Saling Gewog Administration in Monggar has forwarded the case involving a group of people from Raesa and a religious teacher to the District Administration. The group accused a religious teacher of creating disharmony in the community through a religious talk held earlier this month. The group has submitted two petition letters to the gewog administration last week requesting for investigation.
The Saling Gewog Administration forwarded the case to the District Administration on Tuesday. But the latter refused to register the case reasoning that the gewog administration failed to submit a detailed investigation report.
Therefore, the gewog administration reportedly submitted a detailed report to the district yesterday.
Saling Gewog Administration says it will seek District Administration’s support to further investigate the case due to manpower shortage.
The Gewog Mangmi and a Tshogpa also reportedly visited Raesa last week and tried to resolve the case but the group of people are not happy.
Meanwhile, another group of people from Raesa who are supporting the Gomdhey Lopon denied the allegations made against him.
“I can promise that I haven’t said that the local people of Raesa will die within five years and that the entire community will disappear within ten years from now. I think there was a communication gap among a few people and also I think there are a few people who do not like me,” said Nidup Gyaltshen, the religious teacher.
“He just told us that the statue of Pema Lingpa is a sacred one and that it will benefit all the sentient beings. Other than this, he didn’t say anything that will create disharmony in the community. Regarding the signing of the no objection certificate to register the Gomdhey with Choedhey Lhentshog, he said that he won’t discriminate people who didn’t sign the document,” said Sangay Chedup, a farmer.
“He just said that he has constructed and installed a sacred statue of Pema Lingpa for the public to offer prayers in the community. He didn’t say anything other than asking people to offer prayers and have faith in the statue that was installed in our village,” said Gyalwang Phuntsho, another farmer.
The group also added that of 41 households in the village, half refused to sign the no objection certificate when Nidup Gyaltshen was getting public consent to formally institute a Gomdhey in the village to promote their age-old Peling tradition.
“When the villagers wanted to institute a Shedra in the village we signed a no objection certificate last year. However, when Nidup Gyalsthen came to our village to get signatures from the public to institute a Gomdhey in the village, it was disheartening for me to see some people refusing to sign the no objection certificate. I don’t know why some people were reluctant to sign the no-objection document. I was hopeful that all the people would sign it,” said Dorji, a resident.
“The Peling tradition has been in practice for more than three centuries in the village. So, we need a concrete reason why the people of Raesa were reluctant to sign the no objection certificate when a religious teacher wants to formally institute a Gomdhey in the village,” said Gyalwang Phuntsho.
If the case doesn’t resolve soon, this group of people who denied the allegations made against Nidup Gyaltshen are planning to file a defamation case against the community group for defaming Nidup Gyaltshen.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
Edited by Phub Gyem
