Statues, stupas and other religious structures are common sights in Bhutan. They are gorgeous to look at but without proper zung or inner relics, they have no spiritual values. If the statue is not filled in with the zung, it is believed that malevolent spirits get into the statue and cause harm to people. Therefore, installing zung in these structures is very important. With the installation of zung, the religious structure or statues become a living entity capable of bestowing blessings. Zung bestow them with spiritual importance and sacredness, hence inserting zung is tantamount to installing a soul in the body. Ideally, zung offering should be done by an ordained monk who does not eat meat, onion, garlic, drink alcohol, smoke or chew tobacco and has taken the vow of celibacy, but such a person is very rare to find in this modern era. Zung consists of scriptures in the form of mantras or prayers, and precious objects, supported by a sogshing (life wood) in the centre. The sogshing must be a fruit bearing tree with fragrant leaves such as juniper, cypress or sandalwood. It is cut into four sides tapering towards the tip while its base is kept in vajra shape. The whole sogshing is painted red and mantras are inscribed on the four sides in gold. The size of the sogshing depends on the height of the statue or stupa. Mantra rolls are an important component in filling the religious objects. Thus, Holy Scriptures or mantras are printed and rolled but each roll is marked to ensure the right order of the scripts for installation, as Bhutanese believe that installing scriptures upside down may cause more harm than good. Various other important components such as body, speech, and mind relics of great lamas, precious metals and a small statue (terma) are placed around the sogshing, which is then wrapped in silk brocade. After fitting the sogshing, rolls of mantras printed on papers and stuffed with sandalwood powders along with incense are arranged around it. The stuffed items will keep the zung items firmly in their respective positions. When every possible space is completely filled, the base is sealed with a bronze sheet. Finally, a consecration ceremony is performed to make the object fit for worship and refuge.

The Gesar epic recounts the sacred deeds of the hero King Gesar, while unfolding a broad spectrum of oral genres, embedded hundreds of myth, legend, folktale, ballad, and proverb in narrative framework of “beads on a string,” namely “Gesar Epic Cycle,” demonstrating the sheer monumentality and vitality of verbal arts. So far we found the earliest manuscript is The Battle Between Vjang Regality and Gling Regality, which dated to the 14th century, while the earliest Mongolian woodblock version titled “Geser Khan, Guardian Lord of the Ten Directions,” was published in Beijing in 1716. As of today, there are over 120 different oral cantos on record. Not counting the texts in prose, the portions in verse alone are total over one million lines excluding different variations, indicating that the living oral epic continues to expand. As the creators and inheritors of the heroic song, the Tibetan singers and storytellers are traditionally classified in several ways by how they learn and master the epic. In oral performances, they invoke a flexible genre of bcad-lhug-spel-ma, namely ‘prosimetrum,’ by melding concisely worded prose with lyrical verse and over 80 melodies of music in responding to different contexts. They often use a variety of skills that include gestures, facial expressions, postures, and verbal sound effects to enhance the singing artistry. Among their meaningful props, the hat, bronze mirror, and costume are shaped in special ways to symbolize the traditional cosmology and aesthetics. In Mongolian tradition however, the epic singing is handed down professionally from master to apprentice. Performances usually feature musical accompaniment by stringed instruments called the “horse head fiddle” (morin khuur) and the “four stringed spiked fiddle” (hugur). The two major singing styles, “improvised melodic singing” (holboga) and “musical storytelling” (bensen ulger), are combined with oral narratives, which highlight vocal singing with deep, broad, and melodious sounds skilfully utilized as needed. Gesar epic performances play important roles in rites of passage, festival ceremonies and religious rituals in communities concerned. For instance, when a child is born, passages about King Gesar’s descending to the world are sung. The epic also reflects Tibet’s native Bon religion, in respect to beliefs, rituals, theology, divination, and so on. Moreover, the epic singing itself usually accompanies with specific ritualized practices, for example, smoke offering, meditation devoting, and spirit possessed. Hence, the epic is not only the dominant means for communicating with the hero, gods, ancestors, and members of society, but also the major entertainment in rural communities. The epic performers have acted as traditional educators who enable people understanding genealogy and history, astronomy and geography, zoology and botany, arts and crafts, medicine and treatment through their storytelling. Concrete narratives focusing on origins of nature and universe are incorporated in numerous episodes called Ode, such as Ode to Mountain, Ode to Sword, etc., revealing that the epic itself a continuum of experiential knowledge in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, universe, and history. As a Tibetan proverb goes, “On every person’s lips there is a canto of King Gesar.” It has been a constant inspiration for other art forms, including traditional forms such as Thangka painting, Tibetan opera, and Cham masked dance, as well as contemporary arts, which provides peoples and young generations a sense of cultural identity and historical continuity, while reflecting credit on the common cultural legacy, shared by generations, serves as a really all-embracing encyclopedia for the general public.

China 2009

Agriculture is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock and over centuries, rise in agricultural has contributed in the growth civilization. Early people have developed and improved varieties of plants and till date the practice is considered to be the important aspect of Bhutanese livelihood. It is one of the sources of income as over69% of the population here, directly depends on it for their livelihood (MoAF, 2011). In 2011, agriculture sector accounted for about 17.7% of the total GDP of the country (RNR Statistics, 2012) Asham (Maize) plays a critical role in the entire life of given economy and is a pre-dominant cereal crop for the eastern part of the Bhutan for many years contributing to more than half of total maize production in the country. Asham cultivation was one of the main cereal as well as cash crops that supported and supports lively hood for major households in the part of the country. To these days, the practice and culture of maize cultivation is one of the main live hood and sources of income. Most communities in the eastern part of the country depend on cultivation of Asham to produce following products: •\tKharang- grits, grind maize used as staple food •\tAsham me-gogni- roasted corn •\tAsham bokpi- corn flour •\tTengma- roasted and pounded maize •\tAsham mu-nang- a local term for popcorn •\tZhu- brewed alcohol Apart from above products, asham is also used as cereals for bartering during the olden days to exchange with wooden and bamboo products produced from other parts of the Dzongkhags. Moreover people also used to exchange with rice, chili, meat and dairy products within or outside the community. People used to offer asham, kharang and bokpi to monks and gomchen(great meditation masters) as they visit begging for cash and kind. Asham and its product were also used during the religious rituals at households. Crafting of Torma (Sacrificial ritual cakes) and Sur (Smoke offering) during the rituals were done by using corn flour. There has been lots of transformation in the culture, practice and process in cultivation maize in the region due to introduction of hybrid seeds, improve in tools and technologies used compared to old and traditional ways of cultivation.

Karmey: (Butter lamp Offering) during A-shey Lhamo Dance is an indigenous tradition practiced exclusively by women in the communities of Shingkhar, Somthrang, Pangkhar and Ura in Ura Gewog (block), Bumthang Dzongkhag (district). Colloquially, Karmey means offering butter lamps in all temples and monasteries in and around these communities. The element is closely related to an annual offering of Saang (smoke offering), popularly known as A-shey Lhamo which is normally conducted from 8th and 9th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. The Karmey program is the last and concluding event of the three-day A-shey Lhamo festival which is held on the 10th day of the 7th month coinciding the birth anniversary of Guru Padsambava. The origin of Karmey is identical to that of A-shey Lhamo, although A-shey Lhamo is considered a Bon-kar (transformed Bon practices) and the other explicitly a Buddhist tradition. The establishment of the A-shey Lhamo festival dates back to the reign of Dung Lhawang Rabgay (local ruler) of the Ura community, not long before the advent of the Dung caste system in Bhutan around the 10th and 11th centuries. It is said that the misfortune of shey-ned (diarrhoeal infection) spread among the children of the Ura community, and to cure such epidemic diseases, Dung Lhawang Drakpa introduced the performance of the A-shey Lhamo dance, an offering to appease the female local deity on the eighth and ninth days of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. For most Bon practitioners throughout the country, this is a special day when they make confirmation offerings to their respective deities and ask for blessings of peace and happiness for the individual as well as for the entire community, country and all sentient beings in the world. According to older members of these communities, they have noticed a decline and disappearance of this ancient practice over the years. They say that they remember crowds of women from communities like Ura, Pangkhar, Somthrang and even Singkhar singing and running to all the temples and monasteries to offer butter lamps and tshogs (offerings) and perform melodious folk dances right after the A-shey Lhamo festival was celebrated. There are also some native songs and dances that are sung and performed only on Karmey Day. It is believed that after the annual offering to the A-shey Lhamo deities according to the Bon Kar tradition, people also wanted to observe the Buddhist way of offering to the scattered temples and monasteries, which falls exactly on the 10th day of the month, which is revered as the birthday of Guru Padsambava, one of the highly revered saints who introduced Vajrayana Buddhism in the mid-8th century. However, over time, the villages of Somthrang and Pangkhar have discontinued this tradition along with the performance of A-shey Lhamo, and today Shingkhar and Ura are the only two communities that follow and maintain this tradition.

A unique female-dominated performance held only on the 8th and 9th day of the 7th lunar month in the two communities of Ura-ma-krong (main village of Ura) and Shingkhar, the farthest settlement under Ura gewog (block) in Bumthang Dzongkhag (district). In Ura dialect, Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is usually called Saang (smoke offering). It is said that in the old days, when there were yak herders who usually came from their village to raise the yaks at Purshey la (one of the mountains overlooking Ura village), they welcomed the female performers by burning sang at Korgang (the place believed to be the place where the deity descends or dwells and where the female performers circumambulate the stupa). Hence, community members refer to the festival as Sang or Sang na gai-sang (on the way to the Sang offering). Another interpretation states that the female participants begin their offering by making various medicinal herbs and other fresh offerings go up in smoke while appeasing the main female deity named A-shey Lhamo and her entourage, namely Gawa Lhamo, Kiba Lhamo, Champa Lhamo, and Dropa Lhamo. However, in addition to the aforementioned attendant goddesses, Shingkhar A-zhi (pronounced locally) Lhamo has Lam-dron Lhamo forming five attendant goddesses. Therefore, the festival and performance were called Sang from the first offering. The other name of the festival, A-shey Lhamo, is interpreted literally by outsiders and some learned community members as the lyrics of the religious song sung and danced in honor of the deity A-shey Lhamo. Colloquially, the term A-shey is addressed to either the queen or the elder sisters, and Lhamo is a general term for the divine goddess. The origin of Sang or A-shey Lhamo is that during the Dung Lhawang Rabgay (local ruler), not long before the emergence of the Dung caste system in Bhutan around the 10th-11th century, there was a misfortune of Shey-ned (diarrheal infection) that spread among the children of the Ura community. People sought the advice of their ruler as there was no tradition of performing rituals or treatments. Thus, Dung Lhawang introduced Drakpa, who had a divine bloodline, to appease the female local deity by performing dances. He composed the lyrics in the typical Ura dialect and ordered that they be performed by female members of the community. The Lord also determined the place: Pur-shey la (written Pur-gyal la) along with the things to be sacrificed and also the steps. Following the advice, the women performed the dance, which gradually helped the children recover from the epidemic. After that, the performance of A-shey Lhamo was practiced. According to the origin, A-shey Lhamo and the goddesses accompanying her are both the deities of the place and deities of the Bon khar tradition. Perhaps they are the other form of Tshering chey nga (the five sisters of longevity) who appeared in the Bon tradition before they were introduced by Guru Padsambava as the tutelary deity of Buddhism, just as many Bonpo deities were later transformed as protectors of the sacred teachings of the Buddha. In the poetry of A-shey Lhamo, it is mentioned that they reside in the high mountains Gang-toed thoen po. The road to their citadel is like a mule track, filled with the sweet fragrance of Ba-loo (Rhododendron ciliatum) and Su-loo (Rhododendron setosum). She delights in the first share of Mar-chang Ara (locally brewed wine) and Kara and Buram (honey and brown sugar) and sits down on the white sheepskin mat. She resides gracefully in a palace of precious gems with golden columns and silver windows. Apart from the above description of her residence, there is no text describing her appearance, only the names of her sisters and the goddess herself. This ICh element is still alive in Ura and Singkhar communities. However, there are some changes: The sang is now prepared and offered by themselves since there are no more highlanders at Pur-shey la, and the other is that, according to tradition, the sang is generally performed on the 8th and 9th day of the lunar month but, the community members decided to either coordinate the festival on 15th day if the time and weather is not favourable.

An artistic product often like a stick or a bunch of sticks basically made from powders of mixed aromatic plants and medicinal substances. It emits sweet fragrance smoke when burnt and normally offered in and at the sacred places to please deities and to get cleansed and rid-off defilements. The production of incense is considered one of the religious crafts, and it is another way of making Sang (smoke) offering. According to the Bhutanese artisans’, the craftsmanship dates back to the time immemorable when the first Lord Buddha Nam-par zig-pa (Skt. Bispa shayi) attained enlightenment and offered the Sweet Fragrance smoke by burning the Incenses by the enlightened beings; celestial beings and Bodhiasattavas made from varieties of heavenly medicinal herbs. The tradition gradually spread in the spheres of Bonpos (per Buddhist religion of Tibet) and Hinduism and maintained its skill until Buddha Sakya Muni’s period which is about 2500 years back then. The art was also adopted by the Chinese Buddhist missioners and further spread to Mongolia, Korea and Japan as well. In Tibet, the making Smoke offerings and burning incense was officially implemented the 7th Century during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo (R. 618 AD- 650 AD) when Princess Wenchang (M. 641 AD-650 AD) and her entourage members suffered illness while heading towards Lhasa (then, the capital of Tibet) as bride to the King. The Princess tried to medicated using physician attendants but could not bring to the normal yet, by offering the smoke offering made attendants fully recovered. The instruction to make Smoke Offering was from the Minister Thonmi Sambota () who had a visualization from the sacred Sakya Muni images to collect the medicinal herbs from the mountains and making smokes will ease any diseases associated to Nagas. Later, incense making and burning tradition was gradually invented using the same raw materials and medicinal ingredients of Smoke offering. In Bhutan, the art of Incense making was brought by the Country Unifier Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1654) and was initially practiced in the Dzongs (fortress) by the monk artisans. Thereafter, the tradition remained intact amongst the Bhutanese being the Buddhist and making offering of incense had been a daily special offering substances in the individual shrines, temples and monasteries. Currently, there are a countable incense manufacturing centers across the country. These industries produce mainly two different incenses: Ja-ju poe (herbal incense) with a yellowish texture and Zu-poe or Choe-jue poe (incense mixed with flesh and blood ingredients) with a brown color. Ja-ju incense is usually burned explicitly for the enlightened beings and when performing Drol-chog (ritual of Goddess Tara), while the other is offered to the guardian deities and guardian spirits during affirmation rituals.