BOEN-DREY | A MONK TURNED GHOST

 

For the farming women and girls in the west and the central region of Bhutan, the day on which cattle manures (lue) are conveyed from cowshed to paddy fields is a worksite fun event to taunt men, often physically. It is a crude tradition prevalent even to this day. The manner in which women play with passerby is one hell of a teasing. They take men's pants off by force, hold on to their private parts and demand doma-pani. If a passerby has something else to give, either in cash or kind, they will let you go free. If not, you are in trouble.

Considering the conduct a tradition, there is a certain level of tolerance to such behaviours. Even the worst of physical abuse is taken with a pinch of salt. Seldom such behaviours do not bode well with some men when limits cross. Some folks relate this incident to why men cannot carry lue (cattle manures). Actually, it should only apply to monks and not the entire men. Anyway, the legend goes as this:

Over a century ago, an ordained monk in his late twenties, was on his way home when he was suddenly mobbed by a large group of women at a workplace in Sakachen under Dakar Gewog, Wangdue Phodrang.

Since he showed up at a workplace empty handed, a gang of unruly women and girls didn't spare him as a monk. They treated him like any other man. They demanded doma-pani or a soelra (gift or money) and when he had nothing but an apology to offer, those unhappy women abused him physically. Worst of all, the monk was compelled to carry manure on his back. 

Unthinkable mockery and damnation only made him feel vengeful against those women and girls. Worst of all, the monk thought they deliberately broke his vows. In immense distress, he wailed, beat his chest multiple times, ate a handful of manure and conjured to transform into a mei-men-drey-men (neither completely human nor demon) to take revenge on them. As wished for, the monk possessed the demonic powers to cause harm on humans. He could take forms of wild beasts and different persons depending upon his moods. 

Since he was a monk turned demon, he was known by the name 'boen-drey'. 

An elderly folk once told me that the boen-drey would quickly possess unmarried girls and therefore, in Sakachen, the girls had to marry as soon as they reached puberty to prevent getting possessed. So teen marriages were prevalent in the area. 

One late evening, a breast-feeding mother had to walk through the jungle where boen-drey dwelled. She knew a few distorted lines from Drolma prayer and as quickly as she walked, she also chanted the lines. She safely reached home. The next day, boen-drey took the form of a normal person and communicated to a folk from Sakachen and shared that his chase for a woman failed the other night. He told him that he could only see her legs walk swiftly and not her whole body. Thus it is understood that had she known the complete prayer, she would have completely disappeared in the eyes of the demon. That is the power of Drolma prayers. 

Folks claim that if the boen-dray slapped a person in the middle of night, his palm print in dark bluish would appear on the body part where he slapped. That meant he or she was surely marked to die. 

One day, a boe-garp (soldier) was on his way to Dagana from Wangdue Dzong. He met a handsome young man at Jega Chorten in Sakachen in a lungsrem gho and white lagay (sleeve). They spoke briefly and passed each other. As he reached Dagana, his host family happened to discuss about boen-drey and how he would transform into different persons. From their conversation he made out that the young man he met in lungsrem gho was the boen-drey. That raised his hairs immediately. Yet kept the incident to himself and did not share with the host family. A few days later, he headed back to Wangdue Dzong. At the same spot where he met the handsome young man, he met a frail old man in black chari (woven from yak's fur). He knew it was the boen-drey again and quickly passed the man. From a distance, when he looked back, there was no one there. The old man had vanished. From that moment on, he did not feel well and the moment he reached Wangdue Dzong, he died. 

Where is Sakachen? The place is located approximately sixty kilometers south of Wangdue. To be exact, it is perched on a hillside above Kamichhu in Tsirang Wangdue highway. It falls under Dakar Gewog, Wangdue Phodrang. Now the place is safe to passby and there has been no account of people encountering boen-drey in recent times.

Photo courtesy: unknown.