About 500 Lunaps flocked to Fangu village over the months of May and June to collect cordyceps this year. Fangu, Lunana’s uppermost village, is five hours walk from Thangza and Tenchoe villages. Every five years, the village yields abundant cordycepys harvest.
Temperatures dip below freezing point in Fangu around the time, but Lunaps braved the biting cold to collect what they call the golden fungus.
“It is extremely hard to collect the fungus. Sometimes, we have to climb steep hills,” Jangchub from Tenchoe said.
“We have to be disciplined like the army and brave the rain, sludge and snow. It takes more than six minutes to spot a fungus.”
But, as Lunaps aptly describe it, the fungus is gold indeed. It’s worth going through all the hardships as the prized fungus fetches millions of ngultrum.
At an auction in Bumthang last year, a kilogram fetched up to Nu 2.7 M. They are yet to auction off this year’s harvest.
“This year, I had around four family members collecting cordyceps. If at the auction, a kilogram fetches around one to two million, I am hoping to make over Nu 4 M.”
“This year, we are hoping to make about Nu 1 M,” Singye Dorji, also from Tenchoe, said.
Only 16 and above are allowed to collect cordyceps, but children as young as eight-year-olds accompany their parents, particularly during the year when Fangu abounds with the fungus.
Tashi Tshering from Tenchoe who is 14 was among the youngest collectors this time at Fangu.
“It is very difficult. Even if we wear gloves, it gets all soaked. Our clothes get wet and hands go numb because of the cold and it hurts.”
After weeks of hard work, the Lunaps are now preparing to head to the auction yards to sell their prized harvest.
