A MEDITATION IN DANCE
The Drametse Ngacham is a dance form that originated in Bhutan five centuries ago. Today, the Institute of Language and Cultural Studies is documenting the dance as a cultural heritage of Bhutan. Here is a rare insight into the tantric Buddhist teachings of his meditation in dance.
“If you know the purpose of the dance and what the dancers are visualizing, it is a very powerful experience,” says a teacher at the Institute of Language and Cultural Studies. “Even the hair on my arm stands up as the trumpets, music and the intensity of the dance increases.”
Origins
One of Bhutan’s best known masked dances, the Drametse Ngacham, was conceived in a powerful moment of intensive meditation about 500 years ago. The dance came as a vision to grand son of one of Bhutan’s revered saints Pema Lingpa during his meditation retreat.
In his vision, Khedup Kuenga Gyaltshen saw three beautiful celestial women (dakinis) dressed in silken gowns, and adorned with garlands of precious ornaments. The celestial beings guided him to the abode of Guru Rinpoche, where the deities performed a dance. Guru Rinpoche, the 8th century spiritual teacher who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, later instructed Khedup Kuenga Gyaltshen to introduce the dance in the human world for the benefit of all living beings. Khedup Kuenga Gyaltshen noted down the choreography of the dance and introduced it to the Thegchog Ogyen Namdroel Choeling monastery in Drametse, in eastern Bhutan, a monastery his sister Ani Choeten Zangmo built.
The Dance
The Drametse Ngacham is a perfect example of a mask dance. Sixteen people perform the dance and ten others in the orchestra provide the accompanying music and rhythm.
Refined artistic skills and a fine balance between dancers and instrumentalists are needed to bring out the fluid, uniformed movements of the complex dance. Drametse Ngacham is performed in 21 different sections for duration of more than two and half hours. The dancers wear spectacular colourful costumes, and masks of different animal faces depicting real and mythical beings. All the masks are believed to represent the wrathful and peaceful deities of peaceful deities of the pure lands of celestial beings. The dancers become symbolic manifestations of these deities.
Today the Drametse Ngacham is widely performed in Bhutan but its choreography, and nuances differ slightly from place to place. The dance was performed in relative isolation from Talo to Trongsa to Gangteng monasteries in central and western Bhutan. Time and space are, therefore, instrumental in creating different versions of the ngacham.
Visualization
Visualization is the most crucial aspect of the Drametse Ngacham. The dancers go through complex visualization of the physical world, imagining it as the Buddha’s land of magnificent glory, and all sentient or living beings as peaceful and wrathful deities embodied with Buddha qualities that are intrinsically pure.
They visualize each deity manifesting into endless numbers, slowly entering the dancers themselves, and all the sentient beings, transforming all ordinary beings into extraordinary deities. Finally, the beings and the deities become one and therefore, all visions are seen as the manifestation of deities, all sounds as divine speech beyond human understanding, and whatever appears in the mind as great realization of the ultimate reality.
The dancers establish a spiritual contact with the audience through this powerful visualization that serves to transmit the awakening state of mind to all who are watching. The Drametse Ngacham is, therefore, a meditative art form.
The dancers must undergo a rigorous training to achieve the right state of mind for the dance. This explains why the dancers and the ritual master have to complete a Ngondro course (preliminary meditation practice), and if possible, a Losum Chogsum course (three years and three months meditation retreat). The physical dance itself is a complex course requiring years of training to attain the perfect synchrony among dancers.
A Masterpiece
Unlike other dances, the Drametse Ngacham transcends the physical performance and is a means of enlightenment. It is a didactic way to impart the sacred Mahayana Tantric teachings epitomizing the path to liberation and victory over negative and evil forces.
The Drametse Ngacham is believed to destroy all evils and natural calamities, and establish peace and harmony. Dancers cultivate a pure vision that reflects the Buddhist concept of direct liberation from Samsara (world of suffering). The dance exudes a spiritual energy that permeates the whole atmosphere.
The Drametse Ngacham is evidence of a unique living cultural expression that spans five centuries. Its strong impact on society is articulated through its popularity in the whole of Bhutan and its dominance in most religious and secular ceremonies. The Bhutanese believe that this dance has the power to cleanse all defilements and negative mental actions of both the dancers and audience.
Bhutanese regard the Drametse Ngacham primarily as a spiritual empowerment. They believe that a person has to see the Drametse Ngacham at least once in a lifetime in order to be able to recognize the deities in the Bardo – the intermediate state between life and death where all the deities that appear in the Ngacham are present to lead the deceased person to higher realms. The sacred texts state that people can be liberated from re-births or avoids re-births in the lower realms just by watching this dance.
By Lopon Lungten Gyatso, Director of the Institute of Language and Cultural Studies, Bhutan.