Transportation of Statues (Choe-Long-Truel Sum) from Chungkha to Toktogom on 28 May, 2017

Slept at 2:30 am after making the wooden frame to hang frill and other necessary decorative preparations. After taking a nap of around 1 hour 10 minutes, the team woke up at 3:40 am and rushed to the lhakhang from where the statues were received for further transportation. The loading of statues and final decoration took more time than what was estimated. So, the journey had to be delayed by almost 2 hours.

Leaving the Lhakhang at 6 am sharp, the first ceremonial reception of the three statues along with the team was done by the community of Tshogkha at Chungkha Primary School at 7:30 am. The already delayed convoy had to rush for the consecration ceremony at the earliest to make up on time at the Dzong in Chukha. Therefore, the team spent around 20 minutes at Chungkha PS for the offering and refreshment and resumed the onward journey at 7:50 am.

The rough road further aggravated by the delicacy of the statues further delayed the journey as speed had to be controlled based on road condition. Therefore, the convoy could reach for the second ceremonial reception, organized by the team from Chukka, at around 8:20 am after lots of hard and careful driving. Considering the importance of all the events, the convoy stopped for around 10 minutes for ceremonial offerings. The convoy, leaving behind some members of the team for refreshment, had to rush to the Dzong for consecration by Venerable Lam Neten. The convoy, through immeasurable unity and single mindedness, could reach the Dzong at round 8:50 am for the consecration.

The consecration program that took around one hour, much to everyone’s relief and satisfaction, enabled the convoy to reach the road end for the convoy at around 10 am. Having enjoyed the good lunch offered by the team from RBA, the transportation of statues using palanquin was resumed at around 11:30 am. After taking around five hours, the statues were safely installed at Tokto-Gom lhakhang at around 5pm. The reception and installation of the three statues were done in the ceremonial manner. The reception and installation ceremony ended at around 6:45pm.

(Courtesy: Story contributed by Lop Tobgay)