[ Bengia Ajum ]
MECHUKHA, 20 May: The Memba community here in Shi-Yomi district met members of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), including its Vice Chairman (VC) Kersi K Deboo, on Thursday, during the team’s visit here, in the wake of a complaint lodged by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) that a historical site associated with Guru Nanak Dev in Mechukha has been converted into a Buddhist temple.
The members of the community submitted a representation to the visiting delegates, and explained to them the significance of the site for the local Buddhists and how it was converted into a Sikh shrine in the late 1980s.
No member from the Sikh community, or from the SGPC, was present during the meeting. Informing this, Neh Nang Cultural Development Society president Norbu Tsering Naksang said that “the community members are expecting a peaceful and positive resolution.”
Last month, the NCM had sought a detailed report from the Arunachal Pradesh chief secretary over the SGPC’s contention that a historical site associated with Guru Nanak Dev in Mechukha has been converted into a Buddhist temple. The commission had said that it had taken cognisance of the representation received from SGPC president Sardar Harjinder Singh Dhami about the “conversion of the historical site associated with Guru Nanak Dev in Mechukha, Arunachal Pradesh, into a Buddhist temple.”
In November 2022, the holy Buddhist pilgrimage site of the Memba community, known as Neh-Pema Shelphu, which the SGPC claims to be a Sikh shrine, was returned to the Buddhist community. Located a few kilometres away from Mechukha town, the holy site was converted into a Sikh shrine years ago, and the locals have been objecting to it.
It is said that Guru Padmasambhava and three others – Khandu Yeshi Chogey, Menmo Tashi Chorden and Nyamde Arasale – meditated in the cave for several years. To justify their claims, the locals say that “historic evidence of the body and head prints are seen on the rock inside the cave.”
The locals also made it clear that “there is no evidence of Sikh and Guru Nanak’s influence in the Mechukha area before the deployment of the Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army in 1987.”
The locals say that things started to change when the Sikh Regiment was deployed in Mechukha from 1986-1987. “Some personnel of the regiment not only started considering the Pema Shelphu cave as the meditation point of Guru Nanak, but also started constructing a temporary gurudwara nearby,” they say.
The local people also expressed concern over the involvement of the SGPC in the matter.
“We did not complain or raise the matter with the SGPC as the site was under the Indian Army. At that time, the Sikh Regiment was looking after and taking care of the holy shrine. The local Memba community living in the border area loves and respects the Indian Army for safeguarding us. We never thought our claim to our indigenous place of worship would create such issues. We are quite concerned over it,” the Memba community told the NCM members.
