Kuzuzangpo!
Hello and welcome to my channel.
Today I'm going to talk about, one of the most curiously asked questions online, especially;
from the people of Nepal and Nepali speaking people from other countries.
And the question is: How do people of Bhutan know Nepali or How come there are Nepali speaking
people in Bhutan?
So let's go ahead and find out about the history of the Nepali speaking people of Bhutan, including
myself.
So the first Nepali speaking people of Bhutan migrated to Bhutan during the Punakha Dzong
construction and it was during the Zhabdrung's time- Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal
one of the founders of Bhutan.
Nepali speaking people were found to be- they had good architecture skills.
So they were invited to Bhutan during the Punakha Dzong construction by the Zhabdrung.
That was during the 17th century and likewise Nepali speaking people migrated to Bhutan
during the second king's time.
That was His Majesty King Jigme wangchuck's time.
I too hail from a Nepali speaking community of Bhutan.
Actually it's not Nepali but we are known as Lhotshampas.
The language we speak is not called Nepali.
When it comes to Bhutan, the language (Nepali) is known as Lhostshamkha.
Kha here means
language- so language of the southerners or the south, and to talk about how I exist in
Bhutan and how my ancestors reached Bhutan uh Well I am Lungeli Monger from Bhutan and the place I'm from is
known as Tsirang- the district. To talk about my hometown Tsirang,
Well Tsirang during that time, maybe there was a civil war or some kind of war going
on.
Most probably it was a civil war and then all the people, the whole village was massacred.
During that time,
there was no- not a single living person in the village.
There was just one survivor and it was a lady- pregnant lady.
She ran and hid into the waterfalls- inside the waterfalls.
And Tsirang for me, it translates to- before it was Chirang. So maybe just one survivor
was there so it was known as chirang- just one Chi-rang and then now it's Tsirang, maybe
include oneself in.
Tsi means include.
Rang means one self.
Tsirang.
That's my guess.
I don't know what what's your thought and if you know anything about Tsirang, please
let me know.
I would be interested.
And then the pregnant lady who escaped the massacre, she gave birth inside the waterfall.
It was a son and my grand mother- my maternal grandmother had told my parents that when they were
small kids; Maternal grandmother- she she used to see that the survivor's son riding
a horse around the village swinging a lash.
And his name was Tshagay Raja; meaning Tshagay is the waterfall in the Nepali language.
So he was born into the- from the waterfall.
So Tshagay Raja- raja means the king.
So king of the waterfalls.
My first ancestor in Bhutan was my great great grandfather- that would be my grandfather's
grandfather.
and he was said to be migrated from Sikkim.
He had his son- that would be my grandfather's father.
My grandfather's father was just a kid- a small kid during that time and he was carried
in a bamboo basket and he was brought up in Bhutan.
And to go in details about my village- my hometown.
My hometown is known as- village is known as Tsholingkhar Gewog.
Initially it was known as Tshokana.
But now it's Tsholingkhar, but there is not much of changes.
The word Tsho is still there- Tsholingkhar.
Tsho translates to lake.
Our village used to be filled with lakes initially.
You can still find the remains of the lakes.
So whenever, if you go to Tsholingkhar and view the landscapes there, you can find the
various kinds of uh remains of the lakes.
The landscape looks like the lake but then there is no water. It's all dried up.
It must be because of the climate change or maybe the human settlement.
When we were kids, we were told that it was all due to the mess (litters) people created.
And in Bhutan we believe that the lakes are the residential place of the holy deities.
So the holy deities live into the lakes
and if the spirit leaves the lake, the lake dries up or it bursts out.
We believe in that way.
And during those days, there were no not much of bathrooms.
There were no- not much of bathrooms at all, and the people had to go to the forest, in the bushes- nearby
bushes and they must have dirtied (littered) that place.
So that's why, there are no lakes as of today.
And to talk about my details, we are Mongers and I'm Lungeli Monger. In Bhutan we call Monger.
Actually it was supposed to be Magar, but then when we (our ancestors) reached in Bhutan;
it changed to Monger.
Well I know, during this 21st century uh we shouldn't be talking about caste and all.
However i'm just talking about the history.
So Monger- and then from Monger, we are the Lungelis.
There are different kinds of divisions again.
Gotras and many more things to get into details, so from that during our ancestors
time- not just during our ancestors time, even during these days we can segregate the
relationship- the relatives we have to recognize.
We get to know our relatives and know how we are related.
And regarding the language, people are curious- you know people from other countries are curious
about how come people of Bhutan speak Nepali.
We not only speak Nepali language and in some of the places we also speak our mother tongue-
the language of- for example: Tamang, Monger, Rai, etc. We all have their own language.
So just like that, we Mongers also have our own language.
And the place I come from, Tsholingkhar village- hometown; we speak Magar language out there
and it's dominated by Magar language.
So you can also find Tamang people out there but then just a few households speak Tamang
language and the majority of the language is dominated by Monger language, and not just
the people who live there; but then those who comes to settle in learn Magar language
very quickly.
I think it's very easy to catch up and learn. The way we speak,
I heard my aunt telling that it resembles the Purbeli Monger language of Nepal.
It relates somehow.
I think it's somehow resembles.
Purbeli in the sense the eastern part of Nepal. And regarding where we came from, I asked
my relatives and then they say uh we were from Sikkim.
Well some Nepali speaking people of Bhutan came from Nepal uh some came from Sikkim.
My aunt tells me that we can easily identify where our ancestors migrated from- whether
it's from Sikkim or Nepal by looking at the colour of the house.
Our ancestor's religion were Buddhism initially- centuries and centuries ago, and talking about
Buddhism, I saw some videos on youtube telling that the Lord Buddha too was a Magar.
I don't know how true it is.
But then before being Buddhist, people were said to be following Bonism and then after
being Buddhists, people migrated to other places again and then they migrated into in the Hindu
communities.
So I think they converted their religion to Hinduism again tuning into the society they lived into.
Well that's all about me, my hometown, where I am from and how did I reach Bhutan.
Not how I reached Bhutan. How my ancestors reached Bhutan. I was actually born here.
Actually during this modern era, not everybody would be interested in histories.
However I would be interested so that's why I'm sharing my knowledge and whatever I received
from my parents and relatives' and all the things I hear around.
So I would be interested in hearing your story and tell me where are you from?
What is your history?
Let me know in the comment section below
and that's all for today and signing off for now.
See you next time