Conversations with Namgyal Lepcha by Dechen Pelgi Tenzing






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUROW MUNG & JAW RUM

Image
Image: Rock on the road between Shara and Tizong in Sikkim, India, 1894.  (Photo by Johnston & Hoffman/Royal Geographical Society) MUROW MUNG: Shaped like a palm of a hand ( Haath Josto ). What does Murow mean? Why is this one Mung ? JAW RUM: Shaped like a Talo (Mat) It flies like Batarnay jostai - like a carpet it would flap and twist continuously. What does Jaw mean? Why is this one Rum ? Both Jaw and Muro Mung fly and are especially active in the winters. They usually fly close to the land surface. Their area of origin is said to be from a black pond located somewhere in Naga, North Sikkim. Some say they come from the base of Kongchen Chu. It usually comes down hovering over the river on a clear night to drink water from the Teesta. They both fly with a loud sound (helicopter?) Whenever one encounters this Haath jostai and Batarnay jostai , one should hide immediately. Since they travel at night, their victims mostly therefore are the fishermen who would be out at night...
Read more

THE BEAR AND HIS FAVOURITE SOUP!

Image
This story is from a place called Tumprong which is an hour's walk from Leek. Most of the Land here belongs to people from Tingvong, they come during the makkai (maize) plantation time, plant the makkais and go back to Tingvong. An old couple used to live there at the time. Every Makkai season the land owner [(Dawa and Ugen) brothers] from Tingvong used to find their makkai being eaten, when asked to the couple, they shrugged it off blaming the bear who also used to come down occasionally to eat makkai during the season. This happened for a long time. The brothers were unconvinced with that story and decided to stay back one time and check who the real culprit was. They prepared their bows and arrows for the night, warned the old couple not to venture into that area.  The old man decided to go and steal makkai anyways, so he wore his bear skin and went to the fields. Dawa realizing that there was someone there gives a first warning ordering if it were human to move away to...
Read more

The death of POON SHI BUNG!

Poon Shi Bung was a small boy in Lingthem. He lived above the current day (ChungChung Gurama's)  building  on Zilla's property.  There was a puja session (lama) at Subon area. [at the time only JayJay miss's family were monks, so they were performing the prayer session] It was monsoon time, the corns were knee length. The parents of Poon Shi Bung decided to go and attend the prayer session held at Subon area. They advised Poon to stay at home and look after the fields and cattle.  After they left, Poon finished all the chores and was sitting idly in front of the main door overlooking the corn fields below. He was surprised to see his mother working in the field. It had been about two hours since his parents left for Subon. He was confused to see her there, and was wondering why his father was not there if they didn't leave. Just when he was thinking all this, his mother came in front of him and scolded him for being wasteful and idle. She suggested that they ...
Read more