page_title: Bhakti Thapa
section_title: Childhood legend
hierarchical_section_title: Bhakti Thapa / Childhood legend
caption_attribution_description: English: Sardar Bhakti Thapa, Commander of Deuthal at Anglo-Nepal war (1814-1816)
context_page_description: Bhakti Thapa was a Nepalese military commander and administrator in the Kingdom of Nepal. Initially, he served for the Kingdom of Lamjung. He is considered one of the national heroes of Nepal.
  Grand Old Man Bhakti Thapa was the Sardar of Lamjung state, so he fought against Gorkhali in the battle from the side of Kehari Narayan, the King of Lamjung. After the fall of Lamjung in the battle against the Gorkhali forces, he was captured and brought to Kathmandu as a prisoner of war. Later he was appointed as sirdar in the Nepali army. Just two years after the unification of Jumla, he was made the supreme commander of the Nepalese army stationed to the west of the capital in a region that stretched almost up to the Sutlej river, and also the administrator of this region. Sardar Bhakti Thapa's great success in the unification of Jumla District made him a legendary figure. He was a patriot involved in the Anglo-Nepalese War. His most important contribution in the war was at the western front of Deothal.
context_section_description: According  to  recent  historians, Bhakti Thapa was born in  1741. Bhakti  Thapa's  family lived in Dhangai, a remote village in  Lamjung.  Very little is known about the  childhood life of Bhakti Thapa. There was,  however, an unbelievable incident in the  early life of Bhakti  Thapa.  That incident is virtually like a description from the  children's story book.  The full details of  that incident had been passed down through the generations. Still many old people in Lamjung are seen telling that incident  to their youngsters.  That  incident  is  described below.
  Bhakti Thapa was  still  a  very  young  boy.  One  day he was  sleeping  on  a  big  boulder  not  far  away  from  his  house  in  a  remote  village  of  Lamjung while  his  flocks  of  goats  grazed  the  buckwheat  field  of  the  neighbour.   The  old  neighbour  woman  stormed  out  of  her  house  into the place where  Bhakti  Thapa  was  fast  asleep  in  a  rage  cursing  him for  his  misdeeds.  What  she  saw  at  that  time  chilled  her  blood.    Bhakti  Thapa  was  sleeping  on  a  big serpent  coiled  up  on the  boulder  raising  its  wide  hood  high  above   casting   shed  that  protected  the  young  Bhakti  Thapa  against  the  scorching  heat  of the  midday  sun.  The  serpent  slowly  uncoiled  without  waking  up  the boy  and  descended  from  the  boulder.  It  disappeared  from  the  sight  after slipping  into  the  bushes  nearby.
  The  parents  of  the  Bhakti  Thapa  were  terribly  distressed  when  they  learnt  about  the  whole  incident.  They  thanked  the God  for  saving  the  life  of  their  beloved  son.   The  old  neighbour  woman  who  saw  the  whole  incident  had a  completely  different  opinion.   She  was  convinced  that  Bhakti  Thapa  was  no  ordinary  man.  He  possessed  some  sort  of  divine  power.  She  was  quick  to  realize  that  one  day  Bhakti  Thapa  would  become  a  very  famous  person.  The  news  of  this  incident  quickly  spread  across  the Lamjung  and  beyond.
  The  big  boulder  near  the native home  of  Bhakti  Thapa  in Lamjung  is  linked  up  twice  with  the  events  in  his  later  life.  After  some  years a  grand  ritual  was  performed  to  solemnize  brotherhood  relationship ( in Nepali  metairi)  between  Bhakti  Thapa  and  that  big  boulder.  The  third  event  that linked  Bhakti  Thapa  with that  big  boulder  near  his  native  home  was  the  last  in  his life.    It  is  said  that  at  that  very  moment  during  the Anglo-Nepal  War  when  Bhakti  Thapa  fell  in  the  Deothal  Battle  field  on  April 16, 1815,  the  big  boulder near his native home also cracked  with loud explosion. The cracked boulder  is still lying there.
caption: Sardar Bhakti Thapa, a Bagal Thapa Chhetri
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