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.

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.







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.

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.

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

This dancer has something different in his hand.

Perhaps the figure on the right is a raven. It doesn’t have horns. 


Then came a group in red rather than blue robes.

This one might be a “terrifying deity”.

Maybe a monkey?





Perhaps the judge (ox)?


This may be the snake.

These have multiple faces


The musicians stood along the side.

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


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.