Translate

Thursday, October 1, 2015

CHAPTER - 10 (THE FULL- MOON NIGHT0

Dawa found shelter on the outcrop of a rock. He would just sit there and gaze at the open space in front. From the very first day of his stay there, he felt at peace with himself and all his restlessness was gone. The cave was just at the right distance from the temple – neither too close nor too far.
But one day he became agitated again and missed howling and the company of the other dogs. A dog in a sacred place must not howl, so he suppressed all sounds that formed in his throat and came out as hiccups.
As he sat there lost, he heard voices and eventually found three elderly women coming up, panting, and carrying heavy baskets on their backs and aluminium kettles in their hands. They were pilgrims. Dawa was happy to see them. Other than the people who lived there, rarely did he get to see other people. Dawa tried to greet them with his eyes, but they got scared and called out to the care-taker for help. The care-taker asked them not to fear such a harmless stray dog.
As the most elderly of them was feeling dizzy, she sought help from one of her younger companions and holding hands, they walked along the footpath. Dawa tried not to frighten them and pretended to be asleep. As they passed by, he smelt them, a strange mixture of fried biscuits, sweat and incense scent.
Before entering into the temple, they rested outside and took the baskets off their backs. Then the care-taker came to the door and told them that the fire for melting the butter in their kettles for lighting the butter lamps, was ready. The women, having in the meanwhile taken their things out of their baskets, offered him some fried biscuits, eggs, rolls of incense and lots of other things, unseen by Dawa. The care-taker told them that there was no need for gifts. They shouldn’t have taken the trouble really. He also asked them to keep some for the lama. The women informed him then that they had brought some gifts for the lama as well.
Before entering into the temple, they asked the care-taker if it was safe to leave their luggage behind, particularly in view of the presence of the dog. The care-taker’s response was the greatest gift for Dawa as he said: "The dog looks ragged, but he has a sensitive heart like a human. He never steals or bites other people."
Dawa felt a sense of camaraderie with the pilgrims. He was intrigued when he heard them conversing about the cave of Gelong Ma Pelmo. Only then did he realize that it was the very cave he had been staying in all these months. The news was too shocking for Dawa to bear.
He came out of it as he saw the pilgrims heading toward the cave. Dawa was trembling with excitement when the care-taker was praising him for his sensitive nature. But he observed them for a distance. They came with folded hands and prostrated. They also stuck butter lamps in the crevices of the temple. One of them asked if there was any specific mantra for Gelong Ma Pelmo as they were so used to chanting OM MANI PEMA HUNG, while praying to her. The care-taker replied that as long as they included all the sentient beings in their prayers, it was fine with him.
Dawa realized that he was there in Thowadrak due to the prayers of other people. He was overcome with a deep sense of gratitude and universal fellowship. It being an auspicious day, the fifteenth of the month coinciding with the full-moon day, the care-taker sounded disappointed on finding out from them that there were no other pilgrims coming up.
Dawa though could not take it as mere coincidental that he christened himself and found out the cave of Gelong Ma Pelmo on a full-moon day. All the pieces of his life seemed to be falling into place.
One day he felt that something was missing, amiss. Though things around him were going on as usual – the care-taker was fetching water from the stream, the river flowing down and the ravens cawing sitting on the trees. Then he realized what was missing – his itching was gone! He examined and re-examined himself.  All his lesions were gone and in place of the open, crusted wounds, he had new fur sprouting.
As the lama was passing by, he remarked that the mangy dog did not look as bad as he had thought earlier. Phuntsho, too wise for one so young, disagreed respectfully by commenting that it was really bad when he came there at first. But he recovered during his long stay in the sacred place. Dawa was indeed cured of his mange!
Dawa always knew that he would eventually get back to Thimphu, which he considered to be his home, and regale Moley and Dampa with stories of his travels. But he felt so content and tranquil that he was in no hurry to get back to Thimphu. Knowing that he might not come back to Tang again, he thought of visiting all the villages in Tang on both sides of the river. As he climbed down, he looked back at Thowadrak and felt as if he was leaving a part of him behind. He crossed the bridge and climbed up the hillock called Uri Ngphang (Ram’s Nose) and proceeded toward the big house. There were some twenty households on the east side of the house and each house had a dog, he was told. Despite the casual way he was treated by the old black dog on the way, Dawa wondered about the dogs before moving to the courtyard of the big house. All the dogs were gathered there in a circle as there was a huge pile of meat and bone, possibly the carcass of a yak, on a bamboo mat. An old man was chopping them into small pieces and spreading them to dry. Another old man was trying to keep the dogs and the ravens at bay with a stick. It was a scene as the ravens competed with the dogs for the pieces of meat flying off the chopping board. He eased himself in between two dogs, unnoticed by anyone. Suddenly an old dog with red-brown markings all around his neck, came to Dawa and sniffed him all over, thrice. He rebuked Dawa for being there as he did not belong to that place. Dawa had no intention of a confrontation and was getting up to go, when the dog fell upon him, biting into his neck. Dawa was terrified and cried out. He tried to get out of the steely grip. He could only get away when two men came to his rescue by forcing the jaws of the big dog open.
Dazed and disoriented, Dawa heard the two men laughing about what might have happened if the old dog, Markhang, was not toothless. Dawa felt the wetness around his neck, but there was no blood or throbbing pain. All the dogs were more concerned with the bones than the incident. A dog next to him confirmed his feeling that there was no harm done. Two men, feeling pity on Dawa, threw a piece of meat to him. He was still all shook up and as a result, the meat was pulled out of his mouth by a raven. It was simply not his day as things were going haywire.

His attention then was caught by a gawky female dog called Nimola, who kept on stealing pieces of meat and running away. She was being given preferencial treatment as she was to be the next guard dog. Dawa was impressed with her breeding, parentage, looks and felt that she would be a fine guard dog.

Contd on page 2/-

No comments:

Post a Comment