EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF ‘CHHAMS’
Chhams, a highly choreographed sacred dance drama, is the core of every monastic festival. A select group of resident lamas, in brightly patterned brocade robes, perform these dances in the courtyard of the monastery. All of them wear masks which represent various divinities found in the ‘Gon Khang’ – the room dedicated to the guardian divinities – in every major monastery. Some may even represent characters from historical episodes of Tibetan fables.
Holding ritual objects in their hands, the lamas step around the central flagpole of the monastic courtyard in solemn dance and mime, accompanied by the clash of cymbals, the boom of drums, the melodious sound of the ‘Shawm’, and the deep resonance of twelve-foot horns.
The beginning: Every dance begins with ‘Ser Kyem’ – an invocation – by offerings of sacred water and food, to the gods and the guardians of the four quarters to witness the ‘Chhams’.
The interludes: In between the more sombre dances, relief is provided by performers in the guise of skeletons, who perform comic and acrobatic feats.
And at last, the end of evil: As the ‘Chhams’ approaches climax, the votive offering – a grotesque human figure made of dough – is ritually dismembered. This is traditionally done by ‘Jha Nak’, leader of the Black Hat dancers. He then scatters the pieces in the four cardinal directions. This act has many interpretations: cleansing of the soul; the dissolution of the human body after death; or a re-enactment of the assassination of the Tibetan apostate king, Land-dar-ma, by a Buddhist monk in 842 AD.
Of this life and the next: The rites and ceremonies of the festival are conducted by the ‘Rimpoche’, or Head Lama incarnate, of the monastery. He occupies a high throne in the centre of the veranda, at one side of the rectangular courtyard. Other Lamas sit on either side of the throne, on carpet-covered straw mattresses, according to their hierarchy.
Under the Rimpoche’s direction, the Lamas recite mantras associated with various episodes of ‘Chhams’, thus creating the right ambience for devotees to imbibe the religious significance of the dances. The appearance of the masked dancers serves to familiarise the devotees with the kind of divinities they are to encounter during the 49-day ‘Bardo’ (or transit) period, between death and rebirth in one of the six forms of existence, depending upon one’s Karma (deeds).
