The Story of Panchen Zangmo and Golang Draktsen of Zhongar Dzong.

Legend has it that the Golang Draktsen, also known as Dorji Jurmey is said to be the son of Naga(ཀླུ). Golang Draktsen is classified as a Tsen(བཙན) and is deity (Neydak) of Zhongar.

During that time, a beautiful and stunning girl from Tokari under Tsamang Gewog known as Panchen Zangmo, descendant of Panchen's home, was in love with Golang Draktsen. It is said that she can substitute hundreds of girls in her village in terms of work and beauty.

It is believed that in the night, Golang Draktsen changes into a handsome, young and strong Boegarp who is a head-turner of the girls when passed by. In the day, it changes into a gigantic snake.

Therefore, in the evening, the deity Golang Draktsen always comes to Panchen Zangmo's home by changing into a handsome Boegarp and in the early morning, before rooster alarms, he went to his place, Neykhang.

Eventually, Penchen Zangmo was doubtful of him and she hung a thread on his Doktha(lace) of the Gho, when he went from her home in the early morning. Afterwards, she followed him through the thread and reached his Neykhang. To her astonishment, she found a gigantic snake whereby she was terrified. That moment was the time, whereby her life was taken by him, who succumbed to the dead later.Subsequently, it is said that she was reborn in his sphere as a deity.

People of Mongar Chiwog, Tsamang and Saling Gewog consider Golang Draktsen as their guardian deity and Kelha (birth god) and seek refuge to protect them.

Consequently, the Kathrap of Golang Draktsen and Penchen Zangmo can be found in Mongar Dzong today and on the 29th day of 10 month of the Lunar month, grand offerings were made to them, although daily offerings were done by the kyoenyer (caretaker). 

So, visit Mongar Dzong and get blessed!

Reference

Pema(2021). Guardian Deities of Mongar Dzongkhag; National Museum of Bhutan, Paro.

A Journey to Takela

 We were sitting over dinner. My senior, DTs, is with us as he did not get home. He was transferred from Dagana to Mongar. Mongar Dzongkhag, particularly Mongar town has a housing issue as most of the transfer people are suffering searching for a house.

As tomorrow is a weekend, I talked to him about whether we could visit Takela or Korila Wadipa Ney. We could not decide but sometimes later, we decided to go to Takela, the largest Guru Pedma Sambhava statue, Guru Nangsi Zelnen.

I did not possess a single penny even to fill my car. I told him, I will borrow some amount to get to our destination but he suggested, if we could go together as one of his sons is small, we could adjust in his Santro car. We argued, but went to bed early to rise early and prepare lunch.

Waking up excited, DTs wife had finished preparing Lunch. I packed the lunch, freshed up and readied. We are six in numbers and we had been discussing that number six in our belief system was a bad one. We also tried to get some friends but no one was willing and we are destined to go in number six. 

Praying to reach the destination safely, our journey started at 7:30 am from Mongar. We browsed the Google map questioning the distance between Takela and Mongar, it shows 73 kilometers and suggests that it will take 2:45 minutes to reach the point.  

173 feet largest Guru Statue
Largest Guru Statue loacted at Takela under Lhuntse Dzongkhag, Menbi Gewog. I have read that it was started in 2008 and consecrated on 2015. The Guru Statue was surrounded by 8 choeten, I suppose it was Deysheg Choeten Gay, and 108 small choetens.

Takila was envisioned by late venerable Khenpo Karpo, we received blessings from the Kudung and the Satutue of Khenpo Karpo inside the Statue. To know more about the statue, click this link.https://www.bhutan.travel/attractions/the-statue-of-guru-padmasambhava

With DTs Nima Sir

With my father

 We also visited Lhuntse Dzong and got blessings from Tshepamey. As we visited unplanned, my father and his wife could not visit as they did not bring Rachu and Kabney. I will visit in future as we did not get a chance to visit all the Lhakhang.

On the way to Lhundruptse Dzongchen

As we all know, life is uncertain and we have to accumulate some merit and get cleansed of our defilements and tsokdrips, we have to visit the religious sites in our country. It has been stated in some books that our country has lots of religious sites which are sacred and blessed by many great saints like Guru Rinpoche, Thangthong Gyalpo, Tertoen Pema Lingpa etc.. and all.

Anyway, it's just an amazing day! Hoping for the future too.

རང་ཡུལ་མཁར་ནུང་ལུ་ལྷོད་པའི་ཚོར་བ།

༉ ཤར་ཕྱོགས་འཁོར་ལོ་རྩིབས་བརྒྱད་འོག།

གཞོང་སྒར་ཚོ་བདུན་ཨིན་ཟེརཝ་མས།།

གཞོང་སྒར་རྫོང་འདི་ཉམས་སོང་རུང་།།

མོང་སྒར་རྫོང་ཆེན་དྭངས་མི་དྭངས།།

མོང་སྒར་ལུང་པའི་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་ནང་།།

རང་ཡུལ་ལྕགས་ས་མཁར་ཟེརཝ་མས་།།

རྒྱུ་མཆོག་གསེར་དངུལ་མ་འཐོན་རུང་།།

ནོར་གྱི་ཐོན་ཁུངས་བོར་མི་བོར།།

ལྕགས་ས་མཁར་གྱི་ལུང་ཕྱོགས་ནང་།།

རང་གཡུས་མཁར་ནུང་གཡུས་ཟེརཝ་མས།།

གཡུས་ཚན་ཁྲོམ་ཆེན་བཟུམ་མེན་རུང་།།

འབྲུ་སྣ་དགུ་རིགས་འཚོ་མི་འཚོ།།

མགུ་ནག་མིའི་སྤུངས་ཚོགས་ནང་།།

སྟག་ཤར་ཚེ་རིང་ང་ཟེརཝ་མས།།

སྙན་པའི་རྩོམ་རིག་མ་འཐོན་རུང་།།

བསམ་བྱའི་བློ་ཚིག་རྫོགས་མི་རྫོགས།།

བཀྲིན་ཆེ།

©️ཚེ་རུང་ཕུན་ཚོགས།

Mongar and I

Sneaking at Yakgang Lhakhang facing towards my house, listening to the melodies of the birds and insects, and pouring out whatever comes to my mind, I felt relaxed today.

Mongar Dzong

I started reading some histories about Zhongar Dzong early in the morning and took some time looking at the Mountain which was located above Yakgang, where a golden stupa can be seen. It was Pongchola Lhakhang and I was reminded of the old bygone days at Mongar, which I felt nostalgic about. 

As I am transferred to the Dzongkhag, where I was born and completed my higher education, I feel blessed but at the same time heavy prior to the job that I am mandated to.

Interestingly, I came across the ideology behind the name Mongar. It was stated that an Indian King called Indara was perplexed when he reached the site where Mongar Dzong was built as the wild boars and animals dispersed due to his arrival. He spends the night making a camp and therefore, in Sharchop, when we are perplexed, not knowing what to do, we call it 'Mong' and Gar is a 'Camp'.

As the name is interestingly derived from such incident, I am also perplexed looking at the number of gewogs, Lhakhangs, Chortens and also the culture and traditions. I personally feel that Mongar Dzongkhag is made up of a diverse range of culture and traditions. The workload ahead will be a big challenge that I should face.

Peldrup and Me

As soon as I joined my office, my friend took me to Ngatshang to inspect the ruined Jarungkhashor Chorten and the Lhakhang. 

Some damage in the walls of the Chorten unevenly made me wonder why it was damaged in such a way. It was in the process of getting approval from the Department of Culture to renovate. Looking and listening to the background of Chorten, it was an old monument and needs to be preserved. 

A kongbu needs 70 kg of Butter(inside Lhakhang)

Along the way towards the Lhakhang owner's home, we met a Laughing Buddha crafted beautifully from wood. If painted would attract everyone's eye. 

As I was traveling for the first time to Gewogs of the Mongar, "May Mongar treat me well!"