BRIEF HISTORY OF LAURI GEWOG

  

Photo from GAO, Jampel Dorji, Lauri Gewog

Lauri gewog under Samdrup Jongkhar District is considered as one of the remotest gewog in the country.  The gewog controls five major villages of Lauri, Zanghti, Momring, Reynang, Dungmenma and severeal other smaller villages of Gonpa, Tshephu, Woongthi, and Patpa nadang. The gewog is popularly called as Shingkhar lauri and many do not know when people say Lauri.  By name, Shingkhar is in Trashigang district while Lauri is under Samdrup Jongkhar. Shingkhar is a small village settled by three or four households on the bank of Jomori (Dansari) rive while Lauri is a large gewog and ofcourse there is a village called Lauri.  Actually, the exact location name of the Gewog centre is called Jompa, and not as Lauri. As mentioned earlier, Lauri is a village under the gewog. 
The villagers have "Jompa" on the tip of their tongue to refer to the gewog center and if somebody say 'Lauri', it means the Lauri Village.  Some elderly people of the gewog justifies the name Jompa, seemingly changed from the actual name "Zomsa" "འཛོམས་ས།" The place is centrally located from the villages of Phajugonpa, Reynang,  Momring, and Larui, athough quite far from the two villages of Zangthi and Dungmenma.  This place was then the crematorium of the people of the aforementioned villages and they met together here, qualifying the place to be called 'Zomsa', and now popularly known as Jompa, the capital town of Lauri gewog. 

Journeying to Jompa, Lauri gewog is a tiring task with half day travel from the Dzongkhag via Assam and having required to travel on foot for few days. However, the walking distance to Lauri has made much more easier with the ongoing construction of the farm roads which is  nearing the gewog.

Lauri gewog is a land of green forests, deep river valleys and beautiful plateaus located at an altitude of +2687 metres to 4000 metres nearing Arunachal Pradesh in the East. The land is mostly mountainous with the Himalayan range along the northern borders criss-crossed with a range running north south. The river Jomori (Dansari) flows through these interlocking spurs beautifying the villages scattered on both sides of the river. Its tributaries provide water for drinking, irrigation, making water mills and many other purposes.
Today, all the government offices are located in Jompa and it has become a sort of busiest hub for the people of different villages. There are services (date of establishment in brackets) such as school-(1977), BHU-(1978), RNR-(?), VSAT station-(3 January 2006), Gewog-(?), Postal service-(?), and  Shops, located in this place and people from merak and sakteng do come down by Ocotber.  
The gewog centre Jompa was electrified on 18/02/2015 with roads approaching nearer. The farm road has reached Sezor and is going to reach Jompa very soon. After the electrification and road connection, the gewog centre may not be regarded as a remote. 

Traking the historical aspects of the geowg, the following are the successive Gups of the Gewog. However, the data  is not a validated  one and may not be used for other purposes.

Successive Gups of the Gewog.

1. Jomo (Lauripa)
2. Rinzin (Reynangpa)
3. Gyeltshen (Chemripa)
4. Tshering Penjor (Lauripa, 1975-1991)
5. Dechen Wangchuk (Zangthipa, 1991-1996)
6. Tshering Dakpa (Lauripa, 1996-1999)
7. Yangjay (Momringpa, 1999-2002)
8. Pema Chezang (Lauripa, 2002-2005)
9. Pema Dendup (Zangthipa, 2005- 2015)
10. Tempa Gyeltshen (Dungmanma,  2016- till date)

Successive Chimi of the Gewog.

1. Gyeltshen (Chemripa)
2. Jomo Norbu (Monlapa)
3. Norbu Gyeltshen (Phakchupa, ?-1994)
4. Yangjay (Momringpa, 1995-1997)
5. Younten Thinley (momringpa, 1998-2000)
6. Dechen Wangchuk (Zangthipa, 2001-2003)
7. Younten Thinley (momringpa, 2004-2007)

The information given above may not be accurate as no records were available in the gewog and hence the data were collected after interviewing few gradparents. If there is any changes/update to be made, I welcome everyone... 

Gewogs of Samdrup Jongkhar
Source: http://www.nsb.gov.bt/publication/files/pub3lp6194qe.pdf