Pilgrimage to Drak Karpo and Dzongdakha

The excitement generated out from pilgrimage to Dzongdakha lingers in my mind for whole night. I could not sleep well as it was my first ever time to visit such a holy places of Paro. 

Early in the Morning of 1st November, 2013 I on behalf of my two brothers prepared a breakfast and lunch as well. After an hour of hard work in kitchen, I finished preparing and packed it and get ready for the pilgrimage. My youngest brother helped me in offering Choepa the clean water offering as we used to do before. 

 

Before I proceed for pilgrimage, I offer butter lamp solely dedicated to our Monarchs - the former King and His Majesty's coronation. I offer my deep prayers for the King to live long life ahead and continuity in ruling our country as the People's King.

Three of us then proceed towards the Shaba the meet point destination where Jewon Chotrul Ponlop Rinpoche's entourage from Thimphu. Three of us waited for few minutes then Rinpoche and his entourage reached the place. We greeted whole heartedly and receive chawang from Rinpoche. The group purchased some Dalda to offer lamp and Tshog to offer in temple.

We proceeded towards the Ney- Drak-Karpo. Starts from Shaba satellite town towards the north following the unpaved road for almost 20 to 30 minutes was great journey which gave us tremendous experiences of travelling in unpaved road. After certain time, we reached up on the hills of Youtha Goenpa. I noticed Open air Prisoners are working there. We proceeded further to our destination - Drak Karpo. There are several points to enter the Ney where we took lower entry. After few minutes having tea, we proceed to the Temple. 

There, the bog rock which took more than 20-30 minutes to finish a round. There secret/holy places such as Nub Namkhai Nyingpo's Drukhang, Guru Rinpoche's Zhugthri, Khandomai Zhukthri, etc. are present. Numerous holy places too are present there which I failed to ask anybody due to lack of Advocator - the Neyshaypa. After a round, we got in the temple which is built attached to the rock. It was built professionally that we can't imagine of climbing there because of rocky area. 

Inside the temple, care taker of Temple was there. He explained about the ney/holy and sacredness of the place. The main statue there is Guru Rinpoche. The Nye was said to be Guru Rinpoche's meditation cave where he subdued the evils there. The Paksam Joenshing the tree of wealth was also there in the form of Rock. In secret sites, we ordinary beings can see only rocks and water but for the extra ordinary beings, they can see rocks as real things.

Rinpoche's entourages offer the prayer in the main temple where Guru Rinpoche's statue was stationed. We then slowly and steadily flew back to the point head. On the way back to road head, I met with few people staying there and circumambulating the so called Zangdo pelri - the huge and massive rock. 

Then entourage flew to Dzongdakha. On the way to Dzongdakha, we had lunch. Then our trip started towards Dzongdakha. Almost 10 minutes drive we reached first temple that is built on the rock. It seems the private temple where private house is built adjacent to the temple. We offer our prayers, prostration and Nyendar. 

We then flew to Dzongdakha temple which too was built on the big and massive rock which was unimaginable for all of us. This temple was said to be built during Jetshen Milarepa, but no concrete evidence was found as there was no Caretaker or neyshaypa present there. 

We visited first lhakhang where the main Relic is Guru Rinpoche. There the Temporary Neyshaypa shared whatever he knew about the ney. Second temple from top is where secret Chorten-stupa is built inside the temple. As per the verbal statement of temporary neyshaypa, it is said be built before many centuries. He says that inside chorten there is one small glass chorten as its main Zung - internal relic.

The stupa near the temple is under reconstruction. So, we could not see its whole physical structure. 

Tsheringmai Drupchu-the holy water is also accumlated in tank built attached to the source. The entourages wishfully drank the drupchu stating that the clarity and pleasantness of the voice would be better. However, it’s just belief in our own ways. 

The important thing about dzongdakha is Paro Tshechu starts from there on 8th of 2nd Bhutanese lunar calendar and goes till 10th. Then on 11th the tshechu is being conducted in Paro Dzong till 15th and on 16th the Paro Tshechu concludes in Dzongdakha. There is very long history of conducting the tshechu in such way. 

Then we flew back to home. On the way to home, entourage had tea above the road side and Rinpoche's shared some jokes and talks of past, present and future raised within encourage.

Finally, after long time spending talking and chatting, the entourage flown back to the respective homes. Those came from Thimphu along with Rinpoche flown back to Thimphu and we proceed to Paro town where we stay.