Of the various interesting and rare ancient coins in my collection, two among them are from our close neighbor - Nepal. One was issued by the first King of unified Nepal – Prithvi Narayan Shah. The other was issued by his eldest son who succeeded him in 1775 - Pratap Singh Shah.
The first interesting coin that I speak of is the following:
1 Silver Mohar
Prithvi Narayan Shah
1768/69
Prithvi Narayan Shah was the last ruler of the erstwhile Gorkha Kingdom. In 1768 (more than a hundred years after the state of Bhutan came into being), he successfully subjugated the then three independent Kingdoms of Kathmandu valley, namely: Bhadgaon (Baktapur), Kantipur (Kathmandu) and Lalitpur (Patan). Thus, Prithvi Narayan Shah became the first ruler of the unified nation state that came to be known as the Kingdom of Nepal.
But while this is interesting on its own merit, even more interesting is the fact that if it hadn't been for the Tantric skills of the Drukpas, Prithvi Narayan Shah may never have been born. Please read the following:
“……… according to the Bhasa Vamsavali (Chronicles of Nepal), Nara Bhupal Shah, being childless, invited Bhutan’s Dharmaraja to Nepal and with the blessings and ritual and Tantrik commencement performed by him, he became the father of a child, Prithvi Narayan Shah - the founder of modern Nepal.”
Few writers/historians on the subject have unwittingly caused confusion as to who exactly was the “Dharmaraja” of Bhutan who was invited to Gorkha Kingdom by its reigning monarch to perform the “Tantrik commencement” that resulted in the conception and birth of Prithvi Narayan Shah.
Actually, there should never have been any cause for confusion - the year in which Prithvi Narayan Shah was born holds the answer. The "Dharmaraja" in question would have to be Bhutan’s 5th Je Zodpa Thinley (r. 1707 – 1724) who would have performed the rituals requested for by Gorkha king Nara Bhupal Shah, father of Prithvi Narayan Shah. The above record is specific that Bhutan's Dharmaraja was invited to perform the ritual ..... our written historiacal records confirm that Je Zodpa Thinley was then the Je (Dharmraja) - during the period under discussion.
Prithvi Narayan Shah was born on 11th January, 1723.
For sure the hand of providence must have a role in the fact that the silver Mohar issued by the Nepalese King who was born as a result of Bhutan’s intervention eventually found its way into the country!
The second interesting coin I spoke of is the following:
Cut Silver Tangka
Pratap Singh Shah
1775/76
This, and similar silver Mohars issued by the Malla Dynasty and early Shah rulers of Gorkha/Nepal supposedly occasioned a war between Nepal and Tibet during 1788–1792. Apparently, one of the principal reasons due to which the war broke out was as a result of the naughty Tibetans’ habit of cutting or clipping the Nepalese silver Mohars into smaller pieces – thereby grossly devaluing the coins. The Tibetans cut up the coins so that they are more convertible – during those ancient times, the value of One Silver Mohar was so high that it could not be used to make purchases of lesser value. So, in order to make the coins more tradable, the Tibetans cut them into various shapes and sizes, so that they can have small change for small purchases. This process of cutting up the Mohars into smaller pieces came to be known as "Fractionalization" - and the resulting fragments of coins came to be called "Cut Tangkas".
The deteriorating relations caused by the war, including the fact that Nepal had started to supply sub-standard, debased coins, resulted in the Tibetans finally deciding to hammer their own coins within the country – before that Nepal use to supply the coins to Tibet. According to available written historical records, Tibet began hammering their own coins in 1763/1764 – first by Demo Tuelku, and later by the VIIIth Dalai Lama in 1785.
The Cut Tangka pictured above was gifted to me as a Soelra, by Gyalsey HRH Namgyal Wangchuk, Bhutan's XXVIth Paro Poenlop.
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