The village elders compare the shape of Wamling village to a seated Zambalha— the god of wealth. But no god could have been more miser than the god of wealth for refusing to bestow any wealth of notable significance to his chosen village in the upper Kheng, forget those not so sacred neighbouring villages.
Wamling, meaning the land of milk (‘o ma'i gling), got its name after a local lore about a stone bowl filled with milk. But Zambalha had not blessed it with milk either. It is an old village first settled by six households. A Bonpo rite verses make references to “60 households of Wamling”. Two-thirds of the village is under rice cultivation, and it is no surprise that it attracted early settlers. People take pride in their land that can grow nine types of grains (‘bru sna dgu). Slowly some households started a new settlement at Thrisa (threlpa sarpa – new taxpayers).
Wamling, meaning the land of milk (‘o ma'i gling), got its name after a local lore about a stone bowl filled with milk. But Zambalha had not blessed it with milk either. It is an old village first settled by six households. A Bonpo rite verses make references to “60 households of Wamling”. Two-thirds of the village is under rice cultivation, and it is no surprise that it attracted early settlers. People take pride in their land that can grow nine types of grains (‘bru sna dgu). Slowly some households started a new settlement at Thrisa (threlpa sarpa – new taxpayers).
Local legend has it that a plan to build a replica of Chorten Jarung Khashor in Wamling was stopped after hearing a rooster. Guru Rimpoche interpreted it as inauspicious and abandoned the plan. Even Guru Rimpoche left nothing behind, except for piles of many symmetrical stone pillars and planks which can be seen today in the forests above Wamling. However, the chosen site is still called Jaru Khasha.
Oral sources say that Wamling features in Lhasa nayig as an important nay (sacred place). When the sixth incarnation of Namkhai Nyingpo fled the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Wamling was his destination. Unfortunately he passed away on the way. His kuding was taken to Wamling to fulfill his aspiration and kept there for some weeks. People of Wamling and the adjacent villages became the patrons of the present Namkhai Nyingpo and a dratshang was established in the early 1980s in Wamling.
Today there are nine lhakhangs, some of which are very old. A disciple of the First Karmapa Dusum Khyempa meditated on a site where Kringpola lhakhang now stands. Pongi lhakhang was built to subdue deer, Pratang chorten to tame yetis and Krongi lhakhang to eliminate leprosy. At one time when leprosy epidemics afflicted the village, people requested a Khampa lama to seek divination from a Tibetan lama for the cause of and cure for the epidemic. A Khampa lama who lived in Wamling in winter and traveled to Lhasa in summer agreed and consulted a renowned lama, whose divination read that in the former times a gigantic snake trying to bury the whole village with its body was subdued by building a lhakhang on its neck. The site which lay in ruins, the lama said, is very sacred. He asked the people to build a new lhakhang, with statues of rigsum gompo as its nangten to stop the epidemic. The statues were later awarded by Ugyen Wangchuck, the First King of Bhutan. The people found the ruins of old lhakhang covered with trees. The old lhakhang had its roof and floor paved with stone slabs, with statues of Ashi Jaza, Gyalpo Chenchigpo, and Lyonpo Garab Tongdan as its nangten. The old lhakhang might have fallen into ruins after the people migrated to avoid taxes. The community lost no time in constructing a new lhakhang in 1918 (Fire Monkey Year). The first king Ugyen Wangchuck contributed the statues of rigsum goempo. It required 18 people to carry a man-size statue of Chenrezi (Avaloketeshvara) and 12 men each to carry Jamyang (Manjushiri) and Chana Dorji (Vajrapani).
At one point in history, the vibrant village almost became empty. Its proximity to the regional power centres, Jakar and Zhongar, became a bane because of the political instability and civil strife of mediaeval period. Taxation and military conscription became too heavy a burden, in addition to back-breaking pottering duties. Epidemics like small pox and leprosy were other push factors. Tired of wars, the people migrated to the south-central and eastern Bhutan. There are kheng-speaking Diasporaic people today in Dagana, Trashigang, Lhuntse, Mongar, and Trashi Yangtse. For example the people had to pay cotton tax though it was not cultivated there. So the farmers traveled to the lower kheng to exchange cotton with rock-salt while the rock-salt was bartered with rice in Bumthang. The cotton loads had to be deposited at Zhongar where they were woven into textiles by taxpayers of the east. Heavy taxation resulted in two rebellions, first against Jakar Dzongpon and the second against Zhemgang Dzongpon. The village militia marched as far as present Jalakhar only to be ambushed, outnumbered and killed by Jakar Dzongpon’s forces who were informed of the attack.
All households were khrelpa (taxpayers) – free farmers who owed taxes directly to the central government. There were no zapa (slaves) or drapa (serfs). A similar event was to change the legal-social category of the people. Tired of rebuilding Zhemgang Dzong that was destroyed several times by fire and earthquake, the people refused to contribute labour and pay taxes. Following that, all taxpayers of Shingkhar Gewog became Wangdichholing Sungma and all forms of contact with Zhemgang Dzongpon stopped. As sungma, people paid their taxes (in kind, labour or money) to royal collaterals and not to the government. They were subjected to a variable number of arbitrary demands for personal services in return they were exempted from heavy taxes of the government. More tax payers followed suit and converted themselves to sungma and sought protection from royal collateral power centre. Historically, the region had more contacts with Bumthang than Zhemgang proper because of its proximity, power centre and people-to-people contact, and the people favoured the new arrangement. It was not until the appointment of Dasho Thinely Namgyel as Zhemgang Dzongpon that villages were once again brought under one administration.
People who migrated en mass sold their tsamdo and some paddy fields to Bumthang pastoralists. It is said that fleeing farmers exchanged their tsamdo for a ladle of milk. Even today, most tsamdo in the regions belong to herders of Bumthang while paddy fields had been bought back by the people. To escape conscription and taxation people who chose to stay behind hid inside a big cave (koranglai phog) which can accommodate about two hundred people. The remains of earthen pots used by these people can be found today in the cave.
Mani-khangbala (meaning long mani-wall) is one important village landmark built on a zhunglam leading to Shingkhar. There is an interesting story about how the mani-wall happened to be built. A learned lama of Ngartipong was one of few people who persevered to stay behind when his fellow villagers chose to flee in masses to avoid taxation. At that time, a daughter of Gongdu Gyalpo (Mongar) fell sick and all means to cure her failed. Hearing about a famed lama, Gongdu Gyalpo entrusted her to his care. After three years she was fully cured. But she chose to stay with the lama in Wamling and later became lama's consort. The locals called her Gongdu Gyalmo. Lama was very rich man and had so many precious objects and nangten. When he died some years later, Gongdu Gyalmo built a mani-wall in the year of pig in memory for the lama. She inserted all his wealth as nangten, including three live jatsham, one on each side and third one in the middle of the mani-wall. In olden days, a bowing of jatsham could be heard on auspicious days. The man-wall measuring 26 dom is sacred to the village.
Wamling was ruled by a hereditary gadpu. At one point Wamling Gadpu’s authority extended to villages as far as Digala and Kalamti, the southernmost villages of the upper Kheng. Gadpo household was considered a noble family that the bride had to be brought all way from Bjoka Khoche. A genealogical work done by head teacher of Kunga Rapten lower secondary school traced only six ancestries. Some descendants of Wamling Gadpo are in Ladong in Kurtoe. The oral accounts of Diasporaic people in the east claim that people of Wamling are of ‘big bone’ and Ura Dung which once ruled the region destroyed all evidences (manuscripts) to prevent the subject it ruled from knowing about their noble ancestry. Some people claim their descent from Peling, Gadpu and Dung.
Desecration of this sacred village through motor road is not an issue because there is no road. The great flood of 1999 that wiped down the entire paddy fields of lower village didn’t even catch Kuensel’s toe-line, forget the compensation part. 72 households of Wamling – Zambhala’s chosen village – do not even have a community school or basic health unit even to this day. The nearest primary school at Shingkhar was opened in 1978. However, there are 21 students from Wamling who had completed their university education. All households boast at least one family member in civil service, armed forces or other vocations. In absence of cash crops and market access (road), civil servant remittance is the main source of cash for what they call themselves as a humble dark worldly farmer (jigten minap nyamchung). If Wamling has one wealth, it is the education and Zambalha couldn’t prevent these children from learning.
By Dorji Penjore, 8 May 2006.
This paper was printed in the inaugural issue of Bhutan Observer, under the title, ‘A Zambalha Village: A Historical, Oral and Evidential Accounts of Wamling in Bhutan’
