Dasho Passang Wangdi – A ‘chairman’ at 16 ZOOM: + - Reset The former Trongsa dzongda regaled his audience for two hours about a bygone era At 16, Passang Wangdi was already a ‘chairman’. As chairman, his job was to carry two foldable chairs for the King while outdoors and when travelling between royal residences. “When the King summoned for the chairman, I had to go and place the chair,” Dasho Passang Wangdi, 83, recalled, during a lecture he gave yesterday at the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) in Thimphu. It was one of the first jobs he was entrusted with at the royal court of the Second King, His Majesty Jigme Wangchuck. His life at the court began as a 14-year-old recruited to learn modern education. He was among the 14 students selected to study under a royal tutor from the Sha Dagye (present day Wangduephodrang), and 16 from Trongsa in the mobile school that moved with the King. “We were more worried of not being able to memorise the texts in Hindi than about our parents at home in the villages,” he said. “Unlike the present generation, we didn’t have the luxury of going to school with furniture and electricity.” Of the 30, five were chosen to become clerks at the royal court after four years of schooling. The others were sent to Kalimpong to pursue modern education. Dressed in an ordinary gho, his face breaking into wrinkles, Dasho Passang’s voice thundered through the CBS conference as he took the audience back to a different era in his two-hour talk, which he delivered standing. It was an honest story told by someone who had been there and done that. His education ended abruptly, when their teacher fled to Tibet to become a scholar in Buddhism. “The teacher gave us something to memorise in five days. But he didn’t turn up and then we started looking for him,” Dasho Passang said. The students went in the town, a little further from the palace in Wangduechholing, searching for their teacher. Then a shop was just a wooden box full of goods. Later, the students learnt that he had gone to Tibet to study and never to return. A messenger, who could reach Paro from Bumthang in 12 days, was sent to inform His Majesty about the teacher. There were veterinary doctors, such as Dr Phenchung and Dr Karchung, at the royal court to look after the health of the livestock, but they landed up treating people more often. “We’d just have one shot of their medicine and the next moment we were as fit as a mule,” he said. He attributed his strength and health even at this age to those medicines. As a junior courtier he would go to fetch meals for the seniors. He had to shout out the names of attendants whose share he was collecting. The courtiers then had two names, the real and nicknames. He would first call out the real name, collect the share and then shout the nickname of the same person and collect a share more. So, in the end, he would have collected quite an amount of rice and pieces of dry meat. “We’d sell the rice to other people, and save the meat to take home to our parents in winter,” he said. When he came to visit his parents in winter, there was no leisure time. “We’d carry grains, dairy products, and other goods to the dzongs as taxes from our parents,” he said. “Now people don’t carry anything, so your backs are hairy.” Dasho Passang also served as a soldier under his wife, who held the post of a pelpon (non commissioned officer) in the military during the reign of the third king. He went on to become a captain in the army, and serve as Trongsa dzongda.. Dasho Passing today has more than 50 ghos received as soelras from the Kings and other high-ranking officials. “I even have a gho worn by the first King kept at my altar,” he said. The CBS official had to interrupt to close the session in the end since the time was up. By Tshering Palden
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 10:17:28 +0000
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