Pema Tashi, 56, had filed a request to Guma Gewog office in Punakha to delete his daughter, Chenga Lham’s census details, last year. His daughter had gone missing 17 years ago.
“A couple of days after, my niece in Thimphu called me saying she saw my daughter’s picture on facebook.” The police had put up Chenga Lham’s picture asking help from the public in identifying her family members. “I called up the gewog immediately asking them not to delete my daughter’s census record.”
Pema Tashi said he was overjoyed to be reunited with his daughter. He had last seen her when she was just 16. “When I was working at a sawmill in Phuentshogling, a man from across the border had taken her to Darjeeling. So we informed the police in Phuentshogling and we managed to bring her back. A few days later she went back with the same man.”
Pema Tashi said the man betrayed her and the man’s relative had then taken her to Sikkim where she worked as a maid.
All these years, Chenga Lham was living in a different country with a different identity. She was known as Priyanka, had gotten married to a Sikkimese man and has had two children. She has also forgotten how to speak in Dzongkha. But, she told BBS she missed her family, everyday of the last 17 years.
Her neighbor in Sikkim, who knew her story, took the initiative to find Chenga Lham’s family and informed the police in the neighbouring Indian town of Jaigoan.
“I am delighted to see my family. When I left this place, I remember my younger sisters being little. But now they have all grown up, gotten married and have children,” said Chenga Lham.
She said she is saddened to hear about her mother’s demise. Chenga’s mother died about four years ago.
Chenga is the oldest among the nine siblings.
“I am happy to see her. I thought she died and that we will never get to see her. On the first day of the meeting, we were so overjoyed that we couldn’t stop crying,” said Chenga’s Aunt, Tshering Pem.
Chenga’s father, on the other hand, said without the police’s support this reunion would not have been possible.
Police in Punakha had closely coordinated with the police in Sikkim to get Chenga home.
