Chogyal: ‘Soul of Sikkim’

Palden Thondup Namgyal ‘one of the greatest sons of Sikkim’:Chamling

  On the occasion of the 36^th Funeral Day of Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal (1923-1982), (the historic funeral took place in Gangtok on February 19, 1982), let me re-publish what was published in my Sikkim Observer in 1999 on the Chogyal of Sikkim.

The Governor, Choudhary Randhir Singh, described the late Chogyal, Palden Thondup Namgyal, as a “noble soul”, a “moral giant” and a great friend of India. Laying the foundation stone of the statue of the 12^th Chogyal in Gangtok this week the Governor said he was proud to be associated with the works of the late Chogyal and the people of Sikkim.

The Governor said the Chogyal represented the cultural history of the State which dates back to several centuries. He said the installation of the statue at the complex of the Research Institute of Tibetology (SRIT) had not only raised the stature of the Institute but the choice of the location was apt as the former Chogyal was the “soul” behind the establishment of the research centre.

He said the Choygal, who many years ago invited Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to inaugurate the Institute, was a “noble soul who left his impact on Tibetology and preservation of the cultural history of Sikkim.” He added, “The Choygal in heaven must be happy that his soil is safe with Mother India.”

The Governor expressed his happiness over the decision of the Chief Minister, Pawan Chamling, and his Cabinet members to install a statue of the late Chogyal. “I’m proud to be associated with the installation of the statue. I congratulate you all from the innermost recesses of my heart on this decision.”

Paying rich tributes to the late Chogyal, the Chief Minister said the 12^th Chogyal was “one of the greatest sons of Sikkim” and it was apt for the people to acknowledge his greatness and remember him for all times to come. He said, “While we are proud citizens of this great country the 300 years of history of the State should not be forgotten.”

Chamling said on completion of 24 years as a part of the Indian Union it was important to “keep the history of Sikkim alive.” He said during the Chogyal’s rule the foundation of the State’s economic development was established. While urging the people to preserve the State’s rich cultural heritage, history and communal harmony, the Chief Minister said, “Whatever has happened and lost its gone. Now let us look forward and build a better future for Sikkim and the Sikkimese.”

The Chief Minister revealed that the idea of installing the statue of the Chogyal came when the State Government decided to scrap the Rathong Chu hydel project in west district two years back. “It is our duty to preserve our history,” Chamling said while adding that “these historical sites” will become a part of the State’s history which was ruled by the Namgyal dynasty for over 300 years. Yuksam, the first capital of the former kingdom, has now been turned into a heritage centre after the controversial hydel project was scrapped.

The Chief Minister said the Cabinet last week decided to change the name of the Sikkm Research Institute of Tibetology (SRIT) to Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. The Institute was previously known as Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. The Board of Directors of the SRIT had earlier decided to restore the name “Namgyal Institute of Tibetology”, which was changed in 1975-76. The premises of the statue will be declared as “Palden Thondup Memorial Park”.

The PWD Minister, D.D. Bhutia, said the late Chogyal was “the greatest son of Sikkim”. Bhutia said, “Our government will not only install the statue of the late Chogyal but will also improve and create the surroundings befitting the status of one of the greatest sons of Sikkim.”

“I feel that we should not forget our history, our rich cultural heritage and communal harmony,” Bhutia told the distinguished gathering of royal family members and former Chief Minister, L.D. Kazi, and ex-secretaries, Jigdal Densapa, Kunzang Sherab and L.B. Chettri.

                                       (Ref: Sikkim Observer, May 22-29, 1999)

SIKKIM: PEOPLE & PLACES

HAPPY LOSOONG, LACHENPAS

   Traditionally, we Lachenpas do not celebrate the annual Denzong Losoong (celebrated on first day of the 11^th month in the lunar calendar), which normally falls in the month of December, nor the Tibetan Losar in February-March, but Losoong. This day falls on the first day of the 12 month in the lunar calendar. This year it falls on January 17. Only the Lachenpas in Sikkim have been celebrating this day as their New Year for centuries.

   So, may I wish Happy Losoong to all the Lachenpas.  May Lachen and Lachenpas be blessed with good health, wealth and long life. May Lachen bloom forever!

   Normally, the annual Chham (ritualistic lama dance) takes place two days before Losoong (on the 29^th day), followed by Bomko (Bom-kor, procession of holy scriptures of Lachen Gompa around the village) on Namkhang, the 30^th day of the month. Sadly, nowadays the Chham is performed a few weeks earlier (this year it was held on January 4) to enable the local people to attend the annual Monlam pujas at Bodhgaya. The annual chodok pujas in each household in Lachen are performed after Losoong.

   Apart from changes in the annual schedule of important traditional events I have also noticed the change in what people wear on these special events. Many people are now sporting the stylish costumes of Mongolian and Tibetan people on such occasions. During important traditional events such as Losoong festival we must always retain our own unique traditions and customs.

  HAPPY LOSOONG!

A MILESTONE FOR CHAMLING, MILES TO GO FOR SIKKIM

It is a proud moment for Chief Minister Pawan Chamling as his ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), which he heads, completes 23 years in office (Dec 12, 1994-Dec 12, 2017) this week. Chamling’s political maturity is reflected in his admission that while his government has made tremendous progress in all fields there is much more still to be done.

He has blamed the bureaucrats for failure to implement much of his government’s pro-people policies and programmes. At the fag end of his first term in office (1994-1999) the Chief Minister openly admitted that he lacked the right team to lead Sikkim on the right path.

Hopefully, if and when he makes a comeback in the forthcoming Assembly polls (2018 or early 2019) Chamling will have the ideal team that will give top priority to economic and political empowerment of bonafide Sikkimese while preserving Sikkim’s closely-knit social fabric, which at times has taken a battering mainly because of vote-bank politics.

This is a time not only to rejoice in one’s accomplishments but it is also a time for reflection and rejuvenation. Chamling has come a long way but Sikkim has miles to go.

PEACE WITH HONOUR

We may scale new heights or bite the dust but we have renewed our friendship and rededicated our commitments to work together for the Common Cause.

Thank you all for being with us through thick and thin, through our trials and tribulations, through good times and bad times. Wish us well, wish us luck; stay with me for...

 “I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

Add caption(With Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling at his official residence at Mintokgang  in Gangtok on November 28, 2017)

RIWO SANGCHOD: Mountain Smoke Offering

Lhatsun Namkha Jigme

Mountain Smoke Offering: from the Life-Force Practice of the Vidyādharas (Rigdzin Sokdrup)

revealed by Lhatsün Namkha Jikmé

༈ྃ བྷྲཱུྃ༔ རིན་ཆེན་སྣ་ཚོགས་དྭངས་མའི་སྣོད་ཡངས་སུ༔

droom rinchen natsok dangmé nö yang su

Bhrūṃ! In the vast lustrous vessel, made of the essence of various jewels,

འཇིག་རྟེན་སྲིད་པའི་འདོད་རྒུ་དམ་ཚིག་རྫས༔

jikten sipé dögu damtsik dzé

The samaya substances, all the desirable objects in worldly existence, are

འབྲུ་གསུམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་བདུད་རྩིར་བྱིན་བརླབས་པས༔

dru sum yeshe dütsir jinlabpé

Transformed into the nectar of wisdom through the blessing of the three seed syllables oṃ āḥ hūṃ,

སྣང་སྲིད་མཆོད་པའི་འདོད་རྒུར་འཁྲིགས་པ་འདི༔

nangsi chöpé dögur trikpa di

So that all that appears and exists becomes an offering of all that is desirable.

བླ་མ་ཡི་དམ་ཌཱཀྐི་ཆོས་སྲུང་དང༌༔

lama yidam daki chösung dang

This I offer to the gurus, yidams, ḍākinīs, dharmapālas and

ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་རྒྱལ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཇི་སྙེད་དང༌༔

chok chu gyalwé kyilkhor jinyé dang

All the mandalas of the buddhas of the ten directions,

འཛམ་གླིང་གཞི་བདག་རིགས་དྲུག་ལན་ཆགས་མགྲོན༔

dzamling shyidak rik druk lenchak drön

To the local deities of this world, beings of the six realms and the guests to whom I owe karmic debts.

ཁྱད་པར་བདག་གི་ཚེ་འཕྲོག་སྲོག་རྐུ་ཞིང༌༔

khyepar dak gi tsé trok sok ku shying

And especially to those who would steal my life and deplete my life force,

ནད་གཏོང་བར་ཆད་རྩོམ་པའི་འབྱུང་པོ་དང༌༔

né tong barché tsompé jungpo dang

To the malicious jungpo demons who inflict sickness and obstacles,

རྨི་ལམ་རྟགས་མཚན་ངན་དང་ལྟས་ངན་རིགས༔

milam tak tsen ngen dang té ngen rik

Bad signs in dreams and all types of evil omens,

སྡེ་བརྒྱད་མ་རུང་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་བདག་པོ་དང༌༔

dé gyé marung chotrul dakpo dang

The eight classes of negative spirits, the masters of magical illusions,

ཟས་དང་གནས་དང་ནོར་གྱི་ལན་ཆགས་ཅན༔

zé dang né dang nor gyi lenchak chen

And those to whom I owe karmic debts of food, place and wealth,

གྲིབ་བདག་སྨྱོ་འདྲེ་ཕོ་གཤིན་མོ་གཤིན་དང༌༔

drib dak nyodré poshin moshin dang

To forces that bring obscuration and madness, to the shades of men and women dead.

གྲི་བོ་ཐེའུ་རང་གྲོང་སྲིན་འདྲེ་མོ་བཅས༔

driwo terang drong sin dremo ché

To all the spirits, térangs, ghouls and female ghosts!

ལན་ཆགས་དམར་པོའི་མེ་ལ་ཇལ་ཏེ་བསྲེག༔

lenchak marpö mé la jal té sek

Now all my karmic debts are paid, burnt in the scarlet flames.

རང་རང་ཡིད་ལ་གང་འདོད་འདོད་རྒུའི་ཆར༔

rang rang yi la gang dö dögü char

Whatever each one desires, may the objects of their desires rain down:

ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའ་གནས་ཀྱི་བར་ཉིད་དུ༔

jisi namkha né kyi bar nyi du

For as far and as long as space exists

འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཟད་པ་མེད་པར་བསྔོ༔

döpé yönten zepa mepar ngo

I dedicate an inexhaustible amount of sensual stimulants!

བདག་གི་དུས་གསུམ་བསགས་པའི་སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་དང༌༔

dak gi dü sum sakpé dikdrib dang

May my negative actions and obscurations accumulated in past, present and future,

དཀོན་མཆོག་དད་གཤིན་དཀོར་ལ་སྤྱད་པ་རྣམས༔

könchok dé shinkor la chepa nam

And misuse of the offerings made to the Three Jewels, in devotion and for the dead,

སྦྱིན་སྲེག་མེ་མཆོད་འདི་ཡིས་དག་གྱུར་ཅིག༔

jinsek mechö di yi dak gyur chik

Be purified in the fire of this sang offering!

མེ་ལྕེ་སྣང་སྲིད་གང་བའི་རྡུལ་ཕྲན་རེས༔

meché nangsi gangwé dultren ré

Let its flames fill the entire universe and every minute particle of flame

ཀུན་བཟང་མཆོད་པའི་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་མི་ཟད་པ༔

kunzang chöpé trinpung mizepa

Become an inexhaustible cloud of offerings like Samantabhadra’s

རྒྱལ་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཡོངས་ལ་ཁྱབ་གྱུར་ཅིག༔

gyalwé shyingkham yong la khyab gyur chik

Pervading throughout all the buddha realms!

མེ་ལྕེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་ལྔའི་མཆོད་སྦྱིན་ཟེར༔

meché yeshe ö ngé chöjin zer

May these flames, offering-rays of five-coloured lights of wisdom,

རིགས་དྲུག་མནར་མེད་གནས་སུ་ཁྱབ་གྱུར་པས༔

rik druk narmé né su khyab gyurpé

Pervade throughout the six classes of beings, down to the Avīcī Hells,

ཁམས་གསུམ་འཁོར་བ་འཇའ་ལུས་འོད་སྐུར་གྲོལ༔

kham sum khorwa jalü ökur drol

The three realms of saṃsāra be liberated into the rainbow body,

འགྲོ་ཀུན་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤོག༔

dro kün changchub nyingpor sangye shok

And all sentient beings awaken into the heart of enlightenment!

ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྂ༔ ཞེས་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་འབུམ་ཕྲག་མང་པོས་འབུལ་བར་བྱའོ༔

om ah hung

With Oṃ āḥ hūṃ, make the offering a hundred, thousand, or several hundred thousand times.

སྐུ་གསུམ་དག་པ་སྣོད་ཀྱི་གཞལ་ཡས་སུ༔

ku sum dakpa nö kyi shyalyé su

All is purified into the three kāyas: the environment, a heavenly palace where

ཆོས་ལོངས་སྤྲུལ་གསུམ་སྣང་སྲིད་གཟུགས་ཕུང་རྣམས༔

chö long trul sum nangsi zukpung nam

Dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya—appearance and the form aggregates of existence

བདུད་རྩིར་ཞུ་བས་འཇའ་འོད་བར་སྣང་གང༌༔

dütsir shyuwé ja'ö barnang gang

Melt into nectar, flooding the whole expanse of the sky with rainbow light.

འཁོར་བ་མྱང་འདས་ཟག་མེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་བཅུད༔

khorwa nyangdé zakmé dütsi chü

Saṃsāra is liberated into nirvāṇa; this essence of immaculate nectar,

ཐོག་མེད་དུས་ནས་ད་ལྟ་ཡན་ཆད་དུ༔

tokmé dü né danta yenché du

I share with all those who, from beginningless time until now,

སྣང་སྲིད་མགྲོན་དུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡོངས་ལ་བསྔོ༔

nangsi drön du gyurpa yong la ngo

Have been guests in worldly existence.

ས་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་ཡོན་ཏན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ཞིང༌༔

salam drebü yönten tarchin shying

Having attained all the noble qualities of the stages, paths and fruition,

ལྟ་སྒོམ་སྤྱོད་པའི་བར་ཆད་ཀུན་བསལ་ནས༔

ta gom chö pé barché kün sal né

And dispelled all obstacles in view, meditation and action,

རྨད་བྱུང་ཀུན་བཟང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་དབྱིངས་སུ༔

mejung kunzang tuk kyi khaying su

Within the sky-like space of Samantabhadra’s wondrous wisdom mind,

གཞོན་ནུ་བུམ་སྐུར་གཏན་སྲིད་ཟིན་པར་ཤོག༔

shyönnu bumkur tensi zinpar shok

May we seize the stronghold of the youthful vase body!

འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་སྟོངས་པའི་མཐར༔

khorwé gyatso chenpo tongpé tar

And when at last the great ocean of saṃsāra is emptied;

འོག་མིན་པདྨ་དྲྭ་བར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤོག༔

womin pema drawar sangye shok

May all beings attain buddhahood in the Lotus Net of Akaniṣṭha!

ཕུང་ཁམས་བསྲེག་རྫས་བཀྲག་མདངས་གཟི་བརྗིད་འབར༔

pung kham sekdzé trakdang ziji bar

The sang offerings of the aggregates and elements blaze in vivid, brilliant splendour!

དཀར་དམར་བྱང་སེམས་བསྲེག་རྫས་བདེ་སྟོང་འབར༔

kar mar changsem sekdzé detong bar

The sang offerings of red and white bodhicitta blaze in bliss and emptiness!

སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་བསྲེག་རྫས་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་གང༌༔

tongnyi nyingjé sekdzé chöying gang

The sang offerings of emptiness and compassion fill the dharmadhātu!

སྣང་སྲིད་འཁོར་འདས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་འོད་ལྔའི་གཞིར༔

nangsi khordé dorjé ö ngé shyir

Upon the ground of five-coloured vajra light of phenomenal existence, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa,

ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་བསྲེག་རྫས་འབུལ༔

lhündrub dzok sangye pé sekdzé bul

I offer the smoke offering of spontaneously accomplished perfect buddhahood.

སྔོན་གྱི་ལན་ཆགས་ཐམས་ཅད་བྱང་གྱུར་ཅིག༔

ngön gyi lenchak tamché jang gyur chik

May all my karmic debts from the past be purified!

ད་ལྟ་རྒྱུད་ལ་མི་གནས་མཐོལ་ལོ་བཤགས༔

danta gyü la miné tol lo shak

In the present so they do not remain in my mind-stream, I confess them!

མ་འོངས་སྒྲིབ་པའི་འཁོར་ལོར་མ་གྱུར་ཅིག༔

ma ong dribpé khorlor magyur chik

In the future, may I never be drawn into the wheel of obscuration!

སོ་ཐར་བྱང་སེམས་རིག་པ་འཛིན་པ་ཡི༔

sotar changsem rigpa dzinpa yi

All impairments of the vows of individual liberation, bodhisattva precepts,

སྡོམ་བཅས་བསླབ་པ་གསང་སྔགས་དམ་ཚིག་རིགས༔

dom ché labpa sang ngak damtsik rik

And samayas of the vidyādharas,

ཚོར་དང་མ་ཚོར་ཉམས་པ་མཐོལ་ལོ་བཤགས༔

tsor dang matsor nyampa tol lo shak

Conscious or unwitting, I openly admit.

ནད་གདོན་གྲིབ་དང་མི་གཙང་དག་གྱུར་ཅིག༔

né dön drib dang mitsang dak gyur chik

May illness, harmful influence, obscurations and impurities be purified!

ནད་མུག་མཚོན་གྱི་བསྐལ་པ་ཞི་གྱུར་ཅིག༔

né muk tsön gyi kalpa shyi gyur chik

May this age of plague, famine and warfare be pacified!

མཐའ་མི་དབུས་སུ་འོང་བའི་བསུན་མ་ཟློག༔

tami ü su ongwé sünma dok

May the attacks of invaders be repelled!

ཆོས་མཛད་བླ་མ་གདན་འདྲེན་བར་ཆད་ཟློག༔

chödzé lama dendren barché dok

May the forces that create obstacles by inviting the spiritual teacher to leave this world be averted!

བོད་ཡུལ་བཀྲ་མི་ཤིས་པའི་ལྟས་ངན་ཟློག༔

böyul trami shipé te ngen dok

May inauspicious bad omens for the land of Tibet be averted!

གཟའ་ཀླུ་རྒྱལ་པོས་སྲོག་དབུགས་སྡུད་པ་ཟློག༔

za lu gyalpö sokuk düpa dok

May the planetary forces, nāgas and arrogant king-like spirits, who cut short the breath of life, be repelled!

འཇིགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་དང་བཅུ་དྲུག་ཟློག༔

jikpa chenpo gyé dang chudruk dok

May the eight great fears and sixteen lesser fears be overcome!

བདག་ཅག་འཁོར་བཅས་བཀྲ་མི་ཤིས་པ་ཟློག༔

dakchak khor ché trami shipa dok

For me and all those around me, may all that is inauspicious be averted!¹

དམ་སྲི་འགོང་པོའི་མཐུ་སྟོབས་ནུས་པ་ཟློག༔

damsi gongpö tutob nüpa dok

May the powers and strength of samaya-breakers and gongpo demons be averted!

ས་མ་ཡ༔

samaya

ཞེས་ཤིང་སྣ་ཚོགས་པའི་བསངས་ཁ་བརྒྱ་དང་བརྒྱད། སྦྱིན་སྲེག་གི་ཆོ་ག་ལས་བྱུང་བ་ལྟར། རི་བོ་བསངས་མཆོད་འདིས་འཆི་བསླུ་དང་། དཀོར་སྦྱོང་། བར་ཆད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སེལ་བ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕ་ལམ་ལྟ་བུ་འདི། སྦས་ཡུལ་འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས་ཀྱི་གནས་སྒོ་འབྱེད་པའི་ཆ་ལག་ཏུ་མཁའ་འགྲོས་གནང་བ་བཞིན་ནོར་འཁྲུལ་མེད་པར་སྦྱར་བའོ།། །།

As indicated in the ritual for the fire offering, use 108 incense burners and various kinds of wood. Through this diamond-like practice of Mountain Smoke Offering, one will be able to ‘ransom’ death, purify the misuse of offerings and avert various kinds of obstacle. In accordance with the ḍākinī’s instructions, this was set down, without any error, when revealing the hidden land of Sikkim.

Bibliography

Ri bo bsangs mchod in Rig 'dzin srog sgrub, 5 vols, Delhi: Chos spyod dpar skrun khang, 2000, (TBRC W13779) vol. 1, pp. 829–834

| Rigpa Translations, 2008. Corrected, 2016.

1.   (Ref: Lotsawa House)