Pilgrimage to Drak Karpo and Dzongdakha The excitement generated out from the news of pilgrimage to Drak-Karpo and Dzongdakha lingers in my mind for whole night. Early in the Morning of 1st November, 2013, I on behalf of my two brothers prepared a breakfast and lunch as well. After an hour of hard work in kitchen, I finished preparing and packed it and get ready for the pilgrimage. My youngest brother helped me in offering Choepa (the clean water offering) which is our daily schedule. Before we begin expedition to sacred sites, I offered butter lamp exclusively dedicated to our Monarchs - the former King and His Majesty’s 5th Coronation Anniversary. I offered my profound prayers for the King’s long live ahead and incessant of ruling our country as the Peoples King. Three of us then start our journey towards Shaba -the meet point destination with Rinpoches entourage from Thimphu. Three of us waited for few minutes, and then Rinpoche and his entourage arrived to the place. We greeted whole heartedly and receive ‘Chawang’ (Free hand blessing) from Rinpoche. The group purchased some ‘Dalda’ (the factory made frozen oil) and ‘Tshog’ (Feast offering). The entourages start the journey from Shaba satellite town towards the north following the unpaved road for almost 20 to 30 minutes. It was great journey which gave us tremendous experiences of traveling on unpaved road. After certain time, we reached up on the hills of Youtha Goenpa. I noticed Open air Prisoners working there. We continued further to our destination - Drak Karpo. After few minutes, entourages carried on the walk to the Temple. What is amazing there is the big rock which took more than 20 to 30 minutes to finish a round. There sacred/holy places such as ‘Nub Namkhai Nyingpos Drupkhang, Guru Rinpoches Zhugthri, Khandomai Zhukthri’, etc. are there. Numerous holy places too are there there which I failed to ask anybody due to lack of Advocator -the ‘Nye-Shaypa’. After a round, we enter the temple which is built attached on the gigantic rock. It was built professionally that we cant imagine of climbing there because of rocky area. It’s so amazing for us. The care taker of the Temple explained about the holy and sacredness of the place. The main statue there is Guru Rinpoche. The Nye was said to be Guru Rinpoches meditation cave where he subdued the evils there. The ‘Paksam Joenshing’ -the tree of wealth was also there in the form of Rock. In such sacred sites, the ordinary beings can see only rocks and water but for the extra-ordinary beings, they can see rocks as real things. Rinpoches entourages offered the prayer in the main temple where Guru Rinpoches statue was stationed. We then slowly and steadily flew back to the road head. On the way back to road head, I met with few people staying there and circumambulating the so called Zangdopelri -the huge and massive rock. Then entourages flew to Dzongdakha. On the way to Dzongdakha, we had lunch. Then our journey continued to Dzongdakha. After 10 minutes drive we reached first temple that is built on the rock. It seems the private temple where private house is built adjacent to the temple. We offer our prayers, prostration and ‘Nyendar’. We then flew to Dzongdakha temple which too was built on the gigantic and colossal rock which was unimaginable for all of us. This temple was said to be built during Jetshen Milarepa, but no concrete evidence was found as there was no Caretaker or Nye-shaypa present there. We visited first lhakhang, the main Relic in this temple is Guru Rinpoche. There the Temporary Nye-shaypa shared whatever he knew about the Nye. Second temple from top is where sacred Chorten-stupa is built inside the temple. As per the verbal statement of temporary Nye-shaypa, it is said be built before many centuries. He says that inside chorten there is one small glass chorten as its main Zung - internal relic. The stupa near the temple is under reconstruction. So, we could not see its whole physical structure. ‘Tsheringmai Drupchu’ -the holy water is also collected in the tank built attached to the source. The entourages wishfully imbibed the ‘Drupchu’ thinking that the clarity and pleasantness of the voice would be better. However, it’s just belief in our own ways. The important thing about Dzongdakha is, Paro Tshechu starts from there on 8th of 2nd Bhutanese calendar and goes till 10th. Then on 11th the Tshechu is being conducted in Paro Dzong till 15th and on 16th the Paro Tshechu concludes at Dzongdakha. There is very long history of conducting the Tshechu in such ways. Then we flew back. On the way to home, entourages had tea near the road side and Rinpoche and entourages shared some jokes and talks of past, present and future raised within encourages. Finally, after long time spending talking and chatting, the entourage flew back to the respective homes. Those came from Thimphu along with Rinpoche flew back to Thimphu and we ensued to Paro town where we stay.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 05:48:20 +0000
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