Bhutanese Mask dances are performed during the Drametse festival in honor of Padmasambhava, the Buddhist guru. Each year, two festivals are held in this eastern Bhutanese village by the Ogyen Tegchok Namdroel Choeling Monastery.
It was first performed in this monastery during the nineteenth century, and Drametse Ngacham was introduced to other parts of Bhutan around the same time. It is believed to be performed by heroes and heroines of the celestial world in Tibetan mythology.
The Drametse Ngacham (meaning "mask dance of the drums from Drametse") is a sacred dance of Bhutan performed twice a year during the Drametse festival. The festival is organized by the Ogyen Tegchok Namdroel Choeling Monastery to honor Padmasambhava, a Buddhist master of the eighth century. A great cham or the Drametse Ngacham, is one of the finest and most rigorous creations of Bhutan. It has both social and artistic elements of life as well as embodies spiritual ideals of enlightenment.
The animal and bird faces are meant to disrupt our prejudices towards seeing enlightened beings only in human or celestial forms. Enlightened energy can be latent in a person, and it can be manifest during spiritual and existential visions, for example, a vision during the bardo state. Ideally, the dancers will be experienced in deity meditation and genuine practitioners of Vajrayana Buddhism.
In order to do the practice and to be familiar with the process of deity visualization, they will need to have received the required authorization and initiation. The Drametse Ngacham isn't just an artistic performance; when done properly, it is a rigorous spiritual practice combining movements, music, and mental visualization.
Traditionally, the dance was performed by lay priests with the necessary religious competency. In the minds of spectators, the Drametse Ngacham is seen as an artistic work that can bring about liberation by awakening the divinity within sentient beings as they encounter divine forms in dancing. As a source of spiritual empowerment for the audience, the dance serves as a blessing for people from Drametse as well as neighboring villages and districts.
It is now an art form, encapsulating the identity of the Bhutanese nation as a whole. Although the dance is highly respected across all generations, it is experiencing a decline in practitioners due to inadequate rehearsal time, a lack of a systematic training program, and a gradual decline in interest among young people.
A project was coordinated and implemented by the Institute of Language and Culture Studies (ILCS) at the Royal University of Bhutan. The project involved strengthening the training capacity of a monastic school, compiling existing documentation, recording videos of the dance, researching its history, and conducting promotional activities.