Shingkhar: The Place of Longchen

Shingkhar Za Phodrang.

This is my fourth time visiting Shingkhar, a village at least a two-hour bus ride from Chamkhar. My first visit was in 2010 when one of my friends, who now coordinates occasional events like Kanjur recitation, invited another school staff member and me on an adventure to hunt matsutake—the rarest mushroom species with high medicinal value. Although we couldn't find any, we managed to persuade some local kids to give us some in exchange for cash.

In the evening, as we were about to leave, I vaguely remember my friend pointing out a monastery below his house. He might have tried to tell me about the monastery but didn't explain its significance to his not-so-religious friend. Apart from the mushroom, I knew very little about Shingkhar.

More than a decade later, I once again visited Shingkhar in 2022, but this time as an ordained monk, curious about everything related to the omniscient one. In that same year, more than a hundred monks were invited, for the first time, to Dechenling Monastery to recite Kanjur. 

This year is our second time. As a Buddhist student, I'm gaining new knowledge about the life of Longchenpa, motivating me to explore the places he had been while in Bumthang.

Every time I come here, I listen to wonderful stories that don't linger in my memory for long. So, I decided to take advantage of recording and sharing them in writing with interested people like you.

There is a man in his early sixties, whose bald head shone brightly, reflecting the light like a polished mirror. His poignant narration kept the crowd silent; the audience was so captivated that you could hear a pin drop; not a single person even coughed.

After clearing his throat and initially stammering, he began, “According to our Shingkhar Lam, it was Za Rahula who settled here before Kunkhyen Longchen. Not so long ago, people settled below the current settlement, in the sloped areas. I don't know why people preferred such places in the olden times, but we can still see the evidence even to this day.

“In this very place, there were trees, and in between was a small grassland; it must have been such a lovely sight. Za chose this meadow as his seat. You have to climb down from this door to the underground hole; some of you might have entered with your Rinpoche. Many attendants have come earlier. Just below this statue of Kunkhyen Himself was a Lha-tsho.

“In those days, people were living in complete darkness; they didn't know much about dharma. Za became their ultimate refuge from then on. However, Kunkhyen traveled from Tharpaling and settled at a place above this monastery on a hilltop, where he meditated most of the time. During that period, many people started to get closer to Kunkhyen. They said that the moment they heard and saw him, they felt like offering something, generating pure devotion that never arose earlier.

“When people said they had someone with similar qualities, Kunkhyen decided to visit their place, wondering who that could be. Upon hearing the news and with utmost reverence, Za Rahula wanted to receive Kunkhyen, who is indeed his own teacher, in a grand ceremony, so he prepared a throne and other necessities at a place above this village that has a shape like a throne. Now you cannot see it because a bulldozer has destroyed it; you could say modern development, but we still call the place Zhukthri.

“After Kunkhyen reached here, He saw a lha-tsho where he ordered Rahula to hide it from villagers as it was not something to be shown openly. As ordered, he covered it with a flat stone so that others couldn't see it. On the top flat stone, Rahula made a throne for Kunkhyen to consecrate a small temple. Although we recently unearthed the throne, this is what we heard from a long time back about the ‘lha-tsho beneath the earth.’ Due to long-term, the throne was covered under the earth. Kuenchen sat on the throne and asked people the name of the place, to which they replied, Shingkhar. So He renamed it Shingkhar Dechenling."

To be continued.....

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