Lomba

By
Pema Euden,

(9 reviews)

Published In:	2016
ISBN:	ISBN 978-99936-723-0-2
Category:	Action & Adventure, Novel,
No. of Pages:	212

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Nu. 375.00

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Book Overview

Seday is devastated when she learns that she has to leave Thimphu and move to Haa. However, she is in for a surprise when she begins to settle in and actually likes Haa. Everything goes on perfectly normal until the night of Lomba.

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Customer Reviews (9)

by Nima Doctor (November 27, 2021)

13 Reviews

In nutshell, the title of the book says everything. Another young and intellectual writer has put in much of her efforts to bring this out to all the book lovers. And I have no regrets of spending weekends sitting in the room and flipping over the pages of lomba... It portrays one of the popular cultures practiced in western Bhutan. And it's merely promotion of remote culture.I recommend all to Read this book la.Thank youHappy Reading

by Kelden wangmo (August 04, 2021)

1 Reviews

I am loving this book and all characters are quite interesting. This book is enchanting and every chapter of it doesn't fail to mesmerize me. As I am reading one page, I can't wait to read the next page and thats why it really attracts me.?Moreover it improves our vocabulary.

by Choeing Lhazin (July 07, 2021)

6 Reviews

Honestly, this book was a one sit read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my way through this fantasy world related to my own country’s culture. It is so exciting to see our own version of fairy-tale.

by Tshewang Tobden (June 23, 2021)

8 Reviews

Maybe it's because I haven't read most of the books out there written by our own Bhutanese writers, but Pema Euden's "Lomba" came as a pleasant surprise for me as a reader. Having been trying to read as many books by Bhutanese authors in the last couple of years (mainly fictions), I have come across some good reads. Most stories talked about things that the readers could relate to in settings we were familiar with and a few of them made us look at things differently and touched our hearts. But like I said, maybe it's because of the small number of books I have read, I never thought someone would actually push the envelope and create a whole world of it's own in a Bhutanese book.
Since all I know about Lomba, the festival, is only as much as is written in the book, I don't know if there is any mention of the lu world in the stories told in this part of the country and if there are any, how much of it is actually described. Having finished the book just the previous night and for the lack of research done by my lazy self, I want to say the whole lu world is made up from scratch. It was not the hidden world of witches and wizards or hobbits and ogres but for me it did stand out for being a fantasy world that had some sort of connection with our own culture and believes. Of course, I do think that elders tell the children how the lus take away our suffering and how they take away children to their world if they don't behave in certain ways or do certain things.
Anyways, coming back to the book, the story was unique in a way as it dealt with both our reality and a fantasy and mashed them into a fun reading experience. The plot was interesting as well being probably the first Bhutanese book with a plot to eradicate the human species. Like the characters in the story, I also found myself in a confusion and asking myself who the culprit was until the very end and shocked at the revelation as well. I do feel like towards the end of the book, the seemed kind of rushed,(also like my review) which to be honest is something I came across other Bhutanese books as well (the first half or three quarters are usually slow paced and give a lot of details about almost everything and the last quarter usually happens like snap, snap, snap, and we are done).
The story deals with the usual themes of family, friendship, trust, identity, belonging and the sorts. One does learn about a culture unique to Haa and Paro and also some "sciency" stuff that was sprinkled over the pages teaching the reader about how certain things work in the lu world that can be paralleled to how similar things work in our own world.
There were a few misprints here and there like the old queen was referred to as the father of the current king and it felt like a few verbs were missing as well in some lines. But I don't think that hampers the story in any way because being so engrossed in a story that is different from what we are used to as readers of Bhutanese books I don't think many will pick up on that.
*from my Blog "a figment of my thoughts" https://tobdentshewang.blogspot.com/

by Pema Yangchen (March 31, 2021)

6 Reviews

This book Lomb is about a girl called Seday . it's about her celebration of Lomb in Haa. It says that during the time of Lomb her friend (Tenzin and Pem) shares an old believed story but Seday wants to prove it untrue. She came to know that the story was true when she saw small Lus taking her in thire world and their she meets Dawa Samdrup they try to run from there and finally they could run from there and reaches in their own world.
Them :we all should adapt according to the change in situations

by Sangay Sherub Wangmo (December 09, 2020)

2 Reviews

I found this book really informative as being a Sharshop, I didn't know really know about Lomba, which is usuay celebrated in the western part of Bhutan. But after reading this book, I had a quick and brief overview on how Lomba is celebrated and the beliefs and stories about it. Not only that, this book gives us valuable life lessons, such as; we should never judge a book by its cover, and that everything is not always as it seems like. I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend this book to others too.

by Sonam Yangchen (December 04, 2020)

1 Reviews

Seday moves to Haa from Thimphu. At first she feels bad but get used to it, in addition, She gets two new best friends and they tells her about the upcoming Lomba festival. They shares an old believed story but Seday wants to prove it untrue. But the story was true and Seday found herself in the village of Lus she was surprised and at the same time she was realaxed to see Dawa Samdrup ( another human ). They plans to escape and their mission was to find the lost Luethrim. Dawa suspects Rigzhen ( Lu ) to be the one stealing it. Seday and Dawa searches all over the corner at Rigzhen's room and finds a key hole in the chest of the table. They opened it with a key, found in the drawyer of the table. Finally they found the lost Luethrim and the king punished Rigzhen mercilessly. Lastly, Seday and Dawa reached back to human world and more over the world of Lus get back to a peaceful place again.

Name : Sonam Yangchen
Grade : 9
School : Tashidingkha Central school
Dzongkhag : Punakha

by Pelden Wangchuk (July 31, 2020)

21 Reviews

The book tried so hard to describe a magical adventures focusing on Loma culture in Haa but for me seriously! ? I was expecting a much more great book with a mind blowing content from the author but for me it literally didn't live up to my expectations. Throughout the book it was a cringe to even read aloud in my brain.

The starting of the book and the friends (character) description are great but from the page when she was dragged to the strange land it feels like she is just simply writing without no sense of taking readers with the story. It lacks emotion and imagination. It would have been great if she could fully described the setting more enthusiastically.

by Karma Choden (January 02, 2020)

1 Reviews

Seday the protagonist in Lomba doesn’t sound so enthusiastic about going to Haa having to leave behind her close friends in Thimphu. Nevertheless, she had to tag along with her parents as her father lands up with a good job that paid better and so does her mother who easily lands up with a job by virtue of being a teacher.

Seday wasn’t actually looking forward to her schooling in Haa. She misses her best friends in Thimphu but to her dismay, finds out that they had taken her for granted. However, the strong characteristic in her makes her move on and as time passes by she gradually settles down with her new friends especially Tenzi and Pem in her new school. She finds out that Haa is actually not so bad and she starts to feel at home. Everything was going perfectly well for her.

And then Lomba starts. And that is where the mystery lies. What happens on the night of Lomba if you don’t eat your dinner which is usually Honteys-the cuisine from Haa made on the night of Lomba? What is the mystery about? Is it just a belief? Or does this really happen?

She is being provoked by her friends that if she doesn’t eat dinner on the night of Lomba she will be in for a surprise- a very bad surprise. They tell her mysterious stories about Lomba that doesn’t go very well with her. She doesn’t buy their stories at all and earns the title of being a very stubborn girl.

Seday decides to challenge her two friends to forego her dinner on the Lomba night to prove her friends wrong about the mystery stuff. She feels the whole ritual is a waste of time and stupid. However, on the night of Lomba she finds herself being carried away to a strange land amongst friends and people she had never had any real conversation with surrounded by alien like creatures. That is where the real story of Lomba starts.

Seday’s experiences in the bizarre world of strange people is put very explicitly, unequivocally and imaginatively in modern contemporary English that is very much relatable to the younger generation of her age.

Through this book of fiction, the author brings out the core values of friendship, relationship, family, trust, good vs evil and most importantly the message that we should never take anything for granted.

The cover art is done very well that matched the imagination of the author and the blurb page leaves a great sense of suspense that kind of arises curiosity in the readers. The author could have worked a little extra on the layout and design and the quality of printing. If not for this little shortcomings, the book has come out very well in terms of the quality of language and story.

Done in 203 pages the young author of 19 years of age has brought out a book of imagination targeted at the young Bhutanese audience. The cost of the book is Nu.295 and most importantly 30% of the proceeds from the book will go to Tarayana Foundation. It may be worth noting that she published her first book, “Coming Home” in 2008 making her the youngest author in Bhutan and the proceeds from the earlier book were also donated to Tarayana Foundation.

‘Lomba’ was launched by Her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck on 28th June, 2016 at Tarayana Foundation.

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