The history of Bhutan has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 500 years. Before any history was written down, stories were passed down by word of mouth, some stories were appropriated and expounded upon. To be able to get accurate information from the locals you needed to either, know the local language or find someone that could translate the local language to a language you would understand. This was very hard because many languages in Bhutan are only oral language. To add to this hardship, the terrain in Bhutan is so diverse that getting information across the nation was an extremely difficult task.
One prominent story with great significance for Bhutan is the story of a demoness who resided underneath the Himalayas.
Emperor Songtsen Gampo sought to find a tutelary temple to his patron Buddhist deity Chenresik to mark his marriage to his Nepalese bride, Tritsun. The project wasn't going to plan: every day workers built the foundation walls of the temple, they found them destroyed the next morning. The Emperor turned to his Chinese wife, Wengchen Kongjo, who was skilled in feng shui. Kongjo consulted the Portang divination charts and found out that there was a demoness in the land. To subdue the demoness, two temples were built: one on the feet and the other on the knees of the demoness. One temple is called Kyichu Lhakhang and the other temple is called Jambay Lhakhang. The temples served the purpose; the Demoness was subdued!
Natasha L
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