4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 4: Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwu Monastery. Part 4 Final of the dance.

Note: See the introduction to this series about the Monlam Festival in Tongren, China on the March 20th, 2009 post: "4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 1: Procession of the Buddha Maitreya at Niantog Monastery".

Day 4Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwu Monstery.

Slideshow: Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwy Monastery. Feb 9th, 2009.

Narration of the fourth part: The end of the Dance.


Read the introduction to this 4th day, see a video and read the preliminary story of the Cham dance at my July 3rd 2009 post.

Time passed but I was not tired, just having to stand upright holding my handheld camera made me feel the weight of fatigue, my eyes were still open and my mind was fully alert, sometimes lost on an object or a movement; my body, however, was in a fight to stay in place amid a crowd that pressed around, moving continuously.

There was clearly a dramatic evolution of the dance, now we were at a key point: a monk whose mouth was covered with black gauze stood on the centre platform (that with the painting depicting a man cut open by a knife) and, in front of him, different objects in a rectangular box; around, all the demons dancing in a large circle, and one, the chief demon, heading directly to him. The steps to reach the monk on the platform had been taken and now the devil was facing him.

Several encounters took place between them (maybe 5 or 6) and each time the monk and the demon exchanged objects; the approach to the platform was drawn out, with swords as if cutting something in the air, always rhythmically dancing, jumping, spinning, moving their garments in a fascinating way, and once there in front of the monk the devil knelt, the music entered in a kind of preparation to a climax, with some suspense and tension, certainly a high point (several high points because there would be several exchanges). Once the devil received the object from the monk, everything exploded in a great climax: there was a special sound of horns and cymbals that continues to resound in my memory for its strength and its effect on the scene. At that climax the devil would turn taking a big leap in one of the best moves that I could technically distinguish, and with full power would join the dancing part of the general choreography around the temple; every time this repeated itself it caused a kind of euphoria in the dance because "something" had been achieved.

In the last of the meetings between the monk and the leading demon (of course we didn't know it was the last), while the demon was standing on the platform we saw some changes: the group of demons started dancing around and a sort of flying blue-beaked bird character (one who had previously fought in different parts of the dance) appeared flying through all over the performance space, after a few turns around the platform, took the place of the monk, who had already taken a few steps back. The demon showed the bird-character the objects and the bird raised its head and pointed strongly to the side, as in disdain or as if seeking to expand what the demon leader had shown him. Then he took flight and, accompanied by the speed of the sound of the cymbals, flew all around as if to embrace all at one, then began to fly around the demon that had been wrapped in gauze while the other characters watched still. It seemed like a liberating flight, a flight carrying news to the others and charging with "it" the one who had been bound up in gauze. The blue-beaked bird flew back into place and returned to the dancing rotation with the chief demon jumping from the platform. All the characters began to perform their choreography to exit.

I had a very special moment near the end of the presentation. People, in their desire to be sitting with friends and family, pushed with greater force until at some point I could not stand anymore in my place, so I left and looked for another angle to watch from, virtually at the entrance of the temple, where the characters came and went. The images I saw there were more than fascinating (it is the most repeated word of this blog, I know): not only could I see the exit of the demons but I was beside the other spectators, children and young monks, who watched the representation with more than curiosity. The photos I took recreate the good experience from the point where I was (you must click on the photo to see it clearly).

The finale

The characters with skull masks (those comic harlequin-type) came back and repeated several choreographic steps, with the same short rods they had used at the beginning of the dance, but when arrived to the platform this time they picked up the small triangle that was on it, all the while doing jumps and games that did not were really comic but could be called "light"; then came a few scenes in which the performance change style, it was somewhat different from what I had seen in it, scenes that seemed curious to my eyes, I would even dare say there were two small 'realistic scenes' only interrupted by a another choreographic performance around the platform: in the first one, one of the skeleton-characters showed a somewhat female attitude, childish perhaps, he suffered and wept, while the other tried to comfort him to the point of angering the sufferer, but eventually was convincing him to return to perform the dance on the platform; in the second scene, they took the rods to one of the corners of the space and placed there, one of them sat while the other began "to act", arguing, repeating the gestures of that famous Tibetan ritual where a monk hits his palm while repeating phrases to discuss with a seating group of monks; this realistic scene continued with that seated character denying with his hands the other's arguments and becoming stubborn when facing by his partner's exasperation (1).

And while the discussion continued between the skeleton characters, from the temple a "deer" entered; an actor-monk dressed in the skin of this animal which symbolizes liberation, peace and harmony for Tibetans; he ran towards and near the spectators, not exactly in a dance but with a specific choreographed movement, jumping, pacing to and fro, accompanied only by the sound of cymbals. After a while of ignoring the deer, the two skeleton-characters joined him and began to collect, in simple plastic bags, fruits and money from the spectators. It was a curious contact where the townspeople offered their gifts but never crossed the circle marking the scene. It was clear this was the end point of the performance.

The characters' final scene repeated the already familiar exit from the temple but, once all the characters reached the circular space, including the deer and the skeletons, they danced together for a few moments and then started walk out the main door of the square. The crowd had already split in two lines, marking a way out to let each character walk through it and get out from the temple. Everyone wanted to see them exit, admiring their figures, costumes and masks, and the younger ones trying to touch them or even play with them.

As in all previous events in this new year celebration, participants disappeared by going to the back of the temple; once turning around no one followed them, the magic was gone once outside the sacred space.

Video: Fourth part of Cham dance performance at Rongwu Monastery. February 9, 2009.

(1) It is clear that use of the word "realistic" is from my perspective and I never say that they consciously worked towards that. The funny thing here is the need to lighten symbolisms and present a scene so close to reality to be understood in its entirety in the middle of an entirely symbolic-religious piece.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 4: Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwu Monastery. Part 3 Middle of the dance.

Note: See the introduction to this series about the Monlam Festival in Tongren, China on the March 20th, 2009 post: "4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 1: Procession of the Buddha Maitreya at Niantog Monastery".

Day 4Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwu Monstery.

Slideshow: Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwy Monastery. Feb 9th, 2009.

Narration of the third part: The middle of the Dance.

Read the introduction to this 4th day, see a video and read the preliminary story of the Cham dance at my July 3rd 2009 post.

This dance was not more a Buddhist ritual, something I never remarked at all in previous events in Amdo, now (after two or more hours since the beginning of the dance) I was witnessing a theatrical performance that happened to have Buddhist monks and Buddhist symbols as a characters and subject. I was being a spectator of something more primitive than the structured rituals of the religion of the lamas, but also a much more elaborate theatrical structure.

I was aware that such tibetan dance-rituals had much of the animistic religions professed in all the so-called "Tibetan plateau" before the arrival of Buddhism, religions where witches and shamans fixed the world and the universe in spectacular and powerful performances; Buddhists as in any other world religion had nothing but absorb and adapt those events at their convenience. However, the development of a theatrical structure as such was giving over time and what I saw that afternoon as Cham dance was much more than a witch looking for the balance of the world: they were telling a story, with characters and personalities differentiated by masks and costumes externally but attitudes and attributes internally; there were an elaborated play of symbols, scenes and dramatic development; there was drama and codified movements. Beyond compare it with classical Greek drama (which we can not have live experience), I prefer to link this to the theater of religious origin in India or to the Balinese dance-drama. The codified technique exists inside Cham dance-theater, but we don’t have here yet the evolution and separation from the temple to be an independent art, as its Indian and Balinese counterparts already got, it would also wait for the arrival of an artistic figure (like Mei Lanfang in Beijing Opera or Zeami Motoshiro in Noh) detailing to perfection those codes.

After more than an hour or so from the start, the performance was taking shape, now we were seeing in the middle of the temple’s square between 17 and 18 character-demons dancing in circles and making a small shift from one side to another, rotating while jumping in the air and falling down to almost be squatting and to continue moving in a endless repetitive motion. Everything was still fascinating to my eyes: their masks, their headdresses, hair or those faces of animals and fantastic creatures, their costumes and objects in their hands. One of this demons, with a black mask and several skulls as headdress, began to be wrapped in scarps or gauzes by many leading members of the community. We had seen how this group of ethnic Tibetan had been directed to the first circle drawn on the square (the one where the other group of monks who had participated in the previous scene had already been installed) and they were seated to observe; now they were participating with the help of some other monks wrapping the black mask demon with gauzes, they did it surrounding him like blocking something coming from his body. Meanwhile, the other demons were dancing in the same way I described before.

Locals Tibetan wrapping with gauzes to the devil. Cham Dance. Repkong 2009.

Two demons separated from the dancing group, one with a white mask, between wolf and horse (I can not define it clearly), and the other, a beaked black blue Bird (a raven?), a character which would have a decisive participation in the future story they were performing. In front of the stairs they began to fight among themselves. The fight kept the same rhythm and tempo as the dance was went on around him, but their choreography was a continuous crossing expressing a ferocious battle, as if their weapons collided in the air when they cross, then arrive to the extreme side and returned to the attack to crash again, the same movement dozens of times. There was clearly a physical encoding to show a battle as in many other theaters and traditions. I was corroborating the use of a martial arts play in creating this theatrical convention and the need of a codification for the fiction of a battle, a war or a simple fight between two characters.

There was no winner in this battle (at least it seemed like that), the characters (the raven black and the white horse) continued fighting and began to climb the stairs in their repetitive movements and went out to the door of the temple and entered to it disappearing from the scene. That door of the temple had become those legendary doors which represented the in and out of religious theatres, where the stage was the courtyard at the entrance to the temple and the temple entrance itself was the point of entry and exit of characters (which were originally priests).

Once the two demons left fighting the scene, the others followed them keeping his choreography, now in continuous movement toward the exit.

A new scene began with a second entrance of demons, led by one whom fought and won the monks; a better dancer than the others, he was leading the way to the square, stronger, energetic, with an undeniable presence. The choreography settled again the whole group at the square in the circle already known. During this process, two monks entered: their mouth covered with black masks, one carrying a bottle (perhaps alcohol) and the other a kind of scepter. The dance and the music stopped for a moment, the mouth-covered monks came to the chief demon and filled his cup with the contents of the bottle, then the dance and music was revived but with a slower pace, primarily using the drums, and the movements were to the center in a kind of attraction to the pyramid with the skull. This lasted about an hour, and was repeated between 5 and 7 times ( I got lost in one moment), and once again the group went towards the temple.

Mouth-covered Monks on the scene. Cham Dance. Repkong 2009.

In the next and final scene of this middle part of the dance, 4 demons with similar characteristics (black masks -only one with a red mask- almost human, with a headdress of skulls and several weapons in his hands -mostly swords-), were accompanied by those two characters from the introduction, the cheerful skeletons. The choreography of this part seemed to be the same we already know, moving in turns and jumps and keeping their character’s attitudes ( energetic the devils, and soft and light the skeletons), this time heading towards the main square, surrounded it and eventually came under the stairs, opposite to the main entrance of the temple. At various times, one of the demons stepped forward toward the center and in front of the others and with his sword realized a sort of cuts in the air,; Thanks to that action all the other characters seemed free to move forward to the pyramid situated on the other side of the square but for some reason they never touched the wooden shrine, even though he came very close to it. This unsuccessful attempt was to have some sort of reward though at the scene to come, but for now they went to the temple without touching the pyramid and appeared defeated once more.

It was a constant battle to get to the place where death was lit, to the place where objects before stored in a temple were at open air, at the eyes of anyone who was capable to reach them, on a small stage drawn with the image of a man cut with a knife ... It looked like a struggle to come to take possession or control of the powers of death itself, a struggle between the demons and monks ... Or at least, preparing to get those demons pure or prepared to cope or what would give them death. I do not know anything for sure, all are guesses of my mind, but I like playing with it, at the end I was a simple spectator of a religious drama in a foreign culture.

Video: Cham Dance Performance (The Middle of the Dance)

(All this post have been written in Spanish and English by the author, and revised and corrected by Tadeo Berjon.)

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 4: Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwu Monastery. Part 2, Beginning of the dance.

Note: See the introduction to this series about the Monlam Festival in Tongren, China on the March 20th, 2009 post: "4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 1: Procession of the Buddha Maitreya at Niantog Monastery".

Day 4Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwu Monstery.

Slideshow: Cham Dance-Drama at Rongwy Monastery. Feb 9th, 2009.

Narration of the second part: Beginning of the Dance.
Read the introduction to this 4th day, see a video and read the preliminary story of the Cham dance at my July 3rd 2009 post.
The horns had sounded on the roof but also inside the temple. Monks began to leave the temple in their (now for us) common presentation, but this time there were only those who were going to participate in the dance, around one hundred, and the others remained inside or left the temple from behind and came back later as mere spectators.

The first to appear were three monks carrying two horns, carried on the front only by one, while the other two were holding the other extreme and playing them. A very curious and fascinating image. As expected the first monk placed the horn’s “mouth” on the pedestal of the skeletons, while the others continued playing. Behind them came some major monks with bells, and then all the other instruments, dozens of drums and cymbals.

Placing the horns on their base. Cham Dance. Rongwu Monastery. February 9.2009.

Playing their instruments (in what would become in its monotony the only sound during all the performance) those monks musicians took their place where we Westerners would call "stage", exactly in front of the temple's main entrance. Their faces were looking toward us, so it seemed that the main space of the dance was where “the chorus work”, down the stairs, inside the circles marked in the square; of course I was using my imagination before anything happened. In reality they used both spaces, the stage in front of the temple and the big circle in the square, as any other religious theatre would do it.

Two figures in special costumes emerged from the temple. These two men gave the impression of being two "happy" skulls or "very much alive" dead men; they were wearing skull masks very similar to that image of "death enlightened" that I described in my last post (preliminaries of the dance), with the same flame over their crown and bow-shaped ears, their clothes oddly similar to a kind of harlequin costume, with horizontal stripes of colored cloth and some ruffles.

Start of the dance: “happy” skeletons. Rongwu Monastery. (Photo by Tadeo Berjon)

While I was just watching their movements, I discovered that there was no special physical preparation, technically speaking, so I did not expect wonders, nor amazing acrobatic jumps nor breathtaking aesthetic movements. The ritual here was still more important, the aesthetic result was an aggregate of our culture, yet not in theirs; what they were doing there had a specific religious purpose, they were not expecting our approval, they were not expecting a round of applause.In their very simple choreography those happy skeletons carried a wooden triangle and placed it on the central platform, that with the picture of a man with the opened body. That little wooden triangle contained some unidentifiable objects (from my position), objects that in later parts of the performance would become very important. The characters continued their movements-choreography, this time as if it would mark a space around the platform, with various crossings between them and surrounding it; at the the end of that part they literally went running into the temple.Once the dancing was over, the music marked a kind of rhythmic change by adding only the sounds of the horns; that was for a minute or two, and nothing else happened. Then came the first demon accompanied with the music of cymbals: with an imposing mask with horns that had flames on their ends, with crowns of flames on his head;an animal nose, an animal jaw, thick hair and a long black beard; wearing a colorful costume, made from fabrics and ribbons, with ties of different colors, a golden scepter or maybe an arm in his hand. His entrance was in a circular choreography, jumping at the same point but alternating legs, always dancing to the rhythm of cymbals.The entry of the demon seems of utmost importance, presenting an event that would trigger the whole future story: stopped by five of the leading monks, dressed in their stunning costumes and armed with a stick of incense and a dry rod, the demon was obliged to make its movements on the stage up the stairs, at the same level of the musicians; each of these movements was a kind of attack, like wanting to push and with what I can call climax and anticlimax, rising and lowering in level and in intensity, almost crouching in his circular movement or getting up to attack, while the monks stood impassively before him, blocking his pass to the main circle.

Demon fighting 1, Cham Dance. (Photo by Tadeo Berjón)

Demon fighting 2, Cham Dance. (Photo by Tadeo Berjón)

Demon fighting 3, Cham Dance. (Photo by Tadeo Berjón)

Apparently the dance attack by the demon was stronger than the intent to block of the monks; they opened the way and the demon could pass through; the music changed using both horns and drums, it was the end of the fighting and there was a climax. I cannot say that the demon defeated the monks, there were no evident actions or gestures on their part, they only changed their positions and performed their movements almost in an automatic displacement moving out to the first circle (the one drawn before the performance) in front of the spectators.A procession of dancing demons came out from the temple, 15 or 20 of them, all in pairs, and each one differently dressed and masked, each with their own additaments, with their own character attributes, some with swords, some with rosaries, others with knives, others with canes. The new dance had the same repetitive and circular line of movements, round and toward the vast space of the temple’s square.

I was totally fascinated, inevitably I got lost (forgetting the dance) because I was amazed seeing the brightness and colors of their costumes, because I was trying to observe all of the attributed objects that each of them had in their hands, and of course because of those wooden masks with their impressive features: faces of birds, animals and fantastic creatures, heavy masks with lots of hair, fabric and objects attached to them. Such color, such visual spectacle with so many dancers were a real pleasure for my eyes. Yes, I was totally fascinated and so too were the other foreigner spectators that day; as for the Tibetan people from Repkong I would not know, they watched attentively, but talked a lot among themselves, eating and moving from one place to another.

Video: Second part of Cham dance performance at Rongwu Monastery. February 9, 2009.


(Part 2) Tibetan Cham Dance Performance at Rongwu Monastery: Beginning. from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 3: Carrying of the Buddha Maitreya Statue at Rongwu Monastery.

Procession of the Buddha Maitreya Statue at Rongwu Monastery. Qinghai, China. February, 2009

Note: See the introduction to this series about the Monlam Festival in Tongren, China on the March 20th, 2009 post: "4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 1: Procession of the Buddha Maitreya at Niantog Monastery".

Day 3
Procession of the Buddha Maitreya Statue at the Rongwu Monastery.

Photographs of the Buddha Statue procession at Rongwu Monastery.
If any of the pictures of the slideshow can’t be seen, click inside the box and it will take you to the Picasa site where all the photos are in.

The event


After two days of truly extraordinary events, my idea was to rest a little and I even considered not going to this event which I thought was very similar to that of the Niantog Temple two days before; that event and the ceremony of the unveiling of the Thangka had each lasted more than five hours and I thought that a repetition of it would be almost physically unbearable. Obviously I was wrong.

The huge Rongwu Monastery is home to hundreds of monks and novices participating in the ceremony of that day, and for this special event many more had come from the neighboring monasteries, also this event was apparently the first that where the Lama Rinpoche, the second in hierarchy (after the Dalai Lama) in Tibetan Buddhism, was present.

The known structure was repeated: around 10:30 in the morning monks came and went across the square and we saw how they were specially dressed again for an important ceremony, carrying various objects, each one with narrowly defined tasks. Inside the main temple a truly unusual amount of monks (I stopped counting at 300 when they closed the curtains) remained seated. The atmosphere seemed a bit more chaotic than the previous days, I guessed there would not be a structure of presentation, but everything was as the day before, with a strict ritual order.

Around noon the preparatory ceremony inside the temple finished and most of the novice monks who were praying inside came out from the temple in an endless stream, red blankets and shaved heads filled the main square. I got to see some groups of 5 or 6 monks driving new model cars and coaxing the crowd out of the way with the sound of their klaxons in a hurry to go and have lunch (at least that is what I was informed) .

So we had to wait because all the monks and novices had to go to eat. The wait was not long, less than 30 minutes, and all were back to continue.

The traditional Tibetan horns sounded and chaos in the square increased. This time I preferred to stand in a remote place near one corner and make my shots from one of the walls so I could be able to control my camera and avoid any fight with the crowd; I really wanted to use the zoom for the best shots if I needed. It was not paradise but I liked the angle from where I took everything. I could also have contact with some of the common Tibetan people; I did not understand their language, of course, but it was easy to deduce that they were talking to us about the ceremony, about the presence of the Lama Rinpoche and how important it was to see him there, what a delight of communication!

The Lama Rinpoche sat at the upper level of the temple in a large terrace, with a group of monks and next to a group of privileged Chinese, and the rest, all of us, were scattered below them in the square.

The first part of the ceremony, the presentation of many groups of monks, of their religious hierarchies, of objects and banners, was immensely long (obviously the video is edited and I have made it very short). However, this time I enjoyed and observed a bit more than the last days: I could appreciate how they achieved their circular formations, I observed attentively the objects they carried and in particular their costumes within the religious ceremony; the leader (the Lama Rinpoche) was dressed as simply as any other monk, but not those who participated in the presentation ceremony: the high level monks reminded me of Greek tragedy actors dressed in huge costumes and wearing masks, marking their difference from the terrestrial world. As tragic actors, Rongwu monks wore a kind of high shoes or stilts (some more than 5 cm high) that I had only seen in Chinese Opera; they also wore a large number of clothes of different colors with "shoulder supports" to make them look larger and to expand their body. Similarly to Chinese opera characters, they had objects and “props” according to their hierarchy, with their own spiritual symbolism; and, of course, they all had special hats.

In the next photo (taken at the Niantog Monastery) you can see an example of how the monks' dress look like. The monks playing the trumpets had small stilts, while the main monk had very stylized shoes; you also can notice the excess of clothes and how one of his shoulders is expanded using many pieces of fabric.

Monks in a ceremony at Niantog Monastery (Amdo. Feb 2009)

In the following two photos (taken from my Rongwu video), we can observe the same "theatrical" phenomenon. In the first photo you can notice the difference between the character dressed specially for the event and the other monks in the same town. In the second picture, a really special one, at the background, one of these "characters" gets out of the temple, its presence is so remarkable due just to the costume, he looks enormous and the image resembles an epic character, I would say. (All photos can be enlarged for better viewing by clicking on them)

Monks in Rongwu monastery ceremony. Amdo. Feb 2009.

A monk exits from the temple during the ceremony. Rongwu monastery. Amdo. Feb 2009.

Looking for similarities is inevitable, I did not find anything new, the link between religion and theatrical events (that is most evident in Greek tragedy) in Tibetan ceremonies is acknowledged by both social anthropologists and performing arts researchers. But I can say that I experienced and enjoyed this live, and I could also document it. That made me immensely happy.

Once the presentation took place and the monks began to leave the square, as in the previous day, people literally rushed to the doors of the main temple. From that door came monks pulling a rope wrapped in white gauze, a sort of umbilical cord linking to the chariot-palanquin of the Buddha Maitreya. There were murmurs and shaking all over, its was as sloppy and chaotic as the day before, only this time I was not pushed by the crowd and I could see from a more stable place.

One of the most striking images was the emerging of the Buddha’s “palanquin” from the huge door, apparently immensely heavy, the monks were making a big physical effort, and the crowd only wanted to touch it, throwing strips of white gauze or trying to help carry it. On the “palanquin” a small chapel was mounted, decorated in colors and brilliant gold, with its Buddha Maitreya "caged" in it . The Lama Rinpoche and the monks on the terrace let fall dozens of strips of white gauze. It was like the moment of the unveiling of the Thangka, it was a very religious moment, energetic, perhaps ecstatic, but this time all along the peregrination: hundreds of Tibetans sang, the horns sounded, many were praying, throwing handfuls of rice and colored paper with mantras printed on. I loved the singing of Tibetan religious women, a high pitched sharp singing, a singing I will always identify with this trip to Amdo, a singing that I know will appear continuously in my dreams.

On their way towards the exit of the main square the palanquin was about to topple, we did not know whether people laughed or were horrified by this, their reaction was a bit strange for our cultural codes; the man with the umbrella who was escorting the Buddha statue fell under the crowd, but he made it back and opened it again.

When the procession passed close to my corner in the square I took a close-up of the Buddha Maitreya: I was surprised, immersed in my Christian culture I saw the image of a Catholic virgin on her pedestal like at any Mexican religious procession, there was a transposition of place and object in my mind, a kind of strange feeling; but it was the statue of a Buddha, a golden statue of a Buddha with a very feminine face.

After the palanquin left the square I tried to do the same and follow the procession a little bit more outside the temple’s walls. I did it and I mixed myself with the crowd, there was no way of getting out of there without being "carried" too. I felt a little religious, a little ritualistic, a little Tibetan too.

Once outside the main square, the procession would visit most of the temples and chapels of the monastery and would last two hours or more, although our guide told us that the procession would surely return after it walking around the main temple (not the whole monastery) to prevent further damage to the portable shrine.

It had been too much excitement, I was happy and tired. I let the procession go and its people after it, for me the event was over when I left the main square.

I wanted to rest, download all that material to the computer, try to edit some photos, think about the ceremony, and sleep well. The next day would bring the event for which I had specifically come to Amdo, the performance of a Cham dance-theater.

Video in Youtube: Procession of the Buddha Maitreya Statue at Rongwu Monastery (Feb 2009)

Video in exposureroom.com: Procession of Buddha Maitreya Statue at Rongwu Monastery (Feb. 2009)

Carrying of the Buddha Statue Ceremony at Rongwu Monastery. By Gustavo Thomas
View in HD Download 720p HD Version Visit Gustavo Thomas's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Version in English revised by Tadeo Berjón.

4 Days of Monlam Festival (Tibetan New Year). Day 1: Procession of the Buddha Maitreya at Niantog Monastery.

Map of Qinghai Province, China

Introduction

The ancient Tibetan region of Amdo in western China is known today as Qinghai Province, a region populated mostly by Tibetan-speaking ethnic groups that have been part of China for hundreds of years. Amdo is part of a vast region of Tibetan culture, which extends from Nepal, India, Tibet, the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Mongolia (the country), all these regions share a common language (which varies by ethnicity and of course under the influence of national languages and Mandarin), Tibetan Buddhism and with it a variety of religious paraphernalia that makes up the everyday life of its population, including the festivities and, of course, their performing arts.

Each lunar new year is celebrated throughout the region with a festival that the western world calls the Tibetan New Year, and Tibetans call Monlam Chenmo (which means "Preaching festival”). Monlam Chenmo comes after a few days Chinese lunar new year is and has its own calendar of events, all of a religious nature. There is no event during Monlam Chenmo not led by the monks of the monastery of each region and, so "represented" by the monks themselves, people from their villages are involved in a seemingly passive way or, as we would say in the performing arts, they act as spectators.

This year 2009, due to the problems facing China across the Tibetan region of its domain (almost one third of its territory), the central government decided not to allow foreigners to enter any Tibetan area except the small region of Tongren, precisely in Qinghai, the former Amdo. As the monasteries of Lhasa, Labrang, and others would be closed to tourism, there was no choice but to visit this region, and it was a wonderful choice; Tongren was kind, peaceful and rich in scenery and religious traditions.

In the Tongren region there are about 10 monasteries, one in every small town; the monasteries are gigantic in comparison with the smallness and poverty of the villages, and each held, on different days, the same religious events during Monlam Chenmo; so you can see, if you have time, the same event represented in a different way by each monastery.

On this visit I had the opportunity to observe the celebration for 3 days at the main and biggest monastery of Tongren, Rongwu Monastery, and one day at Niantog Monastery. At Rongwu there were three events: the unveiling of a gigantic Thangka with the image of Buddha, a procession of the statue of Buddha Maitreya, and a representation of Cham Dance or Demon Masks Dance, and, at Niantog, a small Monastery 10 minutes from Rongwu, another procession of the statue of Buddha. All those were wonderful events for my eyes as a foreigner, but they were also deeply moving and interesting acts for those who travel and seek representational art worldwide.

It is experiencing live this kind of festivities and religious rituals when we discover the undeniable origins of human theatrical activity, and we can also understand much of its extent and development into many fields of human activity. I usually define my experience with a very recurrent phrase, "a return to sources”.

I've been (and I remain) completely ignorant of the structure and origins of most of the events I witnessed in Tongren and the information I give about them surely has blunders and shortcomings; however, I believe that the document itself (photographs and videos), in addition to my personal descriptions of the events, can be a useful material for both the merely curious as the researcher who has not had the opportunity to witness these events live.

Day 1.

Procession of Buddha Maitreya at Niantog Monastery.

Photographs of the procession of the statue of Buddha at Niantog Monastery

If for some reason the pictures of the presentation can’t be seen well, click inside the box and it will take you to a Picasa page where all the photos are in.

Narration of the event:

On February 7, 2009, we were told that at Niantog monastery there would be a procession at midday, we arrived there at about 11:30 in the morning and we had to wait for about 2 hours for it.

The preparations occupied the entire time of our waiting. Monks came and went with religious objects, musical instruments, and placing all at different parts of the monastery; the temple was closed to non-monks and villagers were also preparing their offerings, some elderly women slowly started taking a seat at the back of the monastery’s small square, some children appeared wearing beautiful and colorful costumes (worn especially for the occasion), and dozens of photographers and journalists were upsetting me by taking photos here and there, arranging people as objects and demanding poses for their shots ... They simply broke the charm of those preparations I was witnessing.

Almost at 2 in the afternoon we began to hear the sound of the so-famous Tibetan horns, and a small procession of beautifully attired monks came to the temple among the raucous music of their trumpets, entered the chapel, and hung a curtain to prevent us from seeing inside. They started to pray, it sounded like mantras (I’m sure that was), repeated over several minutes, one after another, relentlessly. The beauty of the thangkas painted on the walls of the temple’s entrance and the sound of the prayers of the monks created a unique atmosphere around.

On the other side of the monastery a monk followed by a group of villagers was walking and praying, performing certain rites that were simply hard to grasp and understand; I could see how he entered with the group of followers into a small temple near the main one (every monastery has between five and ten smaller temples), some minutes before I had listened to a monk playing a drum in that place, and now this other monk had climbed unto a small bank and stayed at the same place, ringing a metal bell several times, and all the others followed him to his side repeating a mantra.

Even when I speak of prayers, mantras and rituals, I must clarify that, without exception, none of the participants seemed to be concentrating or in a "special" psychological mood, they even seemed to be as if at something both very common and without much sense, but my perception was unfounded, my ignorance about these people's body language, which I watched for the first time in my life, is evident.

Suddenly we heard the sound of a gong that came from the top of the temple, and deduced that the celebration was about to begin (if it had not already started hours ago, of course). Dozens of monks, one by one, and with a very slow pace, were leaving the main chapel. Horns and drums were the only sounds, repetitive music, solemn, it seemed to mark the rhythm of the steps yet it never came up to become a dance or a procession, it was a kind of presentation that lasted around half an hour.

The square was filled with a fairly wide circle of monks, with their musical instruments and banners of various types. Those elderly women I talked about before now were singing at several points of the monk’s presentation, they sang a very common kind of singing in Tibet, in a sharp and “spiritual” tone, we heard that chant throughout this festival.

After this long presentation and ritual, the monks began to spread, it seemed they were simply going out; as if it were a sign, people started to pile near the entrance to the Buddha’s chapel, a chapel with a beautiful and colorful altar entirely made with yak butter. The carriage for the procession was ready to receive the Buddha and the excitement was quite high. When the small statue took its place everything went crazy, men ran for the rope that would help pull the carriage, old women threw white scarves to cover the statue, many of them, men and women, were frantically trying to put their forehead somewhere near the Buddha, and songs were chanted to follow the procession. Someone threw candy and the crowd ran to pick them, the procession continued and the crowd followed the carriage in turn.

The carriage with the Buddha would stopped at every church and chapel of the monastery and then it would return again to rest in his chapel until the following year. As we had been there for almost five hours already we could only stand to see the first stop on a beautiful newly renovated chapel. Hence we decided to leave the place, completely satisfied with everything that we had finally seen and experienced.

Video: Procession of the statue of Buddha at Niantog Monastery

The video is edited in HD (high definition), here you'll see it in standard resolution, but if you want to see it in better definition go to the Youtube page and click on "watch in HD.