My Grandpa, My Story.

My name is Meera Ghalley. A Ghalley is who I am. My Grandpa, Lal Bahadur Ghalley who is now 64 shares stories about my origin. One I would like to share. He claims the following story is what he read from a book. (The title and the author is not known for he doesn’t remember nor he has the book any longer. He says the book had great pictures [drawings] of Ghalleys back then.)

My grandpa says Ghalleys are stupid and not clever or intelligent. (I don’t know how much of it is true though).

It’s a talk from thousands of years ago. Ghalleys were originally from Tibet. My grandpa names Lhasa to be one and Bangra ( i don't know the present name of this place now , it may be changed ) to be the second. He even claims from Bangra we( Ghalleys) got separated. They were Buddhist. They were named such as chimi, Kinley and chungsho.They used to wear ghos,woven hat and wear kabney criss-crossing beautifully on their upper body. Only yaks was their source of livelihood. My Grandpa shares once there was a time when the Thakurs from Rajasthan had come massacring the people. This period gave birth to the mother of Ghalleys. Her name was Akala. She was from china. She had married a Ghalley. (My grandpa doesn’t remember who, sorry.) Grandpa shares the reason why Akala was called the mother of Ghalleys, it is said once a group of Ghalleys were having a party (I don’t know about what kind though), Akala was one among those Ghalleys but the Thakurs attacked them (a surprise attack). The men were brutally murdered but the women were planned to be killed next assuming they were mere helpless beings. But Akala wasn’t helpless, she escaped and had reached monger village (china’s and mongar’s border back then).She was given shelter there, (My grandpa doesn’t remember any specifics). She gave birth to a boy. She leaves her son there with the owners of the house for she had heard rumors of Thakurs coming there to attack them asking the owners of the house to protect him and make the boy carry his surname no matter what happens. Making such requests she goes back to china. It is believed because of her we still have surname Ghalley left. The owners protected the boy by feeding him goat’s milk and if they sensed any oncoming danger they hid the boy in the chicken’s shelter. Little wonder why Ghalleys don’t eat goat’s meat. It is said if Ghalleys eat goat’s meat then it’s like eating your parent’s meat and if you eat chicken then it’s like eating your friend’s meat. A cannibalism on a whole new level.

My grandpa says Ghalleys don’t drink water from malay khola (I don’t know where that is nor its English name), however it is said so for the fact that the massacre happened near the river and the blood of all our ancestors mixed in and is still flowing thus we don’t drink water from that source.

We are Hindu now and we have names such as Tika, Raju and Khusbu all because of that one massacre done by the Thakurs from Rajasthan. They threatened the remaining Ghalleys to obey what their demand or order was. The Ghalleys were to change their religion and as well as their naming system. If they put on any rebellious act the Ghalleys were brutally murdered. My grandpa say some were even boiled to death.

Karba,Ghasung,Pailang and galyang are the four basic sub-divisions within Ghalley. I am Ghasung. My mother is karba. Father is ghasung.A pure Ghalley breed I am.

Hundreds of years ago Ghalleys arrived at samtse and then while travelling and walking around with animals they spread over the country.

I am a Ghalley. So are my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents and it continues. Well my grandpa claims all my ancestors are GhalleysJ.My parents got the same story to tell for they both are Ghalley and fortunately from the same village. I am lucky, aren’t I? J.