionally to rescue
his guest who safety was his priority. Even though the rescue failed and he had
to pay with his own life, his bravery and selflessness in performing his duty
will be remembered by time.
The highest form of tribute we can pay to brave young man is
never let another incident happen. But unfortunately, going by the record nine
lives were lost in the lake in recent times and still no safety measures were
put in place to prevent further accidents. Some people are even talking about
closing down Mebar Tsho to tourist, as if putting in safety measure is so
difficult.
After the incident when concerned authorities were playing
blame game and counting excuses I was wondering how a presence of a throw-rope
and ring buoy could have saved the lives of both the tourist and the guide. It
will only cost less than Nu.4000. While authorities are still designing
elaborate safety infrastructure that would take ages I would like to urge them
to keep those two simple lifeguard equipment handy at the lake, for that matter
even at the swimming pools and other water bodies where human activities happen.
