Guru Rinpoche Cham Dances

The Cham Dance is a vibrant masked and costumed ritual with roots in Buddhism. Associated with the Tibetan Buddhism that prospered in the Great Himalayan Mountain Range, it is a religious tradition performed by monks. The ritual is performed for the greater good of humanity, destruction of bad spirits and for moral instruction to viewers.
The dance ritual of Cham is till date practiced in Himalayas, especially in places where Tibetan Buddhism prospered in India- Ladakh, Dharamshala, Lahaul Valley, Spiti Valley & Sikkim, and Bhutan and Tibet and Nepal.

The origin of Cham dance is not clearly known. Sharing its roots with Tantric mystic arts, Cham is said to have first originated in the Himalayan range and so is still date kept as a treasured secret in the lap of the mountains. According to a legend, the Cham dance tradition was started by Guru Padmasambhava in the late 8th CE. When the king of Tibet, Trishong Detsen called Guru Padmasambhava to get rid of evil spirits that did not allow to build the Samye monastery, the revered Guru performed the dance ritual. The same ritual over the period of time became the elaborate Cham Dance, a practice specific to the sect of Mahayana Buddhism.

Considered as an act of cleansing of evil forces, Cham Dance is an elaborate masked and costumed dance. Before the performance, Gods and deities of Buddhism are evoked. In fact, even the dance is a ceremony inspired from tantric traditions that were performed for the greater good of all sentient beings.

The religious significance of the Cham Dance is in performance itself. The tradition fits the monastic life as the dance is not focused on movements but on rituals of meditation, hand gestures, chants, invocation of the deities and the effect it has on destruction of negativity. Dressed up in vibrant colors with extravagant headgear and masks, the monks take up the roles of deities and demons and put up a mock-battle with good prevailing over evil.

The Cham performance also acts as moral lessons for viewers, narrating tales about their legendary deities. The acts and the form of the masked dancers serves to familiarize devotees with the kind of deities they are to encounter during the 49-day- ‘Bardo’, the transition period between death and rebirth in one of the six forms of existence, depending upon one’s karmic existence.

Видео Guru Rinpoche Cham Dances канала Dawa Yakpa Lama