Confusion Over Sikkimese Dance Festival, Pang Lhasol
We share some points of Pang Lhasol, which is all about the brotherhood pact between the Lepchas and Bhutias, and the role of Khangchendzonga as the Guardian Deity of Sikkim, as detailed by Jamyang Dorjee, a renowned scholar of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Before we delve into the festival Pang Lhasol, let us discuss some more facts about Sikkim. The origin of this kingdom, Baeyul Demojong, or “Hidden Land of Sacred Treasures”, actually goes way back to mid-1300 CE, when an ordained prince from Chumbi Valley, in Southern Tibet had walked all the mountainous trek route t come her to get cured of his or his wife’s infertility by a Lepcha wizard and patriarch, Tekung Tek., a long story.
The Namgyal Dynasty was founded in 1642 at a placed called Yoksum now in West District of modern Sikkim. The eighth descendent of the Namgyal dynasty, the third Chogyal, Chagdor Namgyal, remembered that occasion, and being highly learned person with deep knowledge of the Lama Dances of Tibet, mixed element of those dances and created what is known as a Chaam, or ritual dance and called it Pang Lhasol, or witnesses to the agreement and warriors to protect Sikkim.
Khye Bumsa had been married to Goruma, the princes of Chumbi Valley but were unable to beget a male heir. They had heard of a Lepcha wizard and shaman who could probably cure them and help them beget a son. So they trekked a long way from Chumbi to a village in North Sikkim where Tekug Tek, the Lepcha patriarch, and his wife Nekong Nyal lived.
To cut along story short, the prince’s party arrived with a group of their royal followers, carrying precious gifts and reached the patriarch’s home. The Lepcha wizard blessed them and they went back and Goruma finally delivered three sons. The extremely grateful new parents felt that they must revisit Sikkim and personally thank Tekung Tek and his wife, Nekong Nyal.
It is during this second meeting that Tekung Tek decided to perform a special puja. This was organised at a village, atop a hillock that was a Sacred Grove, rich with special medicinal herbs and plants. Tekung Tek proffered an agreement between the Chumbi prince, which said that from that day, the Lepchas and Bhutias would remain perpetually as a family, with each Lepcha man and woman considering their members, male and female Bhutias as brothers and sisters.
To solemnise this agreement, which also said that one of the descendants of Khye Bumsa would eventually rule this land, and the deity, Mount Khangchendzonga was made the witness and recognised as the Guardian Deity of Baeyul Demojong. During the puja, a large number of animals was sacrificed to appease the local deities. The special aspect of the puja was that a red bull was also slaughtered.
Sitting on the hide of that bull, entwining themselves with its entrails, Tekung Tek and Khye Bumsa filled a vessel with animal blood, took out a little blood from their own fingers and dipped in the blood in the vessel.
Due to this ceremony, that hillock was named Ka’Vi Lungtsok, which means “Our Blood”, and that is when Khangchendzonga was made the witness and asked to protect Sikkim for ever. That agreement came to fruition when one descendent of Tekung Tek, was brought to Yoksum by three Tibetan lamas, under the guidance of the Fifth Dalai lama.
And this is the only Cham in Sikkim where the dancers are not lamas but able-bodied young men dressed as warriors, who dance to invoke Khangchendzonga annually around August-Seotember.
But what really is the essence of Pang Lhasol? There are differing opinions, but here we have the definitive explanation from one of the best scholars of Nyingma Buddhism.
(Above is the note given above, gives the background of Pang Lhasol for most readers who would not know the history, without which the Pang Lhasol chaam really cannot be understood.
Jamyang Dorjee writes
I would like to share a note I wrote some time ago with some thoughts on the festival.
There are divergent views on the word “Pangtoe.” One perspective holds that ‘Pang’ means ‘witness’ and that the Pangtoe Chaam originated as a celebration of the swearing-in of the great brotherhood between the Bhutia and Lepcha at Ka’Vi Lungtsok, where Lord Gangs Chen Mzod Lnga (Khangchendzonga) was a witness.
The other perspective asserts that ‘Pangtoe’ is unrelated to this event and is instead a warrior dance performed at the Pemayangtse monastery, and later at Tsuklakhang, in praise of Lord Gangs Chen Mzod Lnga.
Before the coronation of the first Chogyal, Phuntsok Namgyal, Lhatsun Chenpo composed the Dralha Dpangs Stoe (prayers for Gangs Chen Mzod Lnga and other deities of Sikkim). During the reign of Chogyal Chagdor Namgyal, the Dpangs Toe Chaam was composed and performed. The word in question has three Tibetan spellings:
- Spang (སྤང་), referring to land covered with green pastures, or places like Pangri and Pang-shong.
- Dpangs Stoe (དཔངས་བསྟོད་), meaning great felicitation or prayer.
- Dpang (དཔང་), meaning witness.
The Dra-lha Dpangs-Stoe (དཔངས་བསྟོད་) is a regular prayer performed by the Lamas of Sikkim, based on the sbrs-sjong-gney-gsol (prayer for sacred places of Sikkim) compiled by Taklung Gasi Rinpoche, in consultation with Dilko Khentse Rinpoche and Ja-drel Sangye Dorjee, and published by the Palace in 1988.
The Jang-gter Dra-lha Dpangs-Stoe Gshen-phen-rol-pa contains the words spoken by Guru Padmasambhava, as revealed by Terton Rigzen Rgoe-dhem, along with words written by Lhatsun Namkha Jigme himself. Both prayers mention Dra-Lha Dpangs-Stoe (དཔངས་བསྟོད་) clearly, meaning great felicitation or prayer.
According to notes by the Burmaik Kazi Bkra-shis-dgra-‘dul Gdan Sa-pa from an original manuscript preserved at Talung, which appeared in Waddell’s tome Buddhism and Rene De Nebesky-Wojkowitz’s Oracles and Demons of Tibet, when Lha-tsun Chenpo reached his destination (Dra-lha-gang at Dzongri), he performed a thanksgiving ceremony to all the deities for his safe journey across the Himalaya.
This rite was annually repeated by the Sangchen Pemayangtse Monastery, eventually evolving into its present form, including the mask dance, established by Phyag-rdor Rnam-rgyal (Chagdor Namgyal), the third ruler of Sikkim (1686–1717), in cooperation with the sprul-sku Jigs-med Dpa-bo (Jigme Pao), the third rebirth of Lha-Tsun Chenpo.
To conclude, if we accept the sbrs-sjong-gney-gsol, written by Lhatsun Chenpo and compiled by Taklung Gasi Rinpoche in consultation with Dilko Khentse Rinpoche and Ja-drel Sangye Dorjee, as authentic, then the correct spelling is དཔངས་བསྟོད་ (Dpangs Stoe, meaning great prayer), not དཔང་བསྟོད་ (Dpang Toe, meaning witness prayer).
I have not found any references indicating that Chogyal Chagdor Namgyal performed Pang Lhasol to celebrate the brotherhood pact at Ka’Vi, an event that occurred six generations earlier. While I do not completely rule out the existence of such a source, if Pang Lhasol were meant to celebrate this pact, it would likely be mentioned in the Dpangs Stoe Cham Yik, or the text of the chaams (dances), which, to my knowledge, it is not.
Another interesting tradition involves the arrival of a Mun or Bong-thing (Lepcha shaman) to the palace the day before the Pang Lhabsol dance. The Bong-thing, possessed by the spirit of Thekong Thek, reminds the Chogyal of the brotherhood pact, accuses his ancestors of committing faults against the Lepchas, and requests the Chogyal to ensure the welfare of the Lepchas and the success of the forthcoming dance.
Research is needed to determine whether the appearance of the Bong-thing before Pang Lhasol began during Chogyal Chagdor Namgyal’s time and whether the Bong-thing commanded the Chogyal to perform Pang Lhasol to celebrate the brotherhood pact.
In my opinion, if the composer of Dpangs Stoe or Pang Lhabsol Chaam intended to celebrate the unity of the Bhutia and Lepcha or appease the protective deities for the prosperity and unity of the people, then present-day intellectuals must work collectively to establish the facts and achieve the intended purpose of Lhasol.
Passing on confusion to the next generation will only further weaken the unity of the already minority communities (of Bhutias and Lepchas, termed as BL).
The swearing-in of the brotherhood between Bhutia and Lepcha at Ka’Vi Lungtsok, between Tekong Thek and Gya Bum Sa, was a historic event. As a tribal tradition, such a significant event must have involved swearing in or using Lord Gangs-chen-mzod-lnga as a witness. Therefore, there should be no dispute in this theory.
The dispute arises when we try to link this historical event to the Dpangs Stoe Cham during Spangs Lha-sol.
Sikkim’s history has two very important events that happened 500 years apart: the brotherhood of two indigenous communities and the spiritual awakening of the community. Both deserve the highest order of celebration. Linking the two as one and creating confusion for the younger generation will eventually diminish the value of both and be a great loss to the coming generation.
The Ka’Vi Lungtsok event plays a vital role in restoring the pride and unity of the Bhutia and Lepcha. This historic brotherhood pact is of great significance as a binding factor between the two communities, and giving it a religious colour diminishes its importance.
This day deserves a separate national honour, depicting the unbroken lineage of 500 years of peaceful coexistence among the Sikkimese people, which is unique to Sikkim.
Pang has three different meanings with similar sound but with different spellings. Many of my Sikkimese friends have not studied Tibetan and hence the confusion. But I think, our previous chief ministers of Nepali community were happy to merge the two important event and create confusion and BLs did not do much research.
Jamyang Dorjee is among the foremost scholars on Vajrayana Buddhism and its special practices in Sikkim. He worked at very senior level in the Sikkim government and in the department of culture in the Tibetan Government in Exile, under the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala. Dorjee is the creator of the largest Tibetan calligraphic scroll in the world.