REMEMBERING THE LOST CREATURE, GANG-SENG KARMO (SNOW LION)

While some say, Sengye Karmo is a mythical nonbeing, others argue that the species existed in real life like dinosaurs, Saber toothed tiger, Tasmanian tiger and so on. The latter opinion is convincing actually. The Creator indiscriminately created billions of species in varying sizes and colours habitable to all climatic conditions and altitudes. Leopard species are found in lowland and those found in high altitudes are called snow leopards. Wild horses in lowland are zebras whilst those in upland (Mongolia) are called Zungarian horse/takhi. While the dromedary camel, also called an Arabian camel, can be found in North Africa and the Middle East deserts, the Bactrian camel lives in Central Asian’s steppe. And the list goes on. 

Deriving from this logic, Sengye Karmo could have existed in real life as we could still see the two species of lions in the sub-Saharan Africa and India live on. Unfortunately, the one we are referring to —snow lion—which probably prowled the Himalayan range is now missing. Records show extinction rate of high altitude species more faster than those of lowlands. That’s why, despite lots of efforts, snow leopard isn’t thriving in the Himalayas. For certain, the most praised Gangseng Karmo went into extinction. And in its memory, the following song remains to be preserved. Please sing on: 

གངས་སེང་དཀར་མོ་གཡུ་རལ་རྒྱས་པ་ཁྱོད། །གངས་རི་དཀར་པོ་ང་ལུ་མ་ཆགས་ཤིག །ང་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་གངས་དཀར་ཏི་སི་ཡོད། །གངས་རི་ང་ནི་ཉི་མས་བཞུ་ཉེན་འདུག །