Sacred Cham dance
Cham is a type of sacred dance unique to the Indo-Himalayan Buddhist
culture. It is an extension of the Buddhist practice of visual offering of
aesthetic movement, the mudra expression of enlightened
spirit and of the artistic and entertaining expedience of passing a spiritual
message.
Thus, cham comes in many varieties with different
purposes. Some cham dances, such as the Rigma Chudrug cham dance
representing the sixteen offering goddesses, are a display of beautiful
movements as an offering to enlightened beings while others, such as the
operatic Shawa Shakhyi dance of the Stag and Hounds and the Pholey Moley dance
of the Handsome Men and Beautiful Women, are artistic and entertaining works
performed to convey moral and spiritual messages. Many cham dances,
such as the Zhanag or Black Hat dance are enactments of past events or
tributary gestures to remember an event. The dance of the state deities in
Punakha Dromchoe was introduced by Zhabdrung to show gratitude to the deities
for protecting Bhutan. Many temples have their own unique cham dance
to serve the needs, taste and aspirations of the local people and to honour the
local deities. There are some dances, such as ter cham,
which are considered esoteric and reformed in very private or secretive
circumstances and others, which are performed for open public viewing.
A great majority of the cham dances, such as the
Shinje Yabyum dance, deals with the physical display of the inner enlightened
mind. They are extensions of the mudra gestures in being
expressions of the spontaneous flow of enlightened energy. Like in the case of
Shinje and Trochu dances, the mask faces and dancers represent the enlightened
deities and their movements different forms of enlightened activities. For
instance, in the tripartite Peling Gingsum dance, the deities in the form of
Juging spirits with sticks, first do the study to identify the main existential
enemy – the ego. They are followed by the Driging deities with swords to
ritually slay the enemy and finally, the Ngaging spirit with drums appear to
celebrate the victory over the enemy that is our own ego.
Some cham movements are powerful physical gestures and
postures, which can trigger inner spiritual experience to overcome our negative
thoughts and emotions. They spark off the experience of non-dual awareness of
the true nature of mind. Many of cham dances also involve
holy masks and costumes which have spiritual power invested in them by past
lamas. These further help enhance the spiritual experience of the dancer as
well as the viewers. Thus, cham has a strong liberative role
in helping people progress on the path to enlightenment and freedom from
suffering. It is often known as thongdrol or that which
liberates upon seeing.
The main reason why our monasteries, temples and dzongs host cham dances
and why people go to watch them is because cham has the
power to help people reach enlightenment. This does not mean that people will
automatically or suddenly get enlightened but viewing a cham dance
will help connect people to a moral message, practice of offering or to the
awareness of enlightened deities and gradually lead them to enlightenment. For
instance, watching the Mangcham, people think of death, the law of karma,
rebirth and the process of liberation.
When one watches cham, one should understand the
significance of the cham and know that cham is
a representation of inner enlightenment being displayed to trigger more
spiritual and enlightened experience among the viewers. So, it should not be
viewed purely as an entertainment but as an entertaining path to enlightenment.
Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural
Documentation and Research, founder of the Loden Foundation and the author
of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s
national newspaper Kuensel in a series called Why we do what we do.
