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The Dancing Monks of Bhutan

18 August 2008

The (chams) sacred dances of Bhutan are spiritual energies manifested through the skill of the monks who perform them. The endurance, acrobatic skills, mindfulness and dedication of these dancing monks makes these dances a form of meditation. But, as one young disciple commented, “If you don’t use your mind to imagine and your heart to feel these dances, you will just see a group of monks simply jumping and swirling in the air.”

| The origin of chams can be traced back to the eighth century when the great spiritual masters at that time choreographed various dances as a tribute to the Indian saint Guru Padmasambhava for introducing Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan. For centuries these sacred Buddhist dances flourished in Tibet, but now Bhutan remains the only country where they thrive unhindered. Furthermore, great Buddhist teachers like Pema Lingpa and Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal have infused vitality and dynamism to these dances through their personal experiences and visualization making them exclusive to Bhutan.

Last week, on the 10th day of the Bhutanese calendar, hundreds of people from around the world joined many Bhutanese in Bumthang, the spiritual capital of Bhutan, to witness these sacred dances in the Nimalung Tsechues and the Kurjey Drupchen.

As one 70 year-old farmer said: “Festivals such as the Drupchen are the windows to the heart of our Bhutanese culture.” For other spectators the sacred dances offer a glimpse of sacred world of the monks and help the devoted to embarks on an inner experience of our country.

Being a dancing monk is not easy as the dances are a form of complex meditation and requires endurance and consistent practices. The symbolism of each dance is deep and intricate. Each swirl, move and costumes have important significance and carries religious significance reflecting our core values of compassion, wisdom and harmonious existence.

For instance, the tiger skin on the costumes shows a sign of suppression of passion. Similarly, some of the hand gestures made by the dancers show the victory of clarity over emotions. Some of the religious instruments that the dancers hold in their hands such as the Dorji remind us not to have extreme views.

Even today, these festivals remain important markers on the Bhutanese. So it does not come as a surprise to witness farmers taking a break from their mundane daily farm work to dress up in their best attire and cook their finest food then assemble in the stone courtyards of the Dzongs or temples. For most of us, these visual stimulations are powerful enough to shape our imagination and perception of the world.

It’s also through this graphic portrayal of religious stories we are reminded of our impermanence.

However, for the monks, each performance is sacred and hence referred to as dancing mediation. Prior to the festival they would have spent many days often in dimly lit rooms in the great halls of sacred temples jumping and swirling to perfection.

On the final day, they wake up at 3:00 am to perform several rituals that last four hours to help them to be mindful so their performance has the desired effect on its viewers. The clarity of the mind is the most important for the dancers that even during the performance, they continue to chant various mantras to help clear their mind from any distractions. These chants help them attain the contemplative state required to remember the intricate gestures of the hands and the sophisticated movement of the body.

With the sun-pierced eyes in the masks, the monks use the opening of the mouth to see. A piece of cloth wrapped around their head reduces some of the discomfort but even after long performances you will not hear a word of complain as the monks have already learnt the value of other people’s happiness.

The dances are so sacred that often it is not surprising to see many spiritual masters performing them together. One such spiritual master from Kurjey monastery said that he has been only been able to represent the position and expressions of the deities he represents due to many years of vigorous mental and physical training.

Everybody watching the dancing monks perform in Bumthang last week went home with a strong sense of the importance of the preservation of such sacred cultures.

When I was a high school student in Bhutan in the late 1980s we learnt these dances as part of our extra curriculum. It is through learning these dances that we now appreciate this aspect of our own culture. But, today the schools no longer teach these dances and I often wonder why?

Tshering Tashi
Tour Operator/Writer
Thimphu

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Comments

2 Responses to “The Dancing Monks of Bhutan”

  1. Nalenjan on August 19th, 2008 1:55 am

    I also learnt Dremitse Ngacham and Pacham when I was in class 3. Thats why I can appreciate Chams much better than my friends. Therefore, I call upon our Education Ministery under the wise leadership of His Excellency Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyl to send Cham gi Lopen to High Schools again.

    I did not know that these lopens were not there anymore in our schools although I know that these lopens never took interest to teach chams to our children but just remained idle, enjoying good salary without teaching a single cham to a school in a year.

    I suggest that a lopen in a high school cover as many subordinate schools in his area and at least teach one cham to each such school in a year. I know the principals also never supported the Champons in their school, thus dampening the spirits of our champons. They must not repeat this mistake again this time.

  2. poladengdeng on August 30th, 2008 2:30 pm

    Through your writing on cultural and religious activities we younger generation are able to learn more on the importance of our own culture, tradition and religion. We learn much from your wrting particularly on the importance of mask dance perform during the festivals. We hope you would write more on our Bhutanese culture and tradition hereafter. We value your article so much. Lopen Tashi Tshering please keet it up.
    Thank you.

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