Monday, 13 December 2010

The inauspicious day meets nine evils

The seventhth day of the eleventh month of Bhutanese calender is always considered as the "Ngyenpa Gu Zom" meaning meeting of nine evils. And this year the nine evils met on 12 December, Sunday.

This was the day when a brother met his sister. The legend has it that there was a couple*, Pha Dorji Lhokthreng and Ma Sasin Barma whom they had a son and four daughters. Those children decided to take a journey around Ri Gyalpo Rirab mountain,the highest mountain ridge. But they got separated on the way.

And the seventh day of the 11th month was the day when Rahula** met Drogsing*** where thay had an affair just to realize latter that they were indeed the siblings (from the same parents) and discovered their incestuous relationship. Thus nine evils were born and the story continues.

(Various items prepared for the inauspicious day, 2010)
We consider this day as the most inauspicious, meaning there will be no merit in any good deed we may do; but there will be multiplied negative karma if one should involve in bad deeds and belief has it that any important activity undertaken would be unsuccessful, and not supposed to venture outdoors, take long journey or begin a new plan. This must be the reason why people (who believe) celebrate with feasting and playing games like archery and khuru (dart game) on the day. And this is celebrated especially by people of central and eastern part of the country.

The day was granted Public holiday till 2007.

*the demon couple
** the eldest son
*** eldest of the sisters
note: the given image portrays various dishes (the drinks were not shown) prepared for the Ngenpa Gu zom day, 2010 in Gedu. Items included: rice, pork, beef, chicken, kewadatshi(1),mushroom curry,ezzay(2),emadatsi(3) and many other.We went for a dry picnic with those dishes; we enjoyed and had a Khuru match after the feast just to let the inauspicious day meet the nine evils; we did not do any significant work or what we did was all insignificant.
(1) kewadatshi-Bhutanese curry made up of cheese and potatoes as main ingredients
(2) Ezzay-kind of pickle, made of chillies cut into pieces and mixed with other ingredients like onion, cheese; and it is not cooked like curries
(3) Emadatshi-curry made of green chillies and cheese as important ingredients















 
Posted by KARMA YEZER at 00:30

4 comments:

  1. Pema Wangdi13 December 2010 at 02:10

    Yet again, another informative article. I didn't really know the reason(s) behind this very well-celebrated occasion, apart from enjoying the festivity.

    Keep it up bro. And yeah, Happy Ngyenpa Gu Zom to you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KARMA YEZER13 December 2010 at 19:37

    Thanks Pema. But i feel that people would forget this day after some years;they would hardly celebrate as time passes.This culture would die at last. This day is no national holiday now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pema Wangdi14 December 2010 at 03:30

    Yeah, thats very likely, as you said its not a national holiday anymore. Hopefully, Members of Parliament come to realize that the day is necessary to be reinstated as a national holiday since its deeply rooted to our ancient culture, before its too late.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dumcho's NOTEBOOK7 January 2014 at 19:16

    Nice and resourceful. Importance noted. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete

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