Min tibetanska barndom i Zorgay - Life and Culture on the Tibetan ...

21
PRAYING FOR RAIN
F
arming villages depend on rain to water the crops that
support their arduous life. Our village is no exception. We
yearn for rainfall after the fields are plowed in the hope of
having bountiful harvests. Villagers stopped collecting
medicinal herbs for nearly three years for religious reasons,
relinquishing the extra cash income the herbs brought because
they believed that digging for the herbs irritated the mountain
deities, who then withheld rain. Poor harvests mean we have
nothing. Even if we do not earn money from the grain that we
grow, it meets our basic food needs <strong>and</strong> praying for rain is the
first thing we do when drought strikes.
Deer also eat the crops, causing poor harvests, but we
dare not kill them because we believe they belong to Danghi
Mountain Deity, who sends hail, destroying our crops if he is
angered by those who kill or disturb his sacred animals.
Moreover, local people will fall ill <strong>and</strong> their livestock will die.
This is why we protect deer no matter how badly they damage
our crops. We built fences around the fields, instead of throwing
stones <strong>and</strong> clods at the deer, but this was not very successful.
All the women went to a sacred stream to pray to the
water deity. Only women went. It was shameful if a man went.
This is because locals believe that water goddesses from
different sacred streams married, <strong>and</strong> then went to their
husb<strong>and</strong>'s home. Each water goddess has her own area of water,
which she protects from drying up. Each of the goddesses
misses her husb<strong>and</strong>, who rarely visits his wife. This exasperates
the goddesses so much that they feel wronged <strong>and</strong> begin to act
rashly. Despite their infinite anger, the goddesses pretend to be
happy <strong>and</strong> do not shed tears of longing for their husb<strong>and</strong>s,
which is why drought comes <strong>and</strong> why women visit the sacred
streams <strong>and</strong> lakes. Only women know the words that can arouse
the goddess sexually. They bring sexual pleasure to the goddess
by giving her the feeling that she is with her beloved one. The
water goddess sheds tears <strong>and</strong> it rains if the women are
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