Hardly anyone can believe that finally he made it after traveling nearly 2,000 miles from Denmark to Norway. The problem, though sounded tough initially, yielded fruitful upshot, which has made the entire Bhutanese diasporic community feel proud of one’s culture and tradition.
Deepak Chhetri in Alta, Northern Norway, was stock-still when he heard that his father passed away in Khudunabari refugee camp. He was more haunted by the fact of having no any Purohit (Hindu priest) in the country. Chhetri, however, did not give up the hope to perform the last rituals for his deceased father in accordance with his long-practiced tradition.
The will saw a way—inviting a pundit (Hindu priest) from Denmark to Norway, which gradually turned possible. From the seventh holy day, Deepak started performing rituals with the help of the pundit in the name of the deceased though he experienced a severe gravity of the death of his father, who—if it hadn’t gone other way—would have been resettled in the States in a couple of months.
“Summer celebration in Europe was a boon to me. The pundit could make his northward journey possible since he had a summer break from his language classes,” Deepak smiled in a video conference call over the Skype with the writer. He did not forget to mention his gratitude to Alta Kommune (Alta Municipality) that paid for the two-way tickets for the pundit.
“I am equally obliged to all the Bhutanese who remained together sharing my sorrows both morally and financially,” Deepak hinted to the support he received from his fellow countrymen.
Deepak seemed happy in a way that he could embarrass sympathy from all sides, which was most meaningful and supplementary for this holy performance.
“Can you believe that I got 15 days off from my job?” His happiness measured no bounds. “I am indebted to my sjef (boss) who duly understood me when I revealed about my culture. I will cover the nonattendance from the job working some extra days during my vacation.” Deepak explains how he managed to remain home for these many days.
When asked if similar could be the case for others, Deepak lamented, “I am not very hopeful that there will be always coincidence like it happened to me. We should surely see for an alternative to this.”
When this writer got connected to the apartment of Tek Bahadur Baniya in Alta upon hearing that several holy performances were underway in the residences of Bhutanese there, Bhagawat bachan (reciting of holy Bhagawat), sounds of sankha (conch) and ghanta (holy bell) and murmuring of the attendees distinctly vibrated on the ears.
It was amazing to see that the feast was being performed in exactly the similar ways it used to be. This amazement, however, could mean very little in some of the States of the USA or Australia where these sorts of performances are scheduled in a routine. But in a place like Northern Norway, where Asian commodities are transported by every month by business trucks, managing everything is not an easy task. Furthermore, having not even a purohit from within the community is another heart-biting matter for many.
It is for the same reason that Bhutanese residents of Alta hurriedly utilized the presence and the time of Pandit Bhola Nath Adhikari who arrived to Alta to perform final rituals for Deepak’s father. Dinesh Subba, who reached Alta from Western Norway, enthusiastically informed that about a dozen of such arrangements are scheduled in Alta and a near-by municipality until the Pundit’s stay.
But how did it feel like getting transformed from a dense human populace to this situation and still performing the rituals bound with strict norms? “It was live,” Adhikari says. “Most importantly, we can possibly do many things if the wish be,” he adds. And the practice of koro-dhikuro (special confinement during mourning and a special place for performing the rituals), bedi (altar) and homadi (burning of holy rice during the performance) are in verge of extinction (?). Adhikari says that there can be some compromises as per the impulse of the time and place but a total change is yet not amicable.
Well, it could no longer remain debatable that keeping up with the tradition is uncomplicated; this gusto of Bhutanese in Norway is surely a praiseworthy effort in trying to work out a solution to an obligatory ritual such as the ‘after-death performance’ by the kith and kin of the deceased.
The result of the twist and turn drive of our rich culture and tradition, especially after resettlement, however, is yet to be defined. At least until today, there are enough rooms to believe that the major obligatory norms of our culture and tradition can be well preserved wherever we dwell.
