Bonkor (miss-pronounced as Bonko) is the festival celebrated in virtue of an offering to local deity called Ap Chundu in Yangthang Village under Bji Gewog in Haa with the unique dress, lyrics, and steps. Bonkor is derived from the word Bonchoe – Bon religion. It is being performed once every three years. Usually it is celebrated on the 17th or 18th day of the 9th month of the Bhutanese calendar depending on the auspiciousness of the day. The next celebration would be in the year 2024. Bonko is a kind of festival and is performed by this particular village to appease the local deities for the wellbeing of the community. Bji Gewog has many villages but no other village has Bonkor festival. Other places in Haa have their own Bonkor festival. Ap Chundu is the main local deity of Haaps (The people of Haa). It is said that this festival is being practiced and performed since Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel’s time. However, no one could tell the exact date and the year of its beginning. The festival has the trend and is only being performed by the locals whose cast is considered to be rich and renowned. The people who get married and are settled here in the village are not entertained to participate or perform the festival taking the risk of bad happenings.

According to our conventional wisdom, once a woman stops menstruating, and starts vomiting in the morning as well as experiencing loss of appetite, she is pregnant. Henceforth, she avoids doing any heavy work, and elders and experienced people advise her on the dos and don’ts of birthing-related subjects. Although pregnancy was socially acceptable for a woman who had a husband, there was a social stigma against unmarried pregnant women. Not only did people gossip behind their backs, but some communities even ostracised them on the pretext that their pregnancy outside marriage would cause accident or disaster to the people, animals and community, especially if they happened to pass through any restricted areas such as ladam or ridam (restriction of mountains and forests near the community and believing these sites as the abode of local deities. Restrictions these sites starts from the sowing of seeds in the field and until the harvest). Although no nasty actions are taken against unwedded pregnant women these days, they are still the subject of gossip, and social stigmatisation persists, though perhaps to a lesser degree now than is mirrored in the well-known traditional saying: "If the bastard is faced to the rocky cliff, the cliff breaks down; and, And if the bastard is faced towards the lake, the lake dries up." Although due date for the birth could not be predicted precisely, impending birth is determined based on the size of the abdomen and frequency and intensity of labour pains. As soon as childbirth seems imminent, the woman readies herself by preparing ara (distilled wine) or changkyoe (fermented rice) as well as stocking up with other nutritious foods such as meat, egg and fish. She also avoids crossing the tethers of horses, as it is believed that this will delay birth, since pregnancy in mares lasts about a year. Besides, roaming or journeying at night is strictly forbidden. When it is time, a few elderly women will be called to assist the pregnant woman, as it is also believed that it will be easy to give birth if there is an experienced woman nearby. According to the Eastern Bhutanese belief, if the woman is in protracted labour, various methods are followed to aid her in delivering the baby, such as: opening a container of fermented rice (Changkoe or phafin, also known as buchang) and serving it to her; a family member going to a cross-section of paths and stamping the ground hard three times, collecting the dust from that spot, and then rubbing it on the abdomen of the expectant woman; or her brother (phuga ajang) dresses up and covers his body with a lhiu (rain coat made from yak hair) and then, carrying a quiver and holding a bow in his right hand, he jumps across the abdomen of his sister who is lying on the bed. These are some of the popular practices claimed to have saved pregnant women from suffering further. After delivery, the child is picked up by the kindest and most gentle person present, as it is again believed that the new-born will take on the character of the person who first picks the baby up. Once the child has been picked up, its umbilical cord is cut with a sharp knife or a scissor. The child is washed with lukewarm water and welcomed by inserting a piece of butter in the mouth, placing another piece on the head, and uttering many good wishes and prayers for his/her long life. While the child is being washed, the mother awaits expulsion of the placenta. The placenta is buried in the ground, placing the umbilical cord towards the surface. However, in some cases the placenta is taken to a river and pressed under a heavy stone with the umbilical cord turned upstream. Either way, if the umbilical cord is not placed correctly, it is believed that the child will vomit. After washing, the baby is allowed to suckle at the mother’s breast either before or after expulsion of placenta, and following that ara and nutritious foods are given to the mother. However, if placental expulsion does not occur, a rundi (kind of flat rope made from bamboo, used when carrying loads on the back in Tshangla Community) is cut in half and burned. The ash is given to the mother to eat. In some cases, the cast off skin of a snake (buesop) is fed to the woman. People believe that these practices will help the body expel the retained placenta. As the birth of a child is considered impure, outsiders will avoid visiting the family for three days after the birth. After three days, where possible, a lama or tsip (astrologer, or lama who knows astrology) is invited to the house to perform a purification ritual called lhabsang and define the child’s horoscope and bestow a name. Following this, well-wishers and neighbours will visit, bringing a ceremonial scarf and a pitcher of ara, a small amount of dried meats, eggs or anything else that is considered valuable to the weak and recuperating mother. The next very important function for a child is the first cutting of hair, which can be done at any suitable time after the hair is long enough. The practice is that the first haircut is done by a brother of the child’s mother, or in some cases (for example if she has no brother), it may be done by a lama.

Nowadays, almost everyone misunderstands that Chol Mlub, which is a traditional rite of passage for Cambodian women has disappeared, and even the purpose of the ceremony is also somewhat confused, because it is understood that women during rite of passage learn to be housewives, mainly to lighten the skin or whiten the skin, learn female law, learn the five precepts, the eight precepts until the ten precepts and sew embroidery. The fields of housing and education mentioned above belong to women, but that does not mean that woman has to learn while she is in the rite of passage. She can know before or after. The main purpose of the "Rite of Passage" is to be ready to be a man's wife in the future (ready to have a husband). Traditionally, every family always wants their sons and daughters to live as adults with honor in society. For sons to be ordinated as monks to show gratitude towards parents while daughters to enter the rite of passage to show gratitude toward mother. These factors motivate families with daughters to have at least one of their siblings to be in rite of passage. If you make the eldest daughter, youngers daughters will be accompanied, so when they reach puberty too, there is no need to organize a rite of passage, which saves the cost of the family. In fact, parents love and want their children to do the same. With this in mind, some locals still implement and practice rite of passage tradition, even in modern society. According to previous research, the villages and districts that still practice this tradition are in Boeung Preav commune, Sre Ambel commune, Dong Peng commune, Sre Ambel district, Koh Kong province, Tumnup commune, Taing Krasang commune, Batheay district, Kampong Cham province, Kien Sangke commune, Sot Nikum district, Siem Reap province. Rite of passage is women’s most important subject that they have to learn and there are many stages of the rite. The first stage is to prepare themselves for "first menstruation" that will last for 2 to 3 days, a ceremony called "Sen Chhol", will be commemorated to inform the ancestors about the rite of passage of their daughter. The second stage is the period of "Staying in the rite of passage”, women will be obligated to be on a proper diet such as eating vegetarian food, no sunlight exposure as well as other tasks that must be done every day for an average of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or There are also 9 months. The third stage is "Leaving rite of passage" it is the last stage but there are many more tasks to be completed, the ceremony has to be held similar to a wedding ceremony (one night and two days). The symbolism of the work in the first stage is compared to "sperm" that propel in the mother's womb. Second stage is compared to a baby in the womb ready to be born. Stage 3 is compared to a mother is "having a contraction" waiting for the birth of a baby to come out of the womb. The whole ceremony is quite similar to a wedding; it is somehow called a single wedding or sometimes there is an escort who represent the husband. These are the wedding trials which women have to experience before a real one that take place in the future. The rite of passage that prepare women to get ready to be a wife has a tough discipline than men. Women are secluded in a room whereas men are in pagoda, focusing on the study but they are free to chat or meet people on holy days. The pagoda area for the venerable symbolizes the mother's womb and during a monkhood, men seems to be more relaxed than women, there is sunlight all over the large courtyard, but during rainy season, the monks are not allowed to leave the pagoda. In order to study dharma and other subjects for one year (equal to one Vorsa), which is equivalent to one quarter, the monks rushed to study only dharma (literature). But if monks want to continue to study for many years, they can learn more skills such as lime carpenter, carpenter, and sculptor. After leaving monkhood, they will be able to earn money with their skills and start a family. Beside, studying in pagoda monks also follow a strict diet which they can eat only two meals a day which is morning and noon (fish-meat) and in the evening only tea, milk only. For women, when they are in the rite of passage, they do not leave the room or outside the house, generally speaking, no sun exposure except at night when they shower or use toilet, because a dark sky represents mother’s womb, and the daughter in the rite of passage represents the baby in the mother's womb. That's why they try to keep the baby in the womb out of the sun until it is born. If the mother expose with sun, baby will pre-maturely born, it will definitely be worse for the baby. Strictly speaking, two-course meal like the monks, but a vegetarian dish without meat, such as porridge or rice with salt, soy, cucumber, sesame, ripe coconut, ripe banana, ripe mango, watermelon. Some foods are avoided such as bacon fat or fish sauce. At this point, it is not considered that rite of passage is when women learn to be housewife, because they don’t eat or anything. In fact, a woman knows how to cook before she enters the rite, and so does sewing, embroidering, and sweeping the house, these skills are important for women when they have husbands. The study of the five precepts, the three precepts, or the ten precepts deeply, is not seen at all, that is, only the chanting of the Dharma of worshiping God (Vantea Preah) every morning and evening. Some of the work women do while in the rite of passage are just to get rid of boredom. Others say that they Chol Mlub to exfoliate their skin complexion, because they have not been applied makeup or any powder, only wearing a long sleeves shirt to cover her body and staying in a mosquito net. Wearing a multi-layered shirt is not just for the sake of a bright skin, it represents a baby in a mother's womb covered by a few layers of belly. If women have only one layer of belly, it will affect the baby when the mother eats spicy or hot. Generally speaking, staying in the rite of passage is a way of guiding women during their puberty to get ready to be a wife. They do not have to get married immediately, at least wait two to three years The symbol of leaving the rite of passage is like a mother during a contraction of childbirth delivery, because on the first day of the ritual, the woman is not yet exposed to the sun. Even though she leaves the room in the house but she needs to use an umbrella and still be in mosquito net, waiting for the next task, with the Khmer grandmother as the guard next to the mosquito net. In some villages in Sre Ambel district, Khmer grandmothers who know how to give birth midwives called (Daun Khner) are obliged to monitor the baby's movement by taking care of the mother's womb, such as touching or waiting for the baby to be born. Next important task, an old single man called (Jas Komlos) will dance with a movement of digging (Daun Khner) with a traditional music, which metaphorically means to ease the process of child delivery to be quick. Then, Daun Khner will hold the woman’s hand out of the room to a ceremony hall. This represents a baby who was just born and it will be covered by a piece of while cloth and the body of a baby is compared to the mother’s placenta. At that time, it was old, hot, dancing, digging, digging, Daun Nhe (Daun Khmer) accompanied by the traditional song titled, "Kors Daun Nher". The process of carrying a child by the Khmer grandmother from the room to the ceremony hall on the ground is the process of being born from the surface or out of the abdomen one step at a time with a piece of white cloth as a way or covering the body of the child is like the placenta of Mother. Waiting until a next sunrise, it is assumed that the baby is successfully born. There are many following rituals such as cutting hair, ear piecing, tver tmenh (), which serve as a confirmation the woman is ready for a wifehood. The rite of passage process is almost the same as a wedding, which includes: Krong Peali ritual (Sen Krong Pali), Sen Chong Dai, Bok Lak (game to find Lak). All work is done continuously from the evening until Acha tied the hand of the Cho Mlub child with his sister and cousin to participate in the ceremony (Photo: San Phall, 2016) 1AM, Kors Duan Nher ritual will be done at midnight. On the morning of the second, the child will be accompanied to the ceremony hall to worship the sun, get haircut, do teeth, get ears pierced, reav ang kor reab, porpil rotate and tie hands as a finale. This Chol Mlub tradition plays an important role in educating people in society by showing the process of a woman in her puberty who has to go through the rite of passage in order to be qualified for wifehood and to become mothers. Women is considered as a land for sowing seeds and the gender roles they inherited include housekeeping, child care, in general, to manage the family economy. For men, they pick up profession or skill to earn money for the female to manage. Men and women are always in pairs, one of which cannot be missed, that is how society created.

In the Lhotsam (Southern Bhutanese) community, baby shower is an event observed on the eleventh day after the birth of a baby, which is generally understood as the naming of the new born baby. In fact, the act of performing “Nauran” relates to Hindu Holy Scriptures and it is done as a cultural and religious mandate. It is performed by all casts like the Rai, Gurung, Ghalley, Chhetri or Brahmins in Hindu religion following the same process on the eleventh day which is regarded auspicious.