Punakha Drubchen: Day 1 Masked Dances

The masked dances (or cham) began with what I interpreted as four stags.  It may have been the Shacham or Shazam Cham, but these stags had ankle-length red robes not the knee-length yellow ones I found reference to on the internet.

Stag Dancer at Punakha Drubchen

Mask dances have their roots in 8th century Tibetan Buddhism.  Many of the dances seen today were choreographed in the 17th century or earlier.  Supposedly all of the dancers are monks or male members of the Royal Academy of Performing Arts.

Stag Dancer at Punakha Drubchen

Stag Dancers at Punakha Drubchen

 

Stag Dancers at Punakha Drubchen

Stag Dancers at Punakha Drubchen

 

Stag Dancer at Punakha Drubchen

Stag Costume's Collar Detail

Stag Mask

 

After this dance, a group of young people performed a dance.  I gathered from Pelden that the introduction of non-mask dances (and women) is something new.

Contemporary Dance at Punakha Domchoe

Next came a dance that began with at least three different figures which I interpreted as a garuda (bjachung), wild boar (phabi), and a raven.

What is this horned creature?

Note the object in his left hand below–and the wedding ring.  Do monk’s wear wedding rings?

 

Close-up of Horned Creature

This dancer has something different in his hand.

A Pig

 

Close-up of Pig 

Perhaps the figure on the right is a raven.  It doesn’t have horns. Pig and a Raven perhaps

 

A Raven?

Ravens?

Then came a group in red rather than blue robes.

Guru? 

Mask detail

This one might be a “terrifying deity”.

Terrifying Deity? 

Another terrifying deity

Maybe a monkey?

Monkey maybe

I have no clue

 

Wild boars?

Wild boar?

 

Wild boar & terrifying deity?

Perhaps the judge (ox)?

Ox?

The ox?

This may be the snake.

Crocodile?

These have multiple faces

Multiple personality

 

Multiple personality

 

The musicians stood along the side.

Musicians

Note the men behind the musicians–the pazaps.  We’ll get to them in another post.

Musicians and pazaps

Twirling demons

There obviously was a story behind the dance, but the cast of characters does not seem to match up with any on this list.  Nor do all of the masks appear on this list.  But my guess is this was the Raksha Marcham or Mangcham (Judgement of the Dead).  It was forty minutes from the point at which the masked dancers began after the young women finished until my last photo of the dance when we left for lunch.  If this was the Raksha Mangcham, it continued on for a couple more hours.

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