Friday, October 2, 2009

The lousy sun

                                                                                                       The Lousy Sun

                                                                                                                      By Phuntsok Dhargyal
                                                                                                                      Oakton High School
                                                                                                                           Vienna , VA U.S
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

In Ancient time, people believe that the sun revolves around the earth, until Nicolaus Copernicus proved heliocentric by saying that the sun was the center of the universe and it is never moving. But before Copernicus they were lots of people, especially in a very small village in Tibet, who believes that the sun was rotating, because they all knew a story about it, a story that makes everybody in that particular village to believe it. In the following I would narrate the story.


Once upon a time there was a very small village in Tibet known as Tompa. The village was surrounded by Awu Sasi, one of the highest mountains in Himalaya region. Because of its height the village rarely gets any sunlight. So the people of that village were very distressed for living in darkness. Tenzin was then the head of the village; he was very tall and strong. The mountain was backward and very scary. Dangerous beast such as poisonous snake could be seen everywhere. Therefore people in that village lived with fear and life was very hard for them. As being the head of the village, Tenzin thought he should do something to help his people. So finally he decided to fight the beasts with full force, after a long fight most of the beasts were killed and rest of them ran away. Tenzin was so proud of what he had done for his people, but people’s life did not get better, because they could not sow seeds without the sun, therefore they were still troubled by hunger. Again Tenzin thought he should do something to solve that problem as well, but this time he cannot think of any plan other than asking help from the god. So he climbs on top of the Awu Sasi Mountain with some of his people and started to pray. He requested God to help his people by sending the sun to their village. The God heard his request and granted the wishes by telling the sun to go over the village. The sun was not so happy about that, but he had no other choice except to obey God’s command.

Tompa village started to get more sunlight for the first couple of days, and then the lazy sun stopped showing on time and left the village as early as possible. Once again the village was in trouble, and the people asked Tenzin if he could do something about it. Tenzin was so mad at the sun, and he warned it that he will hunt it down if it still does not show up on time and continues to give them problem. But the careless sun just ignored Tenzin’s warning, so Tenzin decided to chase the sun and give it some a lesson. Unfortunately it was not as easy as he thought it would be, the sun goes faster than he imaged. He chased the sun throughout Himalaya region and still he could not catch it. He was so tired and took a rest at the Mount Everest, which is the tallest peak in the world. When he woke up he saw the sun was so close from him, he freshened and encouraged himself and started to chase it again. He chased it throughout India and into the India Ocean, the sun was so surprised to see such courage and determination. Finally at the end of the India Ocean, the sun gave up, and it asked Tenzin “Why are you chasing me for? Tenzin replied angrily, “Because my people need sunlight in order to survive, if you keep on doing the same thing then I will chase you until I get you.” This time the sun was little scared, as it now knew that Tenzin really will do what he had said. So the sun thinks that it should better do what he is asking for. So the sun promised Tenzin that it will rise up on time and set on time.

With the regularity of sun’s appearance, then the Tompa village gets enough sun shine, and everybody started to sow seed and plants fruits. That’s why Tompa was very rich with plants and all kinds of fruits. Most of the people depend on incomes from their sale of fruits. In honor of Sun’s generosity, the Thopa people started annual celebration, known as Losar. The sun keeps its promise; therefore the people of the village have night time to sleep and day time to work.

No comments: