SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
of Serkhya, founded the kingdom of Sindhu, while his sons extended his realm to Dorji-Tag and Hor in Tibet and as far as Sikhim. In the course of a war with Raja Nabudara, who lived in the plains of India, the eldest son was killed, and Naguchhi was consequently plunged into grief. It was at this juncture that the saint Padma arrived on the scene, and with the aid of the king’s daughter, Menmo Jashi Kyeden, who possessed the twenty-one marks of fairy beauty, restored the king to happiness and saved his soul. The struggle with the demons lasted for seven days, and at the end of that week marks of the saint’s body appeared in the solid rock. The legend further goes on to say that the fir-tree growing beside the cave was the alpenstock of the saint, who, like St. Joseph at Glastonbury, made the stick to grow. Naguchhi appears to have been a second King Solomon, as it is recorded that all the most beautiful women of India and Tibet were taken to wife by the king, and that they numbered a hundred in all.
The rival King Nabudara was also converted to Buddhism by the saint, and peace was restored to the land, and a boundary pillar set up at Mna-tong. This kingdom, however, lasted only another hundred years, and was destroyed by Tibetan hordes in the time of Lan-darma, the apostate King of Tibet, who reigned about the years 861-900 A.D. Some two centuries later Bhutan was occupied by the followers of King Tiral-chan.
The subsequent fate of Bhutan is wholly connected with the origin and the spread of the Dukpa sect, founded by Yeses Dorji at Ralung. Yeses, or Gro-Gong-Tshangpa-Gyal-ras, was born in 1160 and died in 1210 A.D.
A young lama from China came to his successor, Sangye-on, and was given the name of Fago-Duk-gom-Shigpo. After studying at Ralong for some years he was sent to Bhutan, and settled at Cheri Dordam, where he lived with his wife and family. His fame soon spread, and aroused the jealousy of Lhapha, a rival lama already resident in
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