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In the hills of southern Orissa, an area where many different tribal peoples co-exist, there is also a small colony of a few
thousand Tibetans who live in a number of encampments. One of these
is referred to as Jeerango, a colony that rests some distance from
the main road and nearby town of Chandragiri.
Jeerango is largely the
creation of a Tibetan lama called Namkhar Trimed Rinpoche who started
the place after seeking refuge in India following the Chinese
occupation of Tibet. He performed divinations of his people and,
with help from the Indian Government, was guided to the spot.
These days, some thirty
years on, a small monastery stands known as Thupten Mindrolin.
Inside are many beautiful statues of Buddha Sakyamuni, Chenresik the
Lord of Compassion and Padmasambhava who lived for many years in
India before taking the Buddhist teaching to Tibet. Upstairs is a
room containing the statues of the legendary Tibetan folk hero named
Gesar, whose exploits are celebrated in song and dance and performed
by village men and women at the time of the New Year. Clothed in
brocaded jackets, their voices can be heard echoing through the
village.
The monastery itself
looks out over the small village where a few hundred Tibetans now
live. They have had to abandon traditional ways and adapt. For
instance, the herding of yaks has been replaced with the keeping of
buffaloes. There are hills around and yet the scene does not bear a
great deal of resemblance to the countryside of eastern Tibet from
where Namkhar Trimed Rinpoche arrived along with his family which
included the late Anzi Rinpoche, his older brother.
At first the land was
jungle and wild animals could be heard at night and occasionally seen
when they hungrily ventured into the confines of the camp. Slowly,
however, the undergrowth was cut back and trees felled as land was
prepared for cultivation. These days the main crop is maize.
One of the more recent
developments has been the construction of a water system allowing
fresh water to be drawn from a well deep enough to provide fresh
water. Formerly water borne diseases were rife from impure water.
The project has also had other benefits such as in the irrigation of
the villager’s gardens where vegetables are grown. This has
largely been the work of Namkhar Trimed’s son, Tiku Jigmed, who
oversaw the project with aid secured from abroad.
Part of the construction
work was the damming of the stream that runs below the village and
the pond that later formed is now home to a variety of wildlife, the
most noticeable of which are the birds. There are of course the pond
herons and different species of kingfisher. Pied kingfishers in the
mornings and evenings fish the pond, hovering above awhile before
falling with a plop and emerging again with a wriggling fish if they
are successful.
There is also the smaller
common kingfisher who prefers to hunt from the vantage point of an
old tree trunk that juts out form the pond. There are other fish
eating birds such as cormorants as well as the open billed strokes
that look for frogs and such creatures in the pond’s damp grassy
border. In the evening egrets can be seen flying overhead, returning
from the Orissan plains where they like to feed during the day.
The Tibetans could not,
however, have survived and prospered without their religious culture
which is most evident at the time of transition from winter to
summer. Two days before the New Year begins, usually in February, a
ritual dance is held. It is part of continuing monastic ceremonies
that involves days of chanting as particular deities are invoked.
The dance involves the casting out of gtorma, brightly painted
moulded barley dough, which symbolizes the dissolving of negativities
that have built up over the year and which are returned to the earth.
In the grassed courtyard,
a triangular hole is dug and after the sacrificial offerings have
been dropped into it, the hole is again filled as the lama all the
while performs the movements with both the feet and arms, his hands
clasping a variety of ritual instruments. Other monks dressed
similarly in large conical hats also dance.
Following this, there is
a procession lead by the colourfully robed lama, which leads to a
convergence of tracks just outside the village. Here arrows are
fired and stones cast into a pyre which is et alight.
From ashes to ashes, form dust to dust ……!
It is after the New Year
that more elaborate forms of dance can be seen, the exact nature of
which are determined by the lama performing the appropriate
ceremonies in the monastery. There is a cycle of dances which
involve masked figures with wrathful faces not unlike those seen in
the Kathakali form of Indian dance. There are also more peaceful
looking masked figures such as those of Brahma and Indra, Hindu
deities that found their way into the Buddhist pantheon many
centuries ago.
There are dancing
skeletons to be seen and the agile gyrations of a stag who chops up a
figurine while the eight forms of the guru that may appear, are
central to a dance that involves a variety of divine forms. There
are also the dancing moustached jokers, colourfully dressed in
turbans, who flourish silk scarves.
With the coming of warmer
weather, picnics are held and people dance to music from tape
recorders. It may be traditional Tibetan but Hindi movie songs are
favoured as well as popular Western music. Dumplings stuffed with
jackfruit is one form of nourishment.
With enough rice beer,
these steamed offering start to be thrown around as party goers get
wild. This can all end when the women are picked up by the men who
may throw them into the nearby stream, a rough display of what is
meant as affection.
My time passes
comfortably but quickly here. On the morning of the day before my
departure, I wander down to the pond to sit awhile. A passing local
can be heard singing a Hindi Film Song.
Pardesi, pardesi janaa nahin (Don’t go away O stanger)….
I rather wish I could
heed his suggestion and stay awhile longer in this peaceful corner of
India.
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