Paro Rinpung Dzong
(This series is dedicated to my
friend Susan and her husband James Andrew who are currently in Bhutan. I guess they must be among the crowd watching Thimphu Tshechu these days. I hope they have a pleasant stay in Bhutan.)
Drung Drung Gyelchog and the Demons of Paro
As soon as Drung Drung Gyelchog, one of the great
grandsons of Phajo Drugom Zhingpo, settled down on the cliff edge at Hungrel in
Paro (where the present day Rinpung Dzong is located), he summoned all the
local deities and spirits in whole of Paro valley. The local deities and
spirits all pledged their allegiance to him except for one called the
spirit from Drelpo Jika who continued to harm people, their cattle and
other properties.
He used medium and possessed people. Through the medium,
he demanded sacrifices and offerings which he gluttonously killed cattle and
wasted precious wealth of the people. Cattle in Bhutan are considered wealth
because bulk of our people are farmers.
It continued for a very long time until one day when a
person from the area got possessed by the spirit from Drelpo Jika. The
spirit threatened the life of his medium or the person whom he had possessed despite
many rituals, libation and sacrifices being performed. So the family of the
possessed person begged Drung Drung Gyelchog to help them get rid of the
spirit.
Drung Drung Gyelchog summoned the spirit from Drelpo Jika along
with the person who was possessed. He first separated them. Then he made the
spirit face him in person and chased him as far as the western end and warned
him of dire consequences which the spirit was forced to oblige.
To help the possessed person recover from mental turmoil
and regain his consciences and energy, the person who was possessed and used as
medium was sent to the other extreme with all provisions of food and clothing. He
was to remain there for some months.
Then the lama conducted other rituals for the family and
blessed the whole village. Ever since then, the village has been free of any
malignant spirits.
Paro Rinpung Dzong
Paro Rinpung Dzong not only commands over the whole of
fertile area but also is a feast for the eyes. It has the power to bless the
faithful and is the monument of heaps of jewels and precious stones.
As much as it is splendid, the history of its construction
is even more appealing.
Drung Drung Gyelchog was taken with remorse to see that
many factions of differing religious sects who had settled down in the area in
and around Paro before him were all engaged in conflict with each other to gain
power and control instead of helping innocent people. Each Lama tried to prove
his supremacy by waging war against the other which was not so Buddhist.
So Drung Drung Gyelchog decided to leave Paro than stay in
such war torn area. When people knew that he was leaving, they were very sad.
So they all got together and forced warring parties to seek truce. Then they
went to beg lama to stay back. There they offered the cliff where the Dzong is
built now to Drung Drung Gyelchog and requested him to build his palace and
settle there permanently.
The night that the people had come to beg him to stay back,
he had a vision where a deity in white
clothes passed on the message from Guru Rinpoche to stay back. He took it as a
good omen and agreed to the people’s request.
He immediately started building five-storied palace. His
disciples and patrons of Chang and Drolpo all came and helped him during the
day and in the night he was helped by the spirits and deities.
On one such occasion when he was using the service of the
deities in ferrying the woods, his wife and some of the servants who considered
themselves lucky to see miracle saw huge
trees rolling down from mountain top on its own. Some of the trees got stuck
halfway and got planted there with visible leaves and fruits during Spring and
Fall. Such was the power of Drung Drung Gyelchog. The trees are said to be visible
still to this day above the Dzong.
Sometimes in 15th
century, a Terton
( treasure revealer) called Sherab Mebar happened to reach Haa from Kham in Tibet. He drank all the
waters of the lake Nubtshonapatra and took out dung (trumpet), Nga (drum) and a
pair of ramung (cymbals) from the lake bed. He also found a huge golden pillar
which he requested a carpenter to curve it into a pillar to be used for building
Paro Rinpung. The carpenter was told to take the shavings from the pillar as
his remuneration for the work. However, the carpenter shaved too much from the
pillar as his compensation. As a result, the lake escaped from the mouth of the
Terton and started chasing him. Terton ran for his life. While running away, he
threw first the drum and then the drumsticks. He also threw away the trumpet
and a one portion of the cymbals until the diety Phola Mansang Chungdud
appeared to rescue the Terton at a place
called Labdza of Tshellutsho. Phola
Mansang Chungdud negotiated the truce between the Terton and the angry deity of
the lake. It was agreed that the Terton and his followers would never set their
foot in Haa Shongana after that incident. Similarly, the deity of the lake
agreed not to cross Labdza. This cut out all links between the people of Haa
Shongana and Paro Pangmisa where Labdza is located. The other portion of the
cymbal still exists today and is one of the main treasures of the Paro Rinpung
Dzong.
Once a year it is taken out of
the Dzong during annual Paro Tshechu for public to get blessing from it.
This agreement was however,
defied later by a young man from Haa Shongana who happened to marry a girl from
Paro Pangmisa. While going to Haa Shongana, the couple lost their infant child
when they crossing a footbridge. The knot tying the baby wrapper is known to
have loosened itself when they reached the middle of the bridge and the child
was carried away by the river beneath. So the people of Paro and Haa started
taking Ap Chungdud very seriously.
Well, that’s a part of the story. So coming back to Paro
Rinpung Dzong, it is said that it did not take long time for the lama to
complete the Dzong. (Well, if I had deities and spirits working for me, I would
like to build many buildings in Thimphu and Phuentsholing and live on sky high
rents. That’s just my wishful thinking which will never happen). Well, The lama
is known to have given teaching on Buddhism during morning hours of day and as
such, people from far and wide came with bamboo baskets to work and get the
teachings also. It is being said that the load became so light after they heard
the teachings that ordinary people were able to ferry hundreds of basket loads of
stones and mud in few hours.
The Dzong, although, was known as Hungrel Dzong when
completed, was later called as Rinpung Dzong, the mountain of
jewels after the cliff called Rinpungdrag, which was actually
named by Guru Rinpoche.
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