Buddhist Trance Dance

This is a dance performed by young monks at Ganden Sumtseling Gompa, a monastery located north of the city of Zhongdian (Shangri-La) in Yunnan province on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The dance begins with one monk emerging from the main temple. He performs a routine that initially faces the temple, then faces all the directions of the wind, and then spirals around a central point where there is a dark quilt and wooden square (these symbolize a demon). His dance eventually accelerates and incorporates jumping movements, and in its finale dozens of other monks join in to perform the circular dance around the quilt, until in the end they are all crowded around its center. The dance concludes with couples of monks taking leaps towards the temple, praying towards its entrance, praying away from its entrance, and then jumping inside. Altogether this takes about three hours. The dance is performed annually, during a ritual where the monks dress in elaborate costumes and masks and dance around a large effigy of the demon (rather than a quilt). The purpose of the dance is to contain the angry spirit of the demon, possibly to recreate the Tibetan myth of the subjugation of an angry Himalayan goddess by an Indian monk, which popularized the monk and allowed for the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. This video is an amalgamation of clips recorded during the initial monk's rehearsal for the ritual.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Buddhist
• Buddhism
• Tibet
• Tibetan
• Dance
• Sumtseling
• Songzanlin
• Zhongdian
• Yunnan
• China
• Monk
• Monastery
• Religion
• Shangri-La
• lew
• jan
• olowski

[fntime]

Free Tibet from Chinese lawless and

cruel subjugation!

The Chinese treatment of the Tibetians

show who they really are. Cruel, heavy handed and unenlightened!

[wolverin100]

you know im a not a religous guy i believe my own things and not something written 75 times over but if i must choose one it would be budhism thats the only religion that dident fight to make people member the other belives dit that but the budhism not

[tomfryer2000]

is he on Ket?

[Umadbrahification]

sounds like farting noise

[lion2hand]

omg hes going wild !!!

[thehumanracesux]

lol the horns sound like big farts

[lago4]

It's an old episode of Tibet's Got Talent

[SHIBBYiPANDA]

@DoomerDad what?

[hairsish]

great video ;)

[DoomerDad]

what a bunch of pompous posturing!

[kamwrites]

@l33tMaster1337 *snorts* Yep.