Views, opinions and thoughts of residents of Spiti

Views, Opinions and Thoughts of the Friends of Spiti

Lahaul-Spiti District, Himachal Pradesh, India



Wednesday, July 4, 2012


Sunglung
My name is Tanzin Palkit. My village is Sunglung.  At one time, Sunglung had only one house. Then a man came from nearby Lhalung and built another house. Once a wolf entered the house and killed many goats.

A view of Sunglung from the Lhalung road.

In front of my house there is a “Shukpa tree”.  A Shupka tree has a good fragrance. If we make it dirty, it will cause sores on people’s skin. In Sunglung there is a village god that is both for Sunglung and Lhalung. The village god is represented by a "lato" of stone, horns and branches. When People invite the village god they make an offering of wine toward the village god's lato. The lato is situated on a small house. There is a deep cave above my house. It was once occupied by the local god's priest, who the god would at times possess. When the priest was possessed the people of the villages could communicate with the local god through the priest. People in Sunglung light a lamp before tilling and ploughing the fields. They do this for a better crop. In earlier days there was lack of water in the village though Lingti River flows below the village. This river is smaller than it used to be. There was a water wheel used for making sattu, barley flour. People from Lhalung and Rama also came to Sunglung to make sattu. 

2 comments:

  1. Dear Tanzin Palkit, it is great to hear about Sunglung. Although I heard about your village, I never had a chance to visit and learn more about it. The picture and the stories about Sunglung is very informative -- thank you for sharing. Please write more blog posts.

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    1. Great to be on this site.I have been close to Spitian while in my service fro 2003 t0 2007.Visited almost every village on foot.Thanx Juley.

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