It was in February 2001, that Her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck named the villages Jigme, Singye, and Wangchuck after the great fourth Druk Gyalpo. Wangchuk village lays on the bed of Aum Mochhu. From Sheyenden Lower Secondary School the first village you will reach is Singye then Jigme and lastly Wangchuck. Children from around the village go to Syengden Lower Secondary School. However, the road to Jigme, Singye & Wangchuck village is downhill northeast.īefore reaching Jigme, Singye, and Wangchuck villages, you will first arrive in Syengden village. Interestingly to reach Lhop village commuters must cross the river Damdum twenty-three times before they ascend towards Yabala.

After driving a distance of about 50 km from Samtse, one will reach to Yabala intersection. 70 years of Lhop Distanceįrom Samtse drive towards Dorokha dungkhag. Although this custom has been practiced since their ancestors, the young people now seem to have come to disagreement with ritual in particular. If the woman dies they slaughter a cow and feed it to mourners and if a man dies they slaughter an ox. They put the deceased in a casket made of particular wood and actually bury it near the house and built a stupa around the casket.ĭon’t be surprised to see a stupa near the houses in Lhop Village. They practice ‘Rombu culture’ meaning they bury the dead person with all the possession he/she owned. Three generations of Lhop – Grandmother and her granddaughterĪnother unique ritual about Lhop is the ‘death ritual’. Besides Lhophu kha they speak Lhotsamkha and Dzongkha. Nowadays senior Lhops are concerned that someday the language might perish due to less interest shown by young Lhopu to speak their language. Lhop has its own dialect called ‘Lhopu kha’. Lhop women love wearing pieces of jewelry.

The unique tradition about the Lhop is the way they dress, they drone with white attire which looks similar to Kira and Gho yet the white color makes it easily make them stand out from the crowd. Most of the Lhop depends on agriculture, livestock farming, and cardamom cultivation for cash crops. Because of modernization today their activities are now shifting towards a modern economy and healthy livelihood. Today there are around 157 households in these three villages.Īlthough Lhops remained isolated for a long duration of time. According to the locals though, most of the Lhops live in three villages of Jigme, Singye, and Wangchuck. Lhops are concentrated in Dorokha, Samtse district. The history of Lhops origin has remained a mystery until today. The local term ‘Lhop’ literally means southerner, a term mostly used by the people of the Paro and Haa, Doya in rai means ‘kind’. The Lhop popularly known as ‘Doya’ is considered the oldest aboriginal inhabitants who settled in the southwest of Bhutan.

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