In the olden days, our forefathers used to gather for the annual local festival conducted at Pirung Lhakhang which is located at top of the hills that facing the Naning Phug (Melong Brak). I as a small boy used to follow always with my beloved mother & late father to enjoy the joyous day at the temple with mask dances conducted by our villagers. Such event brings all villagers together with laughter in their face with their best costumes worn and packed lunch at their backs. The local wine (Ara or Sinchang) is another precious liquid people will carry with them for the day. We all will be sinking with the wine by the evening hours and some will never make their trip back home and spend their night nearby bushes. Those golden days are gone for me after I was sent to school to better up my life.
And today, I could never dream to reach my village to attend those festivals which is still practiced with few attendees and less charm. Such loss and gap could be applied to all my fellow Gomdarpas who are living in different parts of the country to earn their livelihoods as office goers and business men/women. And this loss too is felt by the fellow people back in the village as the, educated lots, young and energetic Gomdarpas have already migrated to big cities to earn their lives. Some studies have shown that rural-urban migration is huge problem for Gomdar Gewog leaving behind many empty households and aged citizens to guard their fellow lands. It is the modern trend which our government could never find solutions to apply to the sickness namely rural-urban migration and will continue to do so. Therefore, I am also one of the migrants from Gomdar, Khoyar trying best to earn my life at Thimphu city. We, educated Gomdarpas, are scattered by the forces of our own Karma which is unavoidable and non-stoppable by individuals.
Nothing is going to remain as mystery forever, on the whereabouts of Gomdarpa brothers, sister, uncle, aunt, nephews and niece's stay and jobs they do. With the help of modern gadgets supported by 3G network services throughout Bhutan. Even though, I am living in 8th largest metropolitan city in Bangkok doing my master degree in Leadership & Human Resource Management. One of my Gomdarpa facebook friends sent me a friend request to join the Gomdarpa United in the Wechat which I did accept with happy face. How wonderful it was to hear their voices and photos posted in the wechat. The most interesting thing happened in the group was administrative set up which was headed by Gomdarpa United's Gup, Mangmi, Tshogpa, Chipon appointed by the majority that completes the shadow Gomdar Gewog administration formed by the civil servants, corporate workers and private business men/women. No sooner did I join the group, the majority of Gomdarpas appointed me as the Gewog Administrative Officer of the group which I accepted with gratitude and happiness.
In this group, any new joiners should introduce themselves to make clear of their family background, village name and current job. Nevertheless, the group's thumb rule is that we cannot address by positions that we hold in the current job but we should address our fellow people by relations that we are bounded back in the village. For instances, our Mangmi is by relation, (Ri in sharchop) I should address him as my son and Chupon as my nephew. Vow! It was another difficult time for me to fix the relationship bonded from our forefathers family to the new comers. By now, I got my son, daughter, niece and nephew and list goes on when I address them in the Wechat.
It was another forum for Gomdarpas to entertain with our melodies they sung. It was interesting to learn that many of them are good singers and orators with their seasoned talks. We share our happiness and sadness in this forum to release out like gusting fountain. We all update our status in the group and plan for the games and sport events for the weekends. This is another shadow village of Gomdar consisting of more than forty people.
But sad to notice, some participants are dormant and never want to open their hearts, signaling their privacy is bridged or quit the group permanently leaving us sad. Nevertheless, the Gomdarpa United is going to stand forever with highly educated people and hoping to see many new comers peeping in with open hearts and minds to share their love, melodies, compassion, happiness and sadness in the forum. We all sing the happy songs together and sad songs too. I would like to wish all the best of luck and everlasting happiness to the Gomdarpa United family members. May you all live long life and prosperous family in times to come.
Mindu Wangdi
