The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On the night of 27th June 2024, 100-year-old Tshering Yangzom Dorji or Tess La, the wife of the late Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigme Palden Dorji, passed away in her small and quaint two-bedroom cottage in Lanjophakha located within the estate of her son, Kalden Dorji.
Tess La did not hold any official position in the Royal Government of Bhutan in her lifetime, but her unofficial duties and interests played an important role in Bhutanese education and diplomacy.
Dasho Paljor Jigme Dorji (Dasho Benji), the eldest son of Tess La said his mother was the daughter of Tsarong Dasang Dramdul a close confidant and right-hand man of the HH The 13th Dalai Lama, a minister in Tibet and also a Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces for a while.
Tess La at the time was studying in Mount Hermon school, Darjeeling (where she got her nickname ‘Tess’ from English nuns unable to pronounce her name), and when she reached class 8 she went back to Tibet where her father wanted to marry her off as he felt that she had received enough education to be able to speak and be literate.
However, her father was unaware of a blossoming teenage love between Dasho Jigme Palden Dorji and Tess La during her school holidays in Kalimpong.
Tess La sent a message to Dasho Jigme Palden Dorji of her impending marriage and he in turn requested his father Raja Gongzim Sonam Tobgay to intervene and request Tess La’s hand in marriage.
Dasho Benji said, “In those days it was very uncommon for Tibetans and Bhutanese to marry but the Tsarong family accepted the proposal and after many ornate ceremonies my mother was sent off from Lhasa to Kalimpong where she and my late father got married in November 1942.”
His Majesty The Second King who had close ties to the Dorji’s and considered the Tsarong as a personal friend sent gifts, grain for the horses and food for servants when the entourage of Tess La reached Phari enroute to Kalimpong. His Majesty later told Tess La in Bhutan that her father is a friend and he treated her very kindly as did His Majesty The Third King later.
Dasho Jigme Palden Dorji had become the Haa Drungpa and so Tess La devoted her time between Haa and Bhutan house in Kalimpong where her husband later inherited the Bhutan Agent title and in both places she played an important role during the advent of modern education in Bhutan.
Haa School was one of the early modern schools in Bhutan, and whose students were prepped to study in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
Lhaden Zom, 82, a retired Deputy Auditor General said she was in Haa school from 1952-57 and she clearly remembers Tess La feeding them, clothing them, giving them vaccination shots and taking care of their hygiene and well-being.
Lhaden said, “Tess La was very gentle and kind hearted and like a mother to us and she looked after the students of Haa school and also the Haa public.”
Lhaden’s batch had around 50 students with 10 girls and 40 boys many of whom would go on to study in Kalimpong and Darjeeling and hold senior positions in the government.
Some of the students were Late Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji, Dasho Nado Rinchen, Brigadier Hodo, Dasho Dawa Dem the first Bhutanese woman to join the civil service and the first woman Ramjam and member of the Royal Advisory Councilor, Dasho Gagey Lham the first woman to be a Judge at the High Court and the first Bhutanese woman to get the Red Scarf and many others who would go onto prominence in later life.
Lhadon Zom said she and other students were deeply touched by how Tess La looked after them and they kept in touch with her well after and they occasionally visited her.
While in Haa, Tess La was involved in starting Bhutan’s first agricultural cooperative to help farmers.
Tess La’s other duty was in Kalimpong, in the Bhutan House where she tended to Bhutanese students sent to study in Kalimpong and Darjeeling and became their local guardian.
In the earlier days Tess La looked after a young Crown Prince Jigme Dorji Wangchuck who would go on to become His Majesty The Third King, HRH (Paro Penlop) Namgyel Wangchuck, HRH Ashi Deki Yangzom Wangchuck and many ordinary Bhutanese students who were among the first waves of Bhutanese studying in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
As the wife of Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Tess La, had an important behind the scenes role to arrange meals and host important guests both domestic and foreign.
Tess La was closely involved in preparing and helping organize arrangements during the visit of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later the first visit of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Tess La was also part of the 3-member all women delegation sent from Bhutan headed by Ashi Tashi Chodzom Dorji to Australia in 1962 that enabled Bhutan to get a surprise entry into the Colombo Plan and here again Tess La played an important role behind the scenes.
Back in the day international meetings were not like the staid affairs of today, but there was a lot of parties, dances and socializing too and these were important events in themselves.
Ever the skill full host, full of charm and a good dancer, Tess La was a social hit and became popular with the international crowd already amazed by the all-women delegation from Bhutan to the Colombo plan talks.
Apart from helping in official matters in an unofficial and quiet way, Tess La ran the household of the first Bhutanese Prime Minister and took care of their three sons Dasho Benji Dorji, Tobgye Sonam Dorji and Kalden Wangchuk Dorji.
However, all of this came to a screeching halt with the assassination of her childhood sweetheart and husband, Jigme Palden Dorji on 6 April 1964 in Phuentsholing.
Dasho Benji recalled that his mother was on the way from Kolkata when the incident happened and she arrived just in time to hear his last words.
The period after the assassination was a troubled one in Bhutan’s modern history and Tess La, after a while, headed to Mussorie when Dasho Benji was around 20 years old and his brothers were on the verge of completing their education.
In Mussorie, Tess La, did what she knew best which is to teach in a Tibetan school for young refugee students, and she eventually remarried a Koun Samchok.
Samchok passed away in the 1980’s and this is when Tess La came back to Bhutan and she lived a quiet life on the Dorji estate in Lanjophakha dividing her time between her grandchildren and later great grandchildren.
Tobgye Sonam Dorji remembers his mother as a very kind but also an independent woman.
“She could travel by third class in train in India and she used to travel with 10 to 20 pieces of baggage. I used to get worried we would lose baggage but she would go into the cabin, ask everybody to leave once, get it cleaned and then put in her things. It was in the 1960’s but people followed her instructions. She would share her meals too with the less fortunate,” said Tobgye.
Tobgye said that Tess La was beloved by her Tibetan relatives who had fallen into difficult times after becoming refugees as she helped them out.
He said while his mother had a modern side she was very traditional and good daughter-in-law to Rani Mayeum Choying Wangmo Dorji. Tobgye said said that in fact his mother asked him not to study outside Asia in the west, even though they could afford it at the time, as she did not want him to get westernized and lose his culture and values and so he ended up studying closer to home in North Point, Darjeeling.
Tobgye said his mother was never into politics and she was quietly supportive of her husband, the late Prime Minister.
Tess La saw her father’s efforts to modernize Tibet sabotaged by a vested and powerful aristocracy and clergy with major historical consequences a few decades later, but later she also witnessed her husband playing an important and successful role in helping modernize Bhutan at a crucial time under the leadership of His Majesty The Third King.
