The pamo turned to take another look at the beautiful cow and found herself staring stupidly at a huge rat that was pulling and struggling at the rope.
It is believed that even spirits and demons are afflicted with pain and disease like human beings. We are told that sometimes the spirits seek the help of human beings to cure their sick and afflicted.
Yirang Pamo Lhamo was a very powerful Bumthangpa pamo or shaman medium. Although she came from Yirang which is in the Tang Block of Bumthang district the fame of her power and skill had reached far and wide and she would be called upon to perform rituals in faraway places like Thimphu or even Paro. It happened once while she was making the long journey from Yirang to Thimphu that she had to spend a night somewhere near Nyala Lungma. Genuine and powerful pamos are recognized and even respected by spirits and demons, and being aware of this, they are therefore not afraid of anything. So when a beautiful woman appeared from nowhere out of the forest and asked her to help her she agreed without fear.
This beautiful woman avoided eye contact and always looked away when she spoke. “My son is very sick, I would be grateful if you could look at him. Perhaps there is something that you can do to help him.”
They walked in silence for a while through the forest. Deep in the forest of oak and conifers, far away from all human habitation there suddenly appeared a magnificent house. The pamo went in and was shown the patient who was lying on a mat on the floor. The patient, a young man, was covered with sores. After a quick look the pamo realized that the sores were full of mustard seeds. She at once knew what had happened. When human beings are afflicted with sicknesses caused by the ill will of spirits and demons, choepas perform the ritual of kago. During this ritual mustard seeds are thrown at the patient to symbolically chase away the spirits. Here was proof that the good choepas in fact made effective contact with the unseen harmful beings and actually injured them.
Unlike other times when the pamo contacts malevolent spirits, bargains, and negotiates with them, in this case all that she could do was to call upon the human guardian deities and ask for forgiveness. When she had completed the rituals she was led out of the house. As she was passing through the rooms she recognized a man from Bumthang. He was wearing an unmistakable Bumthang matha and was bending intently over a pile of sewing placed in front of him. She stopped and looked at him carefully, hoping that he would see her, but he would not look up from his work. The pamo recognized the man as Kencho, the late husband of Nimalung Animo. He had died some months ago and now was a khor or bondaged spirit slave of the dermo.
Here is what had happened to Kencho before he died and became a khor. He was returning from Thimphu and had to spend a night in a cave somewhere near Nyala Lungma. Throughout that night there was a tremendous wind that roared ceaselessly and it hailed and rained tumultuously. On this fearful night Kencho gratefully submitted to the lure of a beautiful woman who had mysteriously appeared from nowhere and befriended him in his cave.
Several days after his return to Nimalung, he fell seriously ill and, after many months of intense suffering, finally died. It was believed that Nyala derma had taken his sag or life force on that fatal night in the cave. The pamo Lhamo had in fact been called upon to help him in his last days but it was too late. She had told the relatives and his wife that a demon had bound him nine times with a chain, never to be released. Kencho had become a bondaged spirit slave to the Nyala demoness.
On seeing the plight of Kencho the pamo was filled with compassion and she regretted that she had not been able to help him. With these thoughts going through her mind she happened to linger a little, at which the dermo who was leading her out of the house turned back impatiently and her face darkened. The pamo quickened her pace and followed her out of the house. The derma handed her a rope tied around the horns of a beautiful milking jatsam and curtly said, “This is in return for your services” and instantly disappeared. The pamo turned to take another look at the beautiful cow and found herself staring stupidly at a huge rat that was pulling and struggling at the rope.
Nyala derma’s life had once again impinged on the life of human beings.