Lively masked dance in Tibetan monasteries

Are you scared by the man with six head? Do not be scared. It is just a masked monk who is dancing with other monks in a Tibetan Buddhist ceremony. Such a dance known as Cham can be seen in most Tibetan Buddhist rituals, especially when you make a tour to Tibet on a traditional festival of Tibet.

Cham in Tibetan language means masked dances. The dance is usually accompanied by music played by monks using traditional Tibetan instruments, such as Dungchen (Tibetan long horn), Dramyin (Tibetan guitar) and drums. The dances often offer moral instruction relating to compassion for sentient beings and are held to exorcise evil and bring merit to all who perceive them.

The dancers or monks meditate for days and even weeks beforehand, visualizing and invoking protective deities. Then they start the elaborate performances during which, visualizing themselves as deities, performing ancient movements, and repeating sacred mantras (invocations), they draw in the evil in the crowd and the surrounding world. The evil is trapped in an effigy, a human body made of dough. At the climax of the ceremony, the dance master (called a chamspon) cuts open the effigy and draws the evil into his own body to show it peace and the path to liberation, thus the evil is exorcised.

The dance always attracts many visitors travelling in Tibet. A common traveler who does not practice Tibetan Buddhism may have difficulty to understand what the dance means, but the multitude and divergence of the colorful masks is a great attraction. Masks with different colors represent different meanings.

White is symbolizes purity and mildness because it is the characteristic color of the platea which is largely snow-covered. A yellow mask represents profound knowledge and far-sightedness; a red one symbolizes bravery, intelligence, and the ability to use strategy to conquer or advise others; a green one represents merit, virtue, achievements intelligence and kindness; a blue one represents fearlessness and heroism; a purple one represents jealousy and hatred; a black one represents ferociousness and cruelty while a white mask represents peace and auspiciousness. The most interesting one is the black and white masks which represent saying yes and meaning no, or being changeable and unreliable.  

If you are interested in such dances, the best time to travel to Tibet is during religious festivals, like famous Saga Dawa Festival held in each fourth month in Tibetan calendar.