Once upon a time in Divine Madman’s life

It was a crisp, bright winter morning in the Nangkatse village of Tibet’s Yamdrok province. The soft rays of the sun had drawn the children out of their homes. All was quiet as usual when suddenly a thunderous sound tore through the air.

All the elders rushed out, some with their tsampa bowls in hand, wondering why a bolt of thunder had struck the region on a sunny day. They looked into the cloudless sky with quiet wonderment as the thunderous sound faded into the south.

But the children saw what was happening. A certain lama had shot an arrow into the southern sky, they said. Now fly to the house of a maiden who is destined to meet with me, the lama said when he shot the arrow.

The arrow soared high over the Himalayas. As it entered the Bhutanese territory, it followed a steady downward trajectory and roared over the mountains towards Toep Chagdana village in Punakha.

And as it glided low over the mountain towering over Wang Danglo village in Thimphu, its notch brushed against the crest and left behind a huge dent that made the mountaintop look like the notch of an arrow.

And as the arrow descended on its way towards its destination, it tore its way through the crown of a mountain between Dochula and Hingrila leaving behind a v-shaped indentation in the mountaintop.