Blessed Rainy Day Celebration

Blessed rainy day is an annual merriment which marks the end of the monsoon season in Bhutan. It is usually marked at 22^nd day of the 7^th lunar month. It is known as thrue-bab in Dzongkha. The word has two characters: thrue mean “ambrosia or elixir” and bab mean “falling”.  On this day, nation goes for bathing or can be called as ‘nation bathing’. It is believed that on this date all natural water sources on the earth are considered to be sanctified by the falling of dhueetsi (ambrosia) from the heaven.  There is a religious explanation on how such elixir poured from the heavenly abbot. For a week, all the Bhutanese take an outdoor bathing since the fallen dhueetsi cleansed all bad deed, obstructions, defilement and nullify all bad karma accumulated for the year. Some even keep the bowl or bucket with flower outside in the open space believing that the dhueetsi will fall in the water and used to take bath which help in cleansing the bad deeds. 

Bowl of water with flower

The celebration of Thrue depicts the celebration of tradition and culture that has been passed to us through generation. It also show the how intact the age-old tradition are with the Bhutanese which make us unique sovereign nation. As per the legendary stories behind the origination of blessed rainy shared by our astrologer it has great meaning and rationale of its existence.

Legend has it that billions of years ago there existed a Buddha called Dipenkara (Sangay Marmazey). One day he passed away. Later, his statue was newly constructed in an ocean (most probably in the Indian Ocean) by the King of the Nagas (Luu Gyelpo Tsugna Rinchen) as a symbol of worship.

As soon as the construction was completed a rain of ambrosia (Dhueetsi) fell upon the statue from the Reekhee Star (Karma Reekhee) twinkling in heaven as an offering of the King of Devas (Lhai Gyelp tshangpa and Jajin). The ambrosia had had all curing medical values.

Thus all the worldly elements and compounds are believed to have got their medical properties form the legendary star. Today, the Blessed rainy day is a commemoration of that great ancient rain which is believed to reoccur and cleanse the world annually.

The most auspicious hour for the ablution is determined by astrologers in the service of the Je khenpo, the chief abbot of Bhutan, as per the Bhutanese lunar calendar.  

In the traditional Bhutanese family, the celebration of thrue starts with purification bathing (mostly early in the morning). Then, family members gather in the traditional way to have thup (Bhutanese porridge) as to mark the feasting followed by the Suja (butter tea), Dzaw (roasted rice), khabjey (snacks), rice and varieties of curries. Once the family members are done their morning feasting, men set out for different traditional sports like archery, khuru or degor. 

Thup with pork

Rice with pork

And all women visit their neighbors or relatives to enjoy the day. Many greeting of best wishes are send to the families and their friends.

While the men play their games, the house ladies prepare the lunch for the family members and they do picnicking at the play spot and have great gathering for the lunch.

Finally, day ends with family gathering with wine and dines at the house or some goes out for the good restaurant or bar to make the day more enjoyable and memorable.

This is in nutshell how the thrue-bab is celebrated in the traditional Bhutanese family. In reality, the celebration is found more grand, enjoyable and memorable than how we feel. This celebration also signifies the end of the farming season and the beginning of the harvest season in most of the parts of Bhutan.

Happy Blessed Rainy!!!

ཁྲུས་འབབ་གི་ཉིམ་ལུ་བཀྲིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཡོད།།