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As a tiny landlocked Himalayan kingdom, Bhutan remained sovereign and self-sufficient but unknown to the world outside for most of its existence until the mid 20th century. The country's heritage of rich culture and environment has remained almost completely untainted. Buddhism influences the daily life strongly and like nowhere else, one can experience Living Buddhism in Bhutan.

Bhutan is the abode of gods and the home to the immortals in the Himalayas. Apart from the majesty and grandeur of the natural surroundings, it has a special environment where communion with the divine is possible through contemplation and meditation. Therefore, since time immemorial, ascetics, scholars, philosophers and pilgrim have been drawn irresistibly to these remote and rugged mountains in their personal search for wisdom, inspiration, solitude and happiness. Over the centuries, the place has been blessed by these people with an invaluable spiritual legacy that makes the place conducive for the meditations.

Religious Dances & Music 

Religious dances are called ‘cham' and there are a large number of them. Dancers wear spectacular costumes made of yellow silk or rich brocade, often decorated with ornaments of craved bones. For certain dances, they wear masks that represent animals, fearsome deities, skull, and manifestations of Guru Rimpoche or just plain human beings. The masks are so heavy that dancers protect themselves from injury by binding their heads with strips of cloth to support the mask. The dancers see out through the opening of the mouth.

Dances are base on the religious example for the ordinary people giving the idea of the good and bad, and of the god and the evil that are explained through the dances like the Judgment of the Death. Purifying and protecting a place from evil spirits, Dance of the cremation ground. Dance of the fearsome gods, Dance of the Guru Rimpoche with eight manifestations, Black Hat dance of magical performance, Dance of the stag and the hunting dog, Moral dance of the princes and the princesses and the famous Dramitse Ngachham (The Drum Dance). It's name and fame widely propagated as Dramitse Ngachham because the dance was originally composed at Dramitse Monastery in eastern Bhutan.  The masks of the dance are the faces of 16 animals that represent the faces of 58 wrathful and 42 gentle deities. (Zhithro Dhampa Rigya). It is believed that, anyone witnessing the dance would receive eternal peace and prosperity when ultimately transforms his or her soul out of this temporal existence. The originality of Ngachham is very well preserved and practiced today at Dramitse Monastery under the guidance and Abbotship of his eminence Sungtruel Rimpoche.

About the Author:

Sangay Choxang, Managing Director, Asian Adventure Travel, Thimphu Bhutan, Contact:sangaystar@yahoo.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Glimpse Of Living Buddhism & Meditation In Bhutan

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