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The Monastic Festivals The monastic festivals are annual events of the major monasteries which the local people eagerly look forward to attending, both for attaining religious merit and as a means of social entertainment. These are generally held to commemorate the establishment of a particular monastery, the birth anniversary of its patron saint or some major events in the history and evolution of Tibetan Buddhism. People turn out in the thousands to attend these festivals in their colourful best, making every event a carnival of colours.
The
core event of the monastic festival is a highly choreographed ritual
dance-drama known as ‘Chhams’, which is directed
by the ‘Chham-spon’, the mystic dance master of
the monastery. The dances are performed not only to dramatise the esoteric
philosophy of the event for the benefit of the lay devotees, but also
by way of ritual offerings to the tutelary deities of the monastery
and the guardians of the faith. A select group of resident lamas of
the monastery, dressed in brightly patterned brocade, robes, perform
these dances in the courtyard of the monastery. They also wear masks
representing various divinities, which are mostly found in the form
of statues in the "Gon Khang", the room dedicated
to the guardian divinities. Some of the dances also feature masks representing
famous characters from historical episodes or Tibetan fables. The more
fearsome ones represent powerful divinities in their various manifestations,
mostly representing the Dharmapalas or protectors of the
faith. The dancers, holding ritual instruments in hands, step around
the central flagpole in the monastic courtyard in solemn dance and mime,
in tune with the music of the monastic orchestra. The ritual instruments
and the hand gestures or mudras of the dancers symbolise different
aspects of the dance-drama. In between the more sombre sequences, relief
is provided by a group of comic performers who jump into the scene in
the guise of skeletons and other characters, performing comic and acrobatic
feats. These also wear masks representing various divinities and religious
or historical characters.
As
the ‘Chhams’ approaches its end on the second and last day of
the festival, the climactic scene is enacted, in which the votive offering,
a grotesque human figure made from dough, is ritually cut into pieces
and scattered in the four cardinal directions. This figure symbolises
the enemy of Buddhism as well as the embodiment of the three cardinal
evils in the human soul viz. ignorance, jealousy and hatred. Accordingly,
its destruction represents killing of the enemy of Buddhism and the
purification of the human soul from the three evils. This ritual is
known as ‘Dao Tulva’ and has many interpretations: cleansing
of the soul from evils, dissolution of the human body after death into
its elements, or a re-enactment of the assassination of the Tibetan
apostate king Lang-dar-ma by a Buddhist monk in 842 AD.
In fact, the long-sleeved dress and the huge hat worn by leader of the
Black-Hat dancer, who executes this ritual in most festivals, represents
the dress used by Lang-darma’s assassin to conceal his identity The
‘Rimpoche’ or head lama incarnate of the monastery conducts the rites
and ceremonies of the festival. He sits on a high throne placed in the
centre of the long veranda that runs along one side of the rectangular
courtyard facing the huge, elevated gates of the monastery’s main prayer
hall or Du-khang. This room actually serves
as the green room for the artists during the festival.
The
lamas of the monastery and the monk musicians in their full ceremonial
attire, sit on carpet-covered cushions on either side of the throne
in the veranda, according to their hierarchy. The Rimpoche leads the lamas in the recitation of the mantras associated with the ‘Chhams’, thus creating the appropriate ambience for the dancers to enact the role of the deities whose guise they adopt. For the lay devotees, however, seeing the masked dancers serves to familiarise themselves with the kind of deities they are to encounter during the 49-day- ‘Bardo’ or transition period between death and rebirth in one of the six forms of existence, depending upon one’s karmic existence.
The monastic festivals also provide the local people an opportunity for socialising, trading and entertainment. On this occasion, makeshift markets spring up overnight near the monastery, to which people throng. During the summer festivals, the visiting people organise picnics, overnight excursions, and all-night signing and dancing parties. For the more devoted villagers, however, the event is essentially a pilgrimage to the monastery and its various temples, for it is during this period only that they can see all the images and figures, which are otherwise kept veiled. The 10-Year Calendar of Monastic Festivals The
monastic festivals of Ladakh are governed by the Tibetan calendar which
is luni-solar. So the dates vary form year to year, requiring astrological
calculations to determine each year’s calendar. Traditionally, at the
end of the year, the astrologers prepare a new calendar of festivals
so that it is available as the new year ushers in. But in the absence
of long-term calendars, visitors face problems in planning trips to
Ladakh to witness these events. In order to address this problem, the J&K Tourism Department has had a 10-year calendar of festivals, for the period 2000 AD to 2009 AD, prepared by an astrologer, which is included in this site for the convenience of visitors ( go to Calendar of Monastic Festivals ). |
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