Featured Post

Menchu of Menchuna: A Hidden Gem in Tobesa, Punakha

Image
Nestled in the serene village of Menchuna, Tobesa, Punakha, lies the mysterious and historical site of Menchu. As its toponym may suggest, Menchuna is a place where tradition and nature intertwine in fascinating ways. Once renowned for its medicinal hot springs, Menchu has a story that reflects both the resilience of its people and the enduring allure of its natural gifts. Here’s a journey into the intriguing tale of Menchu and its place in the heart of Bhutan. The Legacy of Menchu: A Once-Prominent Hot Spring Menchu was once celebrated as a revered hot spring, its waters believed to hold remarkable healing power with medicinal as well mineral properties. For centuries, the people of Bhutan trekked to Menchuna, as it is ideally situated near traditional Punakha-Thimphu trek trail. The hot springs, with their mineral-rich waters, were a vital source of therapeutic relief, providing solace and healing to countless visitors. The Struggle and the Change However, as is often the case with p
Post a Comment

Trees of Eastern Girls at Thowa Drak ༼ཤར་ཕྱོགས་མའི་ནགས་ར༽

There is so much charm in hearing the stories we never heard but there is nothing that fascinates us more than validating the stories and legends we heard. My parents narrated stories and folklores that lived throughout my life and I always carry this huge urge to validate and testify the stories to satisfy myself. One satisfactory testimony of the story I heard is one of the many living legends of Thowa Drak, a famed spot that cling to the highest rocky cliff to the north of Tang, Bumthang
Thowadrak
མཐོ་བ་བྲག་ལྷ་ཁང་

Thowadrak, one of the four great holy cliffs of Bumthang, famed by meditators, faith seekers, and pilgrims from all walks of life, is full of amusing legends and stories that awestruck everyone who pay visit to the temple or hear about it. The most important story from Thowa Drak is enthralling story of Guru Rimpoche performing miracles though divine powers to subdue vicious demons and summoning them as Dharma protectors. The second legend of Thowa Drak that never fail to entice us is riveting biography of leprosy infected 11th century princes from Kingdom of Khachay (Present day Kashmir), Gelongma Pelmo (Laksminkara) who was assisted by attendant named Samphel Mo, miraculously recovering from leprosy after meditating in a cave at Thowa Drak. You must have also heard of melancholic story of grief stricken Kyika-Rathoe’s ༼ཁྱི་ཁ་ར་ཐོད༽visit to Thowadrak who travelled all the way from Jalikhar, Chamkhar, to the mountain top of Thowa Drak only to find his residence at Khenpajong turned into desolate place by supernatural power of Guru Rimpoche. There is no end to legend of Thowadrak if one has time and patience to listen and learn. However, the focus of this article is “Treess of two eastern girls”.
Thowa Drak
ཤར་ཕྱོགས་མའི་ནགས་ར 

I heard this story many years ago when I was a little boy and I have developed unconditional love and connection for this story. I wondered a lot about this story and today, finally, I am writing this story after knowing that it happened at Thowa Drak and evidence do exist. This story is about the power of solemn prayers, faith and devotion and the wish fulfilling power of the sacred Thowa Drak. It is also the story of how blessed we are to visit Thowa Drak and power of making aspiration prayers and wishes at the site.
Thodrak Lama Kamala Prajna Vajra ༼ཀ་མ་ལ་པྲཛྙཱ་བཛྲ༽ beautifully narrates the account of two girls from east as follows in the brief pilgrimage guide.
གནའ་དུས་བདེན་སྨོན་མཐུས་བསྐྱོད་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ནས། །བུ་མོ་སྤུན་གཉིས་གནས་དེ་དྲན་ཙམ་གྱིས། །མི་ཕྱེད་དད་པས་བསྐུལ་བརྟེན་གནས་དེར་ལྷགས། །གནས་འཇལ་གྲུབ་མཚམས་སླར་བསྐྱོད་ལམ་ཁ་ནས། །མཐའ་མའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གནས་དེར་སྐྱེ་བར་སྨོན། །མིར་སྐྱེ་མ་ཐུབ་གནས་བྱར་སྐྱེ་བར་སྨོན། དེ་ལྟའི་སྨོན་ཚིག་གླུ་དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་ཕུལ་བས། །བདེན་མཐུས་ནགས་ཤིང་གཉིས་སུ་གནས་གྱུར་བས། །
For those who need some help with translation, it was told that, in the past two sister from east upon hearing about the mystical power of fruition of prayer at sacred site visited Thowa Drak with utmost faith. Upon completing the pilgrimage the two sisters, after facing (upwards) towards the holy site, are said to have prayed and wished for rebirth at Thowa Drak. They beautifully sung and prayed for their rebirth at Thowa Drak, even in the form of birds at the site if they aren’t reborn has human. Their prayers and wishes were fulfilled by the mystical power and fruition of faith because of which two sisters are believed to be born as two trees near the naturally occurring golden dragger on who’s submit, holy site and temple of Thowa Drak sits like soaring vulture.

Thowa Drak
ཤར་ཕྱོགས་མའི་ནགས་རའི་ཤིང་རྐང་
Two trees of eastern girls have significant sole in the beauty of ambience and existence of Thowa Drak since they represent goddesses of offering, making their timeless and sincere offerings to the sacred site and its guardian deities. Just before pilgrims begin climbing the steep steps from base of the cliff, two sisters stand tall and majestic to welcome all visitors and bid farewell while heading back.
At present two trees are of same size and almost same height. However, the top part of one the trees has broken off making it look shorter. Two trees (sisters) are spectacularly unique and beautiful among the thousands that surround the sacred site.

When you visit Thowa Drak, do not miss the beauty of two sisters standing tall at the base of  Thowa Drak and do not forget to pray for them.
With prayers to two sisters for their swift rebirth in higher realm.
 འདི་བཟུང་ཚེ་རབས་ཐམས་ཆཅད་དུ།  །མི་ལུས་རིན་ཆེན་ཐོབ་པ་དང་།  ། 
གསང་སྔགས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཐེག་པ་ཡི།  །བླ་མ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་དང་མཇལ་བར་ཤོག།  །།

Viewers also read: Mythetical Temple of Lugi Raw  ༼ལུག་གི་རྭཝ༽

Comments

Post a Comment

We welcome your comments

Popular posts from this blog

Menchu of Menchuna: A Hidden Gem in Tobesa, Punakha

Image
Nestled in the serene village of Menchuna, Tobesa, Punakha, lies the mysterious and historical site of Menchu. As its toponym may suggest, Menchuna is a place where tradition and nature intertwine in fascinating ways. Once renowned for its medicinal hot springs, Menchu has a story that reflects both the resilience of its people and the enduring allure of its natural gifts. Here’s a journey into the intriguing tale of Menchu and its place in the heart of Bhutan. The Legacy of Menchu: A Once-Prominent Hot Spring Menchu was once celebrated as a revered hot spring, its waters believed to hold remarkable healing power with medicinal as well mineral properties. For centuries, the people of Bhutan trekked to Menchuna, as it is ideally situated near traditional Punakha-Thimphu trek trail. The hot springs, with their mineral-rich waters, were a vital source of therapeutic relief, providing solace and healing to countless visitors. The Struggle and the Change However, as is often the case with p
Read more

A Melon at Rukubji

Image
Rukubji As I dissolve among the ordinary Drinking the ecstasy of sublime thoughts, Burrowing through what-ifs, and Rejoicing the best in my mind, I re-make myself every day. As I spread the deed, With no ego of having nor fear of not having I offer this chunk of melon To the deity of Pelela Who opens the door to scenic Rukubji,  I offer this chunk of melon To the serpent of Rukubji Who once slithered through the valley, I offered this chunk of melon To the omnipresent Pema Who pinned down the snake demon,  I offer this chunk of melon To the divine Kinley Who blessed the valley with mastered, I offer this chuck of melon To the red-cheek beauties of Rukibji Who shines the valley with unique art. In my humble offering May I find more solace, and May Omteng Tshomem bless them more. Lake below Palela (not Omteng Tso) Read More Here
Read more

Mythical Temple of Lugi Raw ༼ལུག་གི་རྭཝ༽

Image
Lugi Raw Temple Have you heard of Lugi Raw? Many haven't. If you are one of them you are on the right platform. This is for you.  3200 meters above the sea level, secluded among the towering mountains that feed Tshachuphu river, surrounded by fragrant cypress, juniper and pine trees, the temple of Lugi Raw (Rawa) is mystically yet snugly tucked at the heart of perilous cliff. Once you are at the temple clouds scudding overhead and the eerie silence of the surrounding perfectly blends with mysterious existence of temple. The old and rugged structure looks straight from the mythical era of 10th century. Very little is known about this temple. That is no wonder since the temple was established sometime between 10th and 11th century by some renowned Buddhist master.  Ngog Chöku Dorje (C@Mar Ngog.Org) The huge rocky cliff on which temple sits is believed to be meditation cave of Guru Rimpoche. The founder of the temple, however, is attributed to Lama Ngog Chöku Dorje (AKA Ngog Ten Choe
Read more