Ang Dolma Sherpa

Feb 27, 2024 | sapiens.org | Bridget Alex |Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia |Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa |Ang Dolma Sherpa

✽In the summer of 2022, one of us, Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia, brought gifts to his relatives with babies in northeast India. In their Sikkimese Bhutia community, new mothers receive chicken, cash, and other items known as Bya-kay—literally, “bringing a chicken.”Among the Bya-kay well-wishers presented, he noticed offering scarves, or khatak. Ritual specialists also raised prayer flags, or lungta, outside the residences of new babies.