SEYCHA

At the age of 72, you may expect meymey Korla to be around the cool shed of Changmey Gonpa counting the prayer beads. But you also may not like to see this old man to starve to death. His wife, abi Dowa has died 4 years ago. They had no children.

By late afternoon he would be seen by the bank of Gamri with his old fishing rod. His nephew had bought for him from Samdrup Jongkhar when he came to attend the abi dowa’s funeral. One such afternoon he was caught by a Forest Ranger. The Forest Ranger explained him the liability of legal action for fishing. The Forest Ranger asked meymey Korla to come to his office to discuss the penalty.

The next day, the old man walked all the way up to the gewog office. He spoke gently as he placed his, as old as him, jola on the table, “Lopon you know, due to the freezing temperature outside, fish usually don’t come out from the rock in the morning. But today I was lucky. I managed with one”.

He reached out for his jola and took out approximately a foot long fish which had not even breathed its last. “I thought I would offer this to u as seycha (an offer made to ask for forgiveness)”

How can a lopon reject an old man’s offer?