Intimacy with Nyingpo

Chapter II

Intimacy with Nyingpo

I have written this story sixteen years after my encounter with the family of Sonam Yangchen.  I could remember the name of their only precious son as Nyingpo. From my first encounter itself I came to learn that the son was very different from other children of his age. He was courteous and humble. He used to ask me so many questions as if like somebody taught him. However, I came to learn later that such manner was not taught to him by anyone. It was ingrained in his nature and it was spontaneous.

In the beginning, I was not very acquainted with the family, so my visit was less frequent. Over the years, I almost became part of their family members. I visited them frequently. My visit did not have particular time and reason. I visited them whenever I got time. Sometimes I even slept in their house.

It was during such time, I became very intimate with Nyingpo. As I kept visiting their house, I became his close associate. He used to call me Ata and accepted me very much like one of his family members. He used to remind me to come again later when I decided to leave them for my class or hostel for my repose. I was then in my First Year Degree taking English Honours. I used to go to my class regularly. After the completion of my classes, I would have nowhere to go than to visit the house of Nyingpo. His parents being farmers did not have the luxury of time to be in one place. They had to keep moving from their place of shelter to another in search of essential items at home. Whenever his parents had work at Trashigang or Samdrup Jongkhar, they trusted me and used to leave him under my care. The young boy did not have any problem so long as I was near him. I took him to toilet, washed him, fed him and played with him. Sometimes, I joked with him about his sister. I still remember one windy night with him when he was so scared that the wind might blow away the roof of the house. I consoled him saying nothing will happen and put him to sleep though I too was scared internally. The wind that time was not normal. It was so powerful that literally shook the whole bungalow. Fortunately, wind got subsided which enabled us to have peaceful repose for the rest of the night. Much later, I came to learn that He was not an ordinary boy. His birth was filled with auspicious signs. His mother narrated me a story about how He got conceived. As I have written earlier, his family had four sisters and all elders to the only son. After having four daughters, the family desperately wished for one son. Hence, with the consent from father, mother had gone to meet one hermit who was believed to be meditating for life in the middle of forest, far away from human settlement, to get blessing for one son. That eminent figure was well known as ‘Tse Tsham Rimpoche’. Tse Tsham Rimpoche assured the family that they will soon have one extraordinary son.  He also cautioned the family to take good care of their son; not to mingle him with crowd, not to take to the place of birth as well as death as it may defile him. Though the parents knew that, yet they could not keep themselves away from visiting places of birth to celebrate and death to mourn. As warned by Tse Tsham Rimpoche, precious son got affected. His eyesight became weak and poor. He had to make his pupil very small, bend his head to look at somebody at a distance.       

In spite of this small problem, he was brilliant, inquisitive and innovative. On the 15^th Day of every Bhutanese calendar, he used to perform mask dances. He used to call it Guru Tshengay dance. On such day, he used to allow only his father and me to join him in the alter to act as cymbalist and drummer. It was on one such occasion that he commanded me and his father to come wherever he would be in future. He used to tell us that he would not stay at home but be the wanderer.

I always felt warm, assured, comfortable, and pleasant in his presence. When I decided to go elsewhere, I took the blessing from Nyingpo’s body. When I came back, I never forgot to see him first and hand him small present.