In my last post, I have briefly narrated the history of Terton
Sherab Mebar, the first known treasure discoverer to have set foot in Bhutan. As
promised I will narrate the history of his kudung (body) that seemed to have a
life of its own and created history and mysteries greater than the living
Terton himself.
Because Terton Sherab Mebar went against the prophecy one
too many times and compromised the whole divine mission he had been assigned to, his mission on earth seemed to have been terminated prematurely. He
died in his thirties, leaving behind many unfinished works. He was supposed to
visit Nub Tshonapatra seven times and discover treasures that will make our
country rich in all times to come, but his first untimely attempt jeopardized
everything.
Terton Sherab Mebar lived in Pangpisa after that
life-threatening mission to Nub Tshonapatra when he was called to attend a big event
in Baylangdra, Wangdue. Before leaving, he summoned the nine households in Pangpisa
and asked them to bring him a stone that could fit in his palm. He was
presented with a broken piece of stone. He asked if the stone was already in
that shape or did the people break it into that shape to fit in his palm. He took it as a bad sign when he was told that
the stone was a freshly broken piece. He told his nine
patrons that the signs said he might not return alive from Wangdue and
therefore instructed them to bring his body back to Pangpisa.
He squeezed the stone with his bare hands like wet clay and left his handprint on it. This stone with his
handprint was one among many such rocks he left behind from different
occasions. In fact, every household in Pangpisa owned one each besides the six
that were in the temple. One was a chunk of gold he took from Pasakha during
his failed mission of unearthing an endless supply of gold, silver and salt.
As foreseen, Terton Sherab Mebar died in Baylangdra, Wangude
and the message reached Pangpisa. A group of men was sent to claim their Lam’s kudung
(body) as wished by lam himself, but people in Baylangdra turned them away.
They said it was the lam’s destiny to die in their village; therefore, the body
must rest there.
The disappointed patrons of Pangpisa spied on
Baylangdra ever since. They planned to strike during the harvest season when every able man from
the village went on their annual alms seeking event. The temple where the
kudung was preserved was guarded by a lame gomchen who couldn’t go with the
rest. Men from Pangpisa waited for this moment, and without wasting any time, they
barged into the temple and tied the lone gomchen onto a pillar, and to keep him from starving, they placed a
huge pot of porridge at his reach to last through until the villager returned. Thus, the
kudung was stolen and brought to Pangpisa.
There is no record of what happened after this event until centuries
later, after Zhabdrung’s era. It was during Tshulthrim Namgyel’s (Popularly
known as Penlop Haap) reign as the Parob or Paro Penlop (governor of
Paro), that he asked the people of Pangpisa to hand over the kudung to the
central government in Paro for better preservation. Paro was the centre of
Western Region, then. He explained to the people of Pangpisa that the Kudung was
a national treasure and the there could not be a better place for the kudung
than Paro Rinpung Dzong. It could be safe from disasters and also secured from
Tibetan invaders.
People of Pangpisa reluctantly consented to hand over the sacred remains to Paro Dzong, intending to secretly steal it back. The Kudung was stored in the Marchey of Paro
Dzong, secured in a wooden box and sealed into the mud wall. No sooner did they
give away the kudung, they began plotting to steal it back. They
planted one of their local monks to spy and get access to the Marchey. The monk
started chanting Dem, the prayer in the worship of Jetsun Dema, from day one. He made the entire Dzong believe that he was the best candidate to be the
caretaker of Dema Lhakhang, the chamber in the Dzong dedicated to Jetsun Dema.
That was their first move; they wanted to get access into
the Dema Lhakhang because beneath it was the Marchey where their lam’s kudung
was kept. Meanwhile, some men from Pangpisa worked with blacksmiths in Paro Woochu
to forge iron rods with hooks on one end, and the rest of the men worked on creating
a proxy of Lam’s kudung using clay.
One day, when most elder monks were out of the Dzong for
rituals, the team from Pangpisa sneaked into the Dzong with the proxy kudung
and got straight into the Dema Lhakhang. They removed the floorings that were
straight overhead the kudung and, using the iron rods, fished the box containing
the kudung. Unfortunately, they discovered the box was too big for the narrow
gap between horizontal beams running across under the floor. According to their
plan, they were to lift the box into Dema Lhakhang, take out lam’s Kudung,
replace it with the proxy and place back the box in the Marchey as if nothing
had happened.
But their plan failed when they couldn’t lift the box
through the beams. They then broke open the box in midair and tried to take out
the kudung, but they found that even the kudung wouldn’t fit through the gap, except
for the head. When they ran out of ideas and time, they decided to at least take
something, if not the whole Kudung, so they cut off the head from the body and replaced
it with the head of the proxy kudung. The box was sealed again and placed back.
For the next many years, no one knew about this high profile
break-in, not until a fire disaster that razed down Paro Rinpung Dzong (Date to be confirmed), about
which I couldn’t find any information yet. Penlop Haap Agay Haap was still in Power, and
he was said to have jumped into the raging fire to save the kudung. Everyone
thought he might have burned himself to death, but he came out of the fire with the box
without so much as a blister and without even burning a single strand of his hair.
When they opened the box to assess the kudung, they found
the head of the kudung had turned into earth. This saddened the Penlop, but he found that the rest of the body was intact upon further inspection. Then he knew
that something was done with the head. He furiously tried to detach the clay head from the body but soon figured out that the clay head had merged with
the body. It’s said that the clay head gradually turned into a real head and
smiled at the Penlop. He lived with much regrets for not being able to ask
anything when the kudung came alive for that brief moment.
Penlop Haap rebuilt Paro Rinpung Dzong and placed the kudung
back in the Marchey of the new Dzong. However, he was told that the Dzong would
be destroyed yet again in times to come. He, therefore, prayed to be reborn in
Paro so that he could be the one to rebuild the Dzong again.
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| Ruins of Paro Dzong (1907) - Shared by Tshering Tashi |
In 1907, when Paro Penlop Dawa Penjor was in power, Paro
Rinpung Dzong suffered another major fire disaster. The penlop was said to have
fainted twice, once when he was told about fire, and next then, he reached the Dzong
and knew the Kudung could not be salvaged. So that was the end of the long
journey of Pangpi Lam’s Kudung, across almost 700 years.
Penlop Dawa Penjor was believed to be the reincarnation of
Penlop Haap, and it’s said that he always saw this coming. He had stored hundreds of strange balls stitched in animal hide, which looked like stone used
in ancient weighing scales, in the fireproof basement of the Dzong.
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| Paro Penlop Dawa Penjor(?) |
Later after the ashes cooled down, and when the entire
officials were worried about the reconstruction and even planned to send
people to India and Tibet for donation, Penlop Dawa Penjor told them not to
worry about funds. He sent his men to collect the stones covered in leather
from the basement. Confused men thought the Penlop was severely shaken by the fire
incident; nonetheless, they presented hundreds of heavy balls to the penlop. He
then cut open the leather covers and showed hundreds of football-sized balls of
pure gold. He is said to have funded the entire reconstruction and most of the objects in the Dzong
today were made of pure gold.
When the Dzong was completed, Penlop Dawa Penjor approached
the people of Pangpisa to bring the sacred head relic of kudung for the consecration
ceremony of the new Dzong. He promised the people that it would be returned in
three days. Penlop Dawa Penjor was known for his honesty and integrity and when
he approached, the people consented.
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| 1914 Paro Dzong restored to by Penlop Dawa Penjor |
On the third day of the consecration ceremony, birds hovered
over the Dzong and made strange sounds; some birds fought overhead and dropped
dead on the Dzong courtyard. Dawa Penjor immediately consulted his astrologer
and found out that if he didn’t return the head relic to Pangpisa, there would be a threat to either his life or the safety of the Dzong. He returned the relic right away. It was later discovered that the people of Pangpisa had been
performing deadly religious rituals for the safe return of their most priced
treasure ever since the Penlop took it from them.
The sacred head relic was sealed in a box by Paro Penlop and opened once a year for public display during a major ceremony. The sealing after the ceremony was soon done by Woochu Drungpa. Trongsa Penlop Jigme Namgyal upon hear that ordered the boxed to be sealed using his seal because he didn't like the idea of Woochu Drungpa putting his unholy hands on the precious National Treasure. Woochu Drungpa was the official responsible for punishing criminals and had his hand in many executions. A certain Zimpon Sangay carried Jigme Namgyal's seal and sealed the box, never to be opened again.
It was only recently the seal was finally broken, and the sacred head relic was displayed for public viewing. It was said that the seal on the box was always called "Sangay's Seal" and many thought it was Buddha's seal (Sangay=Buddha). Later upon verification, they figured out that Sangay was Trongsa Penlop's Zimpon Sangay, who sealed the box on behalf of Trongsa Penlop Jigme Namgyal.
The Scared head was on display on the day I visited Ugyen Guru
Lhakhang in Pangpisa. I just look at it for the longest time and wondered what
a journey it underwent across almost 800 years.
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| Paro Penlop Dawa Penjor's wife's home in Paro Geptey, now converted into Heritage Museum |
Disclaimer: There could be inconsistencies in the historical events and dates; therefore, I remain open to feedback and advice to make this thrilling narrative as close to fact as possible.
