Cham dance in Ladakh
Posted on 02. Jan, 2012 by Thrillchimp in Adventure, Destinations, Ladakh
Ladakh is the land of colorful fairs and cheerful festivities and a trip to Ladakh is incomplete without attending at least one of these traditional feats in the form of festivals in and around Leh. Starting from Losar, the new year of Ladakh, and every significant occasion to the local is transformed into a huge celebration making it a festival. Birthday, marriage ceremony, flowering season, harvesting season, Ladakh festival and festivals of the different monasteries are some of the important fairs and festivities of Ladakh.
The Tsechu Festival: Tsechu is the annual religious festival conducted in the many monasteries in Ladakh every year. Villagers from the surrounding district gather at a common place to contribute auspicious offerings to the lama or monastery and to witness the festivities that last for several days. During this festivals, lots of little variety shops are setup, selling all kinds of ice creams, drinks and all sorts of Tibetian food including momos, choumins and much more. This festival which is celebrated once in a year brings with it cheerfulness as the monasteries celebrate their annual festival. The monks prepare for two long days of festivities which involves pujas, traditional music and dances. It is usually attended by the whole village and a large number of outside visitors.
The Cham Dance: The focal point of the Tsechu festival is the sacred masked dances, which are traditional dances, depicted the incidents from the life of the 9th century Nyingmapa teacher Padmasambhava or The Guru Rinpoche. The origins of the mask dances dates back to the 8th century. This Masked Dance is also known as Cham Dance, is said to bring blessings to onlookers. The Cham dance is a very lively and vibrant masked and costumed dance as part of Buddhist festivals. This dance which is accompanied by music played by monks using traditional Tibetan instruments is usually performed by a few selected sects of Buddhism.
The Dancing Demons: The dancers wrap their heads with strips of soft cloth as a protection against the weight of the heavy decorative masks made of mud and wood. During the dance they hide their faces wearing the huge masks representing various forms, and dance to rhythm of the music that is being played by the monks. This music is considered to be excellent for meditation. Even though masked dances are practiced all southeast and Himalayan countries, Bhutan is the ideal location, where you can see these masked dance in its full form.There are many dancers who perform a supporting role to the main characters of a Cham dance. In many cases they are representations of specific local gods. Following is a list of the most common characters in a Cham Dance:
- Citipata / Chitipati – Known as ‘Skeleton Dancers’.
- Gangre
- Songdong / Simhavaktra
- Chisun / Maharavaktra
- Stag / Deer Head / Shawa
- The Hunter (T: gonpo dorje)
- Purok
- Ging
- Ha Zhang and family
Join ThrillChimp on a trip to Ladakh to enjoy the diversity that this exotic land has to offer to her guests from trekking, yak safari, jeep safari to being a part of a religious festival here.
