It is customary for
Tshogpas, the community representatives of Drametse to play a part as warriors
of the clan during their local festival. But with the dissolution of local
government and ongoing primary ground election, finding the warriors for the
festival which happens in every twelve month is in question. During the
festival the nonelected village messengers (Chipon) are in all time engaged
preparing feast for hundreds from long-age, and to pick and choose the acting
militia from the farms will be easier said than done. It was then the civil servants under the headship of officiating Geog Administrative
Officer decided to partake in it. From the time we made our minds to serve
during the festival, we received good number of well wishers fully supporting
our move.
After the training of
what to do and what not, we dressed ourselves in the battle gears and marched
into the chapel for blessing from the king of spirit warriors, Pekar Gyalpo,
the peer of the realm. Having ourselves seated in a row, our duty was to roar
load and clear before the effigy of the evils as and when the second commanding
chief raises the victory flag. We the warriors then have joined the parade of
monks and mask dancers so as to send-off the effigy to where they belong. After
having the effigy burnt and roasted by the born fire, a couple of junior
warriors followed the chief in dancing on the victory song. The most
entertaining part was when the other warrior colleagues poked fun of the victory
dancer who in crowd addresses of how great he was in his skills of battling.
But such mocking act to one another during victory dance has to be avoided
inside the courtyard as a respect to the monastic decorum. The victory dance
was then followed by the dance of warriors where we chanted the victory song by
raising our swords high in the heavens. It was out of the ordinary to learn
that hundreds of farmers came to witness the festival solely to watch the
performance of geog in-service persons and we were glad to see satisfaction in their
eyes. It was tiring task but yes we enjoyed ourselves as warriors and we wait
to serve again provided that we get the opportunity.
