Page 82 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

Other participants were inside the RC room, chatting. They showed me a bunk bed in the far corner of the
room. I spread out a bedsheet on the mattress and scurried into the town for a bowl of noodles.
The four-day seminar commenced the following day. I received two thousand ngultrums at the end.
My veins throbbed. “What? I am poorly remunerated. I think I should approach the focal person.” I walked up
to him. “Sir, two thousand ngultrums is way less for my DSA. I claimed seven thousand ngultrums. You should
remunerate me at least six thousand.”
He stared at me. “You’ve claimed more than your entitlement.” He rose from his chair and picked up his
backpack. “I can’t add one ngultrum.”
“See, my relatives are waiting for me to attend my grandpa’s funeral. What would I do with these two thousand
ngultrums?”
“I can’t. I will be in trouble.”
“Please, sir, I beg of you.”
He searched through his backpack for some change. “Since you insist...”
Although one thousand was still too less, I took it and said, “Thank you.”
Mr. Kaka, the principal of Rangjung Primary School, gave me a lift. All along the way, I recalled Grandpa’s
sacrifice for the family. Though cantankerous, he did everything he could to keep us happy. On our business trips,
Grandpa and I would travel on foot, selling ornaments and utensils. I enjoyed traveling with him. It was
adventurous, exploring new places and people.
Every year, he took us on a pilgrimage to Gomphu Kora. It was about eleven miles away from Chazam on the
way to Trashiyangtse. Gomphu means a meditation cave and kora means to circumambulate. And there was a
temple below the cave. Three- day festival would be held there, in honor of Guru Rinpoche, the prodigious saint
from Tibet. Guru Rinpoche was born from a lotus in Dhanakosa Lake in Pakistan, but how come Guru Rinpoche
was at Gomphu Kora? How’s that possible?
Here’s a story about how Gomphu Kora came into existence as my dad’s narration:
A saint and his disciple pass by a lake in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The temperamental lake shudders, producing
a cloud of vapors. The great saint tells his disciple there lies a golden grinder at the bottom of this lake. The disciple
asks him to get it for him.
The saint agrees and tells his disciple to anoint holy water on his head when he resurfaces from the lake.
The ground shakes as the saint battles with the nymph. Rings of waves spread across the lake in great height and
the roars. Half an hour later, a serpent emerges with a golden grinder in its mouth. The disciple whimpers away in
fright. The serpent drops the golden grinder back into the lake and devours his disciple. It kills whatever comes its
way.
So, local people invite Guru Rinpoche from Tibet to subdue the serpent. Guru Rinpoche chases the serpent
along the riverbank downstream. At a confluence, below Trashigang Dzong, the serpent slithers up along the bank
of the river. At Gomphu Kora, it enters a hole inside the cave. Guru meditates there, waiting for the serpent to
come out. Days later, the serpent thumps him from behind. Startled, Guru bumps his head on the ceiling of the
cave, leaving the imprint there.
Later, people named this place, Gomphu Kora.
Back then, Gomphu Kora was a two-hour journey from Trashigang, but Grandpa didn’t stop vehicles. We
walked us. So, my cousin, Phuntsho and I nagged him all along the way.
“Okay, let’s see who can find numbers first,” said Grandpa. “See that number there? Go find out the numbers
and keep count of those!”
We rushed and counted the numbers written on the walls with charcoal.
“There,” I said. “One.”
“It’s mine,” said Cousin Phuntsho. “I found it first.”
“No way,” I said. “I did.”
“You didn’t. I saw it.”
“Hurry, find the rest,” said Grandpa. “There are many to count ahead.”
By then, we would arrive at Gomphu Kora.
Another reminiscence of Grandpa made me chortle amid my sniffling. Well, it was late summer and the corn
plants were taller than me.
“Dorji, we are receiving a guest in the evening,” said Grandpa. “You have to kill a chicken.”
My jaw dropped. “Me?”
“Get help from Darjay,” he said. “Hurry or we’ll be late.”
“But we killed nothing before.”
“Go ahead. Catch the plump one.”

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