BHUTAN
The sacred dances of Bhutan (including the various cham and mask dances) form an
inseparable part of its Vajrayana Buddhist culture. These performances occurs mainly during
tsechu festivals in dzongs. They are enacted by monks and lay participants in service of
spiritual purification, merit accumulation, and community cohesion. They blend tantric ritual,
mythic storytelling, and sacred music, often tracing back to Padmasambhava’s 8th‑century
missions in Bhutan Include forms like Drametse Ngacham and Dramyin Cham, which are
practiced locally but have grown into national cultural symbols.These dances are not mere
entertainment but are believed to invoke divine blessings and protect against negative forces.
Each gesture, costume, and mask carries deep symbolic meaning, representing wrathful or
peaceful deities. The preparation for these rituals involves intense meditation and strict
observance of monastic discipline. Spectators, too, participate spiritually through devotion
and reverence during the festivals. The colorful costumes and elaborate choreography reflect
Bhutan’s sacred cosmology. Music, played on traditional instruments like cymbals, trumpets,
and drums, creates an atmosphere of transcendence. Transmission of these dances occurs
through oral teaching and observation, often within monastic communities. In recent decades,
efforts have been made to preserve these traditions amid modernization. Bhutanese youth are
increasingly being trained in these rituals through cultural schools and government initiatives.
Thus, the sacred dances remain a living, evolving embodiment of Bhutanese heritage.
List of Dances
Zhungdra Bhutan
Drametse Ngacham (Mask Dance of the Drums)
Reegion : Drametse village, eastern Bhutan.
Ethnic group : Monastic community (Drukpa Kagyu sect)
Spirituality : Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism
The mask dance of the Drametse community is a sacred dance performed during the Drametse festival in honour of Padmasambhava, a Buddhist guru. The festival, which takes place in this eastern Bhutanese village twice a year, is organized by the Ogyen Tegchok Namdroel Choeling Monastery. The dance features sixteen masked male dancers wearing colourful costumes and ten other men making up the orchestra. The dance has a calm and contemplative part that represents the peaceful deities and a rapid and athletic part where the dancers embody wrathful deities. Dancers dressed in monastic robes and wearing wooden
masks with features of real and mythical animals perform a prayer dance in the soeldep cham, the main shrine, before appearing one by one in the main courtyard. The orchestra consists of cymbals, trumpets and drums, including the bang nga, a large cylindrical drum, the lag nga, a small hand-held circular flat drum and the nga chen, a drum beaten with a bent drumstick.
The Drametse Ngacham has been performed in the same monastery for centuries. Its form has both religious and cultural significance, because it is believed to have originally been performed by the heroes and heroines of the celestial world. In the nineteenth century,
versions of the Drametse Ngacham were introduced in other parts of Bhutan. For the audience, the dance is a source of spiritual empowerment and is attended by people from Drametse as well as neighbouring villages and districts to obtain blessings. Today, the dance has evolved from a local event centred on a particular community into an art form, representing the identity of the Bhutanese nation as a whole.
Zhungdra
Region : Central and western Bhutan, principally Thimphu, Paro, Punakha, and Bumthang
Ethnic group : Ngalop
Spirituality : Vajrayana Buddhism, Drukpa Kagyu lineage
The royal dance of Bhutan, Zhungdra is a very slow and composed dance form, which is performed in the courtrooms. It is also performed in dzongs and monasteries, and a part of Tshechus as well. It is believed to be one of the oldest dances in Bhutan, originating from the early Buddhist saints. It is performed by women, who stand in a row and wear traditional attire. They also carry a handwoven scarf and dance together in a perfect rhythm. The dance
is very religious and this is why no rapid movements are performed. The hand movements are very clear and slow. Each gesture symbolizes devotion and spiritual grace.The lyrics accompanying the dance often contain Buddhist teachings and sacred mantras.Zhungdra is typically performed to traditional instruments like the drangyen (lute) and cymbals.The performers maintain serene facial expressions to reflect inner calm.This dance is considered a
form of meditation in motion. Zhungdra preserves Bhutan’s ancient cultural and religious values through elegance and restraint.
Dramyin Cham (Lute Dance)
Region : Held during tsechus in various dzongs
Ethnic group : Buddhist monks, Drukpa Kagyu lineage.
Spirituality : Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dramyin Cham is a form of Cham dance, a masked and costumed dance performed inTibetan Buddhism ceremonies in Bhutan, Sikkim, Himalayan West Bengal and Tibet (where they have been outlawed). They are a focal point of the Bhutanese festivals of Tsechu. The
Dramyin Cham is notable among Cham dances as the lead dancer keeps time with a dramyin – a Himalayan folk music lute, and not a traditional percussion instrument like the cymbals.
This is among the few instances of monastic music in the Himalayas where the use of a stringed instrument has been observed.In the 13th century, monks from southern Tibet established the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school of Vajrayana in Bhutan. This is
celebrated in the Dramyin Cham as well as in the religious song “Dramyin Choeshay”. Specifically, the dance celebrates an incident in Tibetan Buddhist mythology – the victory of the saint Tsangpa Gyare (1161-1211) over a demon which was obstructing a pilgrimage path to Tsari, Tibet at the mouth of a valley. The saint apparently subjugated the demon by performing a dramyin cham and it offered its services to him and became the guardian deity of the valley.
Black Hat Dance (Shana Cham / Zhanak)
Region : Part of tsechu festivals countrywide
Ethnic group : Monastic perfomers
Spirituality : Vajrayana Buddhism
The Zhanak (ཞྭ་ནག་) or Black Hat dance is one of the most popular sacred cham dances without mask seen in Bhutan and other parts of the Buddhist Himalayas. Named after the black hats which the dancers wear, the dance has a deep spiritual significance and is performed as an act of religious ritual and practice, and not as a piece of entertainment.
The Black Hat dance is an enactment of one of the most esoteric and powerful practices of Vajrayāna Buddhism. Based on Mahāyāna Buddhism and its theory of altruism to take all sentient beings to
liberation, but equipped with exceptional expedient methods, tantric Buddhism advocates using violent and terrifying methods out of ruthless compassion in order to tame unruly beings. The black hat dancer represents a master of tantric or Vajrayāna Buddhism who has the spiritual power to subjugate a demonic force and transform the negative energy into a positive one. In order to enhance the fierce aura presented by the attire and movements, the forehead and the cheeks of the dancers are marked with soot to create a terrifying visage and the face is partially obscured with black tassels hanging from the black hat. The tassels also symbolize the long hair of tantric priests in contrast to the shaven monks. The terrifying outfit and movements of the black hat dancer represents the use of force and fear, albeit out of compassion, to help a evil force stop committing further evil by putting an end to it. It does so through the practice of compassionate killing known as ‘liberation’ as the consciousness of the victim is liberated while its ordinary personality is slain.
Cremation‑ground Dance (Durdag Cham)
Region : During tsechu around Bhutan
Ethnic group : Monks / lay dancers
Spirituality : Vajrayana Buddhism
The Dance of the Lords of the Cremation Grounds is performed by four dancers wearing skull masks, who depict the Lords Avalokiteshvara (Bodhissattva of Compassion) and
Buddha Vajrahekura. The white costume symbolises the purity and detachment of the Avalokiteshvara and Buddha Vajrahekura to physical forms and appearances. The Avalokiteshvara and Buddha Vajrahekura are believed to dwell in cremation grounds to help
liberate the spirits of the deceased from this world and to transit to the after world. The dancers shake their hands in the air and stamp their feet on the ground during the performance in an act to summon and subjugate the dead spirits. The dancers perform back-bends, touching the ground behind them with the tip of their masks, to call upon the earth-deity to witness their power to subdue the spirits’ attachment to this world and to liberate them to the next world.During the performance, the dancers destroy an effigy and
offer the remnants to the tutelary deities (guardian spirits) of the ten directions. This action is believed to help liberate any negative spirits and allow these spirits to move into the ‘pure land’.