Gomdar (sgom-dar) -Origination of people and its name? Was there settlement before?

Background of the Gewog

Gomdar is not really developed gewog in Samdrupjongkhar Dzongkhag though it is connected large number of villages and recently, it was bifurcated into two gewogs viz; Gomdar and Wangphu. Gewog has 20 villages with around 631 households comprising a population of 5089 (roughly).

Gomdar gewog consist mostly kamzhing¹⁾. Maize is the main staple food of the gewog and it is widely cultivated in kamzhing. Oranges is the main cash-crops grown by people.

There are two Primary Schools (Khoyar PS & Barzor PS) and one Central School (Gomdar Central School).

Origination of people in Gomdar

Perhaps, it was sometimes inmid-18^th century, people has to pay the largest portion of tax to the Penlops²⁾ (dpon-slop) or Chilas (spyi-bla) in the form of money and grains. Every year, Garpa³⁾ used to collect the tax on their Chila’s behalf. According to the oral history of grandmother Norbu, as much as she remembers, her fore-fathers used to say that people of Chimoong⁴⁾ has affected badly with the tax-paying system to their Chila and some people started to run away from their community. “…when Garpa visits them for annual text collection, people of Chimoog tethered their Garpa to the prayer flags and they have abandoned their village. Some Chimoong-pas left to Tashigang⁵⁾,while some to Gomdar” said Abi Norbu.

Upon abandoning their village (Chimoong), they have to hide for several months (Gumni chowa- hiding) from their Chila & Garpas. However, as time passes by, they have settled and increased their settlement (dar-increased). Thus, it is believed that the people of Gomdar are actually originated from Chimoong and it got its name as ‘Gum-Dar’ (Gumni-chonthan dar-ba: meaning, people from Chimoong have hidden for long and then they have increased their settlements).

Was there settlement before?

Now, was there settlement before or wasn’t at Gomdar is a big question. As said by Abi Norbu that there is no such concrete written documents or any reliable oral history known by our elderly people, it is very difficult for us to assume whether there was a settlement before Chimoong-pas or not.

However, as per Abi Norbu, she believes that there was a settlement before Chimoong-pas from the evidence of so called Khaling-pa Drom⁶⁾ we used to see long time ago. Possibly, there was an external threat for them and with the fear, they have left to Khaling⁷⁾ leaving their all belongings hidden in their Khaling-pa Drom. I have a vivid memory of seeing Khaling-pa Drom back then. Even people used to dig that box in search of Dzi (cat eye). From this evidence, we can draw a conclusion that there was a settlement before Chimoong-pas arrival at Gomdar but by what name the place been called was not known.

Notes

¹ Dry land people use to cultivate crops.

² Is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as governor in practice, however, they were under minimal central government control.

³ Garpa is the attendant for the penlops or Chilas.

⁴ Community under Pemagatshel Disstrict.

⁵ One of the Districts in Bhutan.

⁶ A stacking stone-made boxes to hide the belongings beneath the ground.

⁷ one of the hamlets under Tashingang Districts.

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