School Rimdo

 

Choshum

A two-day Darla school Rimdo was conducted in Darla MPH hall. The Rimdo, religiously named as Jingsey, the fire rite was organized by Darla School and was conducted jointly by Darla school and the community of Darla.

The two-day ritual was presided over by His Eminence Tshugla Lopen Samten Dorji.

During the ceremony, various rituals such as the lighting of butter lamps, Tshogkhor(Wish-fulfilling ritual), purification ritual, Tormas, Jingsey(Fire), and others were conducted.

Bottom of FormBuddhists are nature-worshippers and believe in divinity, the soul and the primordial energy form. Jingsey is one such ritual, which will appease harmful evils and placate death spirits and strengthen life. We perform rituals by offering nine grains like rice, millet, wheat, maize, mustard, etc, flowers, fruits, and holy water to their deities.

The celebration was very simple, nature-friendly as meat and alcohol items were not served. Students and the public were served butter tea, sugar tea, biscuit, and pure vegetable meals on the first day.

Thousand of devotees from Darla and nearby vicinities offer prayers at the annual Rimdo.

On the second day, His eminence graced the place and blessed (Wang) thousands of people. Thousands of devotees and religious-minded people, some as far as Arikha and Phuntsholing came to revere.

The Rimdo was performed for the peace and well-being of the Darla family, the community, the King, the country and the people.

The Rimdo was a successful one, and it was due to the worthy efforts and cooperation rendered by all the individuals' teachers, principals, students, and the community. It wouldn’t have been a lavish Rimdo if it was not goodwill support from the students’ parents. As informed on Parents -teachers’ Meeting for any kind of donations; many parents credibly brought both cash and kind. Sacks of rice bags, oil bottles, vegetables, juices, dals, etc piled up in the school store. Thousands of Ngultrum were offered as donations and were collected from the students, parents, teachers’ devotees.  

“Rituals such as this have multiple functions in the family and in the culture,” says one of the Lopens. “It is an effective agent in promoting family health and well-being. Not only that, rituals facilitate the transmission of values and beliefs. Rituals provide support and containment for strong emotions. Facilitation of coordination between individuals, families, and communities,” he added.

Rituals are important and useful ways of assisting individuals and families in dealing with transitions and losses, bringing about healing and transmitting values from generation to generation. It's an effective avenue of strengthening families and creating an environment where personal well-being is enhanced.

Songs and dances were also performed in the evening to refresh and entertain themselves.

The ritual is being held annually.

Lama Rinpochea

Jingsey in Progress

The Wang

Outside View

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Students waiting for lunch

Our Chief Guests

Torma...A dog and a child...it's not a safe place to be in

Story Narration by my Son

Story Telling Competition

 My son, studying in class four narrated a story about ‘Two Cocks’ in inter-house Story Telling Competition on 15/3/14. I have uploaded a video here.
https://www.facebook.com/Pema Story Telling  This is to keep a record of his and our life. This story is very popular in Aesop's fables.

The story goes like this:

Once upon a time, there lived two cocks. They were not friends.  One day, they said that they will find who was stronger. They both said that they were stronger. So they started fighting. They fought angrily for many hours. One cock was hurt and came down from the top of the house.

The winning cock danced with joy and happiness on the top of the house. At that time, an eagle came over and took him up in the sky.

The failed cock was safe and happy on his luck.

The moral of this story is; do not be proud, it will fall one day.

Class Four Students

This year, I teach class IV English and X English besides other responsibilities. To be with small children, and to see them learning something really makes me happy. How they grow up in front of our eyes and become someone is another huge contentment one gets as parents and as teachers.

Class IV children are barely the age of ten, and they are tough students to deal with. They shout, play, sleep, run, jump, and do nothing at times. They grumble and complain each other, always. Class IV English text is the thickest book for school-going children. I tell them, “You are college students because you carry the thickest English textbook in the school.” They laugh, and they take it proudly.

It was very hard to begin our lesson. ‘Reading and English Literature took almost a week; introducing about what they were going to study about. As they had taken a leap from class III, they hardly understand what’s going on in the class. I go on speaking English. I go on explaining. I go on making them read, write, speak and listen. “Yes sir,” is all they say.

We had a difficult time pronouncing the text ‘Literature’. Some of them said cutely, “Li-te-te-te.” A few said, “Lit-te-ture.” And some said, “Lit---ta-ry.” Everyone said in a different way. Only a handful could pronounce it correctly. Then I had to explain what literature is. We listed down many works of literature like poems, stories, essays/compositions, letters, etc. Then we had to write what a poem is. Types of the poem, and some basic features of poem (What makes a poem?). And so, we moved with other genres too.

A few days ago, we learned a poem, where we did lots of role-plays; that made them interested and happy. We also did speaking; where they spoke tailless, headless, legless English. “The poem is about to remember,” a student said. “Remember is the poem,” another one said.

The next time consuming comes when they write. They write at a snail speed, a kond of tortoise speed. When they are asked to copy a word from the board, they would mutter P-O-E-M. Writing a sentence in their notebooks would take half the period of the class.

Lately, Of all, they learn fast, they catch up quickly. Many students could answer my questions now. I must always keep an eye on them. When I contort my face and say in a higher pitch, they would get scared and keep mum.

Such is my class four students. Everyone wanted to be a captain, and everyone wanted to go out and play, but no one wanted to get spanking from teachers.

Class IV students writing

 

Busy Writing

Smiling

And Writing