Cham dance

The Black-Hat Drum Cham (Wylie: zhwa nag rnga 'cham, THL: zhanak ngacham),[1] performed at the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Cham dance at Leh Palace during the Dosmoche festival, 13 February 2018.

The cham dance (Tibetan: འཆམ་, Wylie: 'cham)[2][3] is a lively masked and costumed dance associated with some sects of Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist festivals. The dance is accompanied by music played by monks using traditional Tibetan musical instruments. The dances often offer moral instruction relating to karuṇā (compassion) for sentient beings and are held to bring merit to all who perceive them.[1][4]

Chams are considered a form of meditation and an offering to the gods.[5] The leader of the cham is typically a musician, keeping time with a percussion instrument like cymbals, the one exception being Dramyin Cham, where time is kept using dramyin.

The term "devil dance" was an early 20th century description of the performance, derived from Western perceptions of the costumes worn by performers.[5]

  1. ^ a b Pearlman, Ellen (2002). Tibetan Sacred Dance: a Journey into the Religious and Folk Traditions. Inner Traditions / Bear & Co. pp. 21, 32, 180. ISBN 978-0-89281-918-8. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  2. ^ "༈ རྫོང་ཁ་ཨིང་ལིཤ་ཤན་སྦྱར་ཚིག་མཛོད། ༼འཆ-༽" [Dzongkha-English Dictionary: "'CHA"]. Dzongkha-English Online Dictionary. Dzongkha Development Commission, Government of Bhutan. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  3. ^ "Tibetan-English-Dictionary of Buddhist Teaching & Practice". Diamond Way Buddhism Worldwide. Rangjung Yeshe Translations & Publications. 1996. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2011. entry: 'cham.
  4. ^ Clements, William M. (2006). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife: Southeast Asia and India, Central and East Asia, Middle East. Vol. 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 106–110. ISBN 978-0-313-32849-7. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  5. ^ a b Schrempf, Mona (1995). "From 'Devil Dance' to 'World Healing': Some Representations, Perceptions, and Innovations of Contemporary Tibetan Ritual Dances". In Korom, Frank J.; Steinkeller, Ernst (eds.). Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies: Graz 1995. vol. 4. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 91–102. ISBN 370012659X. OCLC 37538399.