What is this skull and the chest bone....you will find in Sumthrang Monastery?

The skull and the chest bone

Ngoe Gyelwa Lhanangpa after having spent some years in Chelkha monastery, headed back to Tibet leaving one of his disciple to take care of the monastery which later known as the Chelkha Dzong.

In This regard, to hight light a little on where about of the Chelkha Dzong, my own believe is that the Chelkha dzong is located below the Nubri village where there is a ruins of a dzong at the end edge of a mountain range standing high from the meeting point of two streams.



Opposite to it is a slope, where at an edge, the local people say is known as Chelkha. When I once visited Nubri in late 2007, an elderly local who accompanied me and one of my office friend showed us a ruins of a small monastery which he believed to have stood there. And a foot print of a ridding horse which is also mentioned in the biography of Gelwa Lhanangpa.

Therefore, it is my believe that the dzong ruins I saw there is the ruins of Chelkha Dzong which so far is failed to locate. I although had the pictures of the ruins, unfortunately lost the pictures when my lap top was broken down. I visited Nubri for official reason as a journalist before the political campaigns started for 2008 election.

And so... as in the Biography, Nyoe Lhanangpa who is also know as Nagchang Neljortsemo after returning to Tibet from Chelkha had a vision of his linage and its service to the Lho-moen and directed his son Nyoeton Trulzhig Chojee, the founder of the ngoe linage in Bhutan to establish a monastic seat in Bhutan. The Chojey came following the directives to establish a monastic seat in Bhutan which had specific location identities described in the prophecy of his master alias father.

The chest bone(ribs)

He was told to find a place, where there is a cliff at the north like a Buddhist texts piled, at the east a rock bed in a shape of the swastika(a sign of stability), at the south a hill land of a conch's shape and at the west a holy spring as pure as the milk with a stone pillar of four edges at the centre of the area. These significant marks of the place can be seen even today.

His entourage started from Tibet taking the route where they crossed the Moenlha Karchung mountain that stands at the boarder of Bumthang in Bhutan and the Tibet.

There at a pass of the mountain, his entourage was greeted by a demonic evil who wanted to disturb the journey, in a form of a strange creature with human head and a body of an animal.

The Chojey who is also a Vejra Kilaya master then, manifested himself into the form of his tutelary deity the Vejra Kilia surrounded by Dhamapalas the protective deities and subdued the demonic evil. He than, brought three main organs of Head, Limbs and heart as an offering to the deities for subduing an evil that would hurt any living being and spread of Dharma.

After establishing the location as directed by his master alias father the chest bone and the head of the demonic evil remained a sacred possession of the Sumthrang monastery.
Earlier, during every ritual practice of the Vejra Kilaya, the skull is scratched and the power has to be burned while the chest bone is used as the offering bowel of the left over (Lhagma). Later this days, while the chest bone is used as offering bowl, the scratching of the skull is discontinued after the HRH Prince Namgay Wangchuck recommended not to do so to preserve the skull.