"Auspicious Gift of Samtengang Lake"

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As I have gone through some books of Bhutan, I am very astonished to see there are so many sacred places which I have never heard of. The places like Buli Manmo Tsho in Zhemgang and Ombha Nye in Tashiyangtse and so on. Sacred places like, Ombha Nye of Trashiyangtse, Aja Nye of Mongar and Hungrel of Paro are very important as the combination of those three names make the mantra of Guru Padmasambhava. “Om Ah Hung”. I am pretty sure that there would be some places which many people are not aware of. So I just wanted to ask the readers, have you ever heard of “Lake of Samtengang?”. I can predict the answer yes for certain percent. Again if I put up next question, do you know how it first existed? There your curiosity will start overwhelming your thought and you will start questioning yourself. When it is formed? What would be the story behind this? Such questions will piled up in your mind. So here I am with what I heard from local people about the existence of “Samtengang Tso”( Lake of Samtengang) or locally known as “Lue-Tsi-Kha-tso” named after the local deity “Lue-Tseb”. The place where there is lake at present was a fertile sweet buckwheat field of a farmer from a village called “Leko-Kha” just below the Samtengang Junior High school at present.

Samtengang Lake came into an existence in the season of early summer during the harvesting time of buckwheat. One evening the farmer was about to leave the field after work, an old woman with bamboo bucket in hand appeared.

An old woman asked; the farmer for shelter for that night. He said, Sorry you better go for somewhere or else you can come with me. Here I don’t have house also, so how can I provide you a shelter. But the woman said; it is fine I would like to spend my night here if you are kind enough to let me hold my night here at your field. So the man said, then it is up to you. They see off and the farmer left home.

Next morning, as usual the farmer went to his field for work. To his surprise his very fertile field turned into a huge lake and the heap of buckwheat straws floating over the water body. He was horrified and also annoyed. Out of frustration he dug the mountain to drain out the lake. The man had rancor for her unexpected deed and numbness overcome his body. Without his notice he almost dug the hole with the diameter almost one meter. That time, stunning lady came out of the lake and begged his pardon. But he denied her approach and continued digging.  Then the woman came up with talk of compensation for everything. She promised him that she will give whatever he demanded. So he said if you really willing to give me, then I would like to have some instruments of Shaman as those persons were very famous during that time and also he was very fond of Shaman. As per his demand she promised to give him a “Nga”(drum) and an oxen made of sealing wax by next morning. She even guaranteed that the thing she has given will empower his life and bring luck for his entire life. So they agreed to meet next morning.

Samtengang School

As she promised she was there at the side of lake waiting for him with the compensations. The man was very happy with the compensation and lived happily with the grace of those auspicious things. The local people used to worship local deity which is popularly known as “Nyep Lue-Tseb” annually. During that time each household is supposed to prepare “mengay”(rice-cake) and a model of an oxen be it of rice or some other material with the grain filled in trough in front of the oxen. Farmers should place their own model in public and has to wait for ritual to be done by “Phajo” just like Shaman. When the prosperous man was busy with some other stuffs, a man from a village called Chim-Tse-ling saw that the oxen of that well off  man was eating the grains filled in trough gently. The man knew that it was of sacred and auspicious one. So that cruel man tried to produce a replica of the oxen that belong to the fortunate man.

Time past by and again the time of that same festival came. Each year they had to prepare the same model. So during the gathering the cruel man exchanged the oxen without the notice of the owner. From that time, the prosperous man started to decline and poorer he became. On other hand, that cruel man started to glow with his luck and became the prosperous man of that valley.  With great acceleration in his luck and he became well known as “Chim-Tse-Chum”( richest man of that village). So it is said that those special gift of mermaid was presently there at present Nysho Gup’s house, enclosed in the wall. They believed that if they touch or removed it from the wall, it will bring bad luck and as a result their fortune will decline. I have seen that they renovated the house but they kept that specific wall untouched.