TALO GOENPA AND THE GYALPO

Talo Sangak Choling Goenpa

Talo Sa-ngag Choling is the resident of the indomitable Gyelchen Kuentu Zangpo, the supreme of all semi divine kings. Called in short as Talo Gyalp (རྟ་ལོག་རྒྱལཔོ), the deity had accompanied the first Thuktrul Zhabdrung Jigme Drakpa (1724—1761) from Tibet to Bhutan. According to Zhung Gyetsho Lopen Kuenga, Gyelchen Kuentu Zangpo elevated to Sa-Nyipa or the second level of Bodhisattva hierarchical positions for unfailingly serving the Buddha Dharma as a protective deity. Thus, he is now a Jangchu-semba or Bodhisattva. There are ten levels of Sa to fully attain Buddhahood. 

It is believed that under his empire, there are thousands of untamed Gyal-threns (minor kings) who still roam the earth freely often harming human beings. One of such untamed minor kings also resides in Talo village. He is believed to be draconian if not appeased well.

Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal

In the beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism, semi divine beings and spirits come in many forms. They are broadly categorized in the groups of Tsen (བཙན), Naga (ཀླུ), King (རྒྱལཔོ), Dza (གཟའ), mermaid (མཚོ་སྨན་རྒྱལ་མོ), Lha (ལྷ), Mamo (མ་མོ), Asura (ལྷ་མིན), Yaksha, Dhue (བདུད), Noejin (གནོད་སྦྱིན) and many more. While all deities are semi divine beings, all semi divine beings and spirits are not deities. When critics say, Hindus and Buddhists have thousands of gods, arguably these spirits, deities and celestial beings also add to the numbers. Nevertheless, high Lamas say only a few are enlightened beings and many are spiritually lower in ranks compared to human beings in terms of attainability of Buddhahood. 

In Gyalsay Laaglen by Gyalsay Ngulchu Thokmey, it is mentioned that deities are entangled in their own samsaric prisons and they cannot set-free sentient beings from the world of samsara except for certain lifetime protection. The ultimate refuge should be in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. 

རང་ཡང་འཁོར་བའི་བཙོན་རར་བཅིང་བ་ཡི། །

འཇིག་རྟེན་ལྷ་ཡིས་བསུ་ཞིག་སྐྱོབ་པར་ནུས། །

དེ་ཕྱིར་གང་ལ་སྐྱབས་ན་མི་བསླུ་བའི། །

དཀོན་མཆོག་སྐྱབས་གྲོགས་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན། །

However, on earth, human beings cannot afford to shrug aside deities and semi divine beings. We must learn to co-exist and appropriately take refuge in them for good health, fortune, success and protection. 

Deities, almost ninety percent, are wrathful and ferocious in temperament. In the past, as fearful as they appear to be, certain Buddhism, Hinduism, Bonism and Shaman traditions of offering ritual cakes, fresh meat and blood could only appease the deities. Now the ritualistic offerings have evolved into a less bloodier one.

Zhabdrung Jigme Dorji.

Whenever I visit Talo Goenpa, the statue of Lord Buddha on the second floor fascinates me. When Jigme Dorji (1905-1931), the heart incarnation of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, was martyred at his chamber in the Lhakhang, it is said that the Buddha statue turned its eyes to the right hand where Zhabdrung's chamber is located and burst into tears. Currently, the Buddha's eyes can be seen bit lowered and clearly tilted towards the right.

Talo Goenpa currently has a shedra till fourth zindra.

At Talo during Yarney (08-08-21)