Bhutan is a small country but
many more to offer if one tries to explore. Often many beautiful things are
over shadowed by what is more easily accessible. Amongst other, there are many
legends and anecdotes that are likely to disappear due to poor documentation.
Today, everywhere we go there are many legends that are alive in lips of many
of our village folks. But a time will come that those beautiful stories will
wane as these are hardly passed down to newer generations. So much has been
done to keep our bed stories and legends alive by many relevant organizations
but a lot need to do especially those from hard to reach places. My recent
visit to one of the hard to reach nomadic communities in Bhutan made me to
think and contemplate on such things. While many of my colleagues were thinking
of how to cross the snowcapped mountains as it was tiring climb up the steep, I
was seriously listening to an elderly man from the village who narrates many
wonderful stories that I was hearing for the very first time. Listening to those
beautiful stories and looking at the spectacular landscapes help me forget my
tiring journey. Among many stories, which I cannot resist to pen down was about
the then Dzong (fortress) at Soe located at the base of Jomolhari pass which now
stands in ruin state.
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| The ruin of Dzong at Soe |
At the base of Mt. Jomolhari there used to be a magnificent
fortress (dzong) belonged to the then king which is now lies in the ruin state.
While I couldn’t find the written history about the fortress, but some local
people have a beautiful story to share. History tells us that there used to be
a king in each locality and Soe is not an exception. According to the local
people, the dzong belong to the king of that locality. However, they were not
able to trace back the exact time when there was a king. It must be before
Zhabdrung’s era but the exact time is still an unanswered question which needs
further research. According to him, the king was not very happy with the
location of his dzong. As such they said that the king was being very
unreasonable to order his subjects to annihilate the mighty mountain which is
opposite to his dzong in order for him to get an early sun rise. The sun rays
were being blocked by the mountains. No doubt, while getting early sun would be
more than desirable in the high altitude like Soe which is over 4000 metres
above sea level but this was humanly impossible. After receiving command from
the king, all the people of the locality gathered to discuss how they were
going to behead the mountains so that their king will enjoy an early morning
sun. As expected the discussion reached to the conclusion that they were not
able to completely dismantle the mountain as desired by their king. Meanwhile,
a lady from the corner with a baby on her back suggested that it will be easier
to destroy the King instead of destroying the huge mountain. Others in the
meeting agreed to the idea shared by the lady. Since then the people claimed
the dzongkha proverbs ‘Bumey Sherub gee
Rangshin’ which is roughly translated as women are by nature, intelligent
was hailed from the incident. Some says that the lady was the disguised local
deity of that place. Accordingly, one fine day all the people have secretly stoned
the king to death. The place where the king was killed is today filled with
pebbles and rocks, said the villager. After this unfortunate incident, the late
king’s family and relatives fled to neighboring country, erstwhile Sikkim.
Still it is believed that the descendents of king are residing in Sikkim. We
were told that when king’s relatives fled to Sikkim they took a sacred stone
along with them. It is still believed that the sacred stone was placed in
Nathula, Sikim and the descendents of the king even today offer their respect
and take homage from the stone instead of coming to Soe.
Having got the opportunities to
travel length and breadth of our wonderful country and meeting its beautiful
people is deeply fulfilling.
