1964: Namgyal Bahadur, Bhutan assassin

ExecutedToday.com ^ | May 17,2012 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1964, three officers were executed in Bhutan, including former deputy commander in chief Namgyal Bahadur, for assassinating Prime Minister Jigme Dorji.

A member of the powerful Dorji family and brother-in-law to the Bhutanese king, Dorji was overseeing a modernization campaign for the insular Himalayan kingdom. On April 5, 1964, while the king was in Europe for medical treatment, Dorji was shot dead while relaxing on his veranda. No wholesale seizure of power was attempted.

The entire affair has long been murky, and it seems it was murky to those involved, too.

The assassin, one Zambay,* was caught within days, and he implicated a number of powerful people — including not only Namgyal Bahadur, but the king’s Tibetan mistress.

She eventually fled the country, though her alleged involvement fueled rumors of a Chinese connection, or (more plausibly) of palace politics between her faction that that of the rival Dorjis. Old guard military guys versus the modernizers is another hypothetical dimension, although again the specifics (why now? what was the last straw?) are wanting.

* Zambay was executed on July 4.

[Candor7]

I did not know about this assassination. My root teacher the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa had a patron in the Queen of Bhutan, Queen Grandmother Ashe Kesang Choden and in 1968 she invited him to practice at Taktsang where he received a terma text called tag

So that would have been only 4 years after this assassination. It was never mentined by the various lineage holders, and so I did not know about it.

Court intrigues never cease I reckon.I wonder how many others died other than the victim and the perp?

The good Queen is a very active patron of the Nyingma lineage:

[ladyjane]

Bhutan is an interesting place to visit. They worship the male organ. They have them painted on the walls of houses everywhere. Google it if you don’t believe me. Actually, use duckduckgo because they don’t track your searches.

[TigersEye]

This is all news to me but I was only nine when this all took place.
I am going to plead ignorance without shame. :)

Is the Queen pictured there the same one as in the story?

[Candor7]

Is the Queen pictured there the same one as in the story?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No.

But without her most of the Nyingma lineage would not likely have been saved from the Chinese.She gave help and refuge to so many escaping the Communist Chinese back in the late 50s, who eventually settled in Sikim and Nepal, the Great Dilgo Kyentse Rimpoche among them.

Few know of her role in this. Aso her first name, “Ashe”means primordial stroke referring to both calligraphy and the sword......an intriguing coincidence of the Ashe teachings composed by Chogyam Trungpa:

https://beezone.com/chogyam-trungpa-rinpoche/ashe/ashe.html

[TigersEye]

Thank you so much! Both for the reply and the link to Chogyam Trungpa’s teaching.
I will read that a few times and let it sink in thoroughly.