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Religious festivals in
Bhutan are numerous and the sacred and the
best known is called the TSECHU. The Tsechu
festivals are held every year in the honour
of Guru Rimpoche, the “Precious Teacher”
commemorating one of his great deeds. The
celebration of the festivals are marked with
great respect and all the Bhutanese people
gather and participate in the religious
ceremonies which can carry on for several
days ranging from three to five days. The
festivals are filled with dances that are
well defined in religious content.
Some of the Tsechus end with the display of
a huge Thangka painting called the
“Thongdroel” like the Tsechus held in Paro,
Punakha and Thimphu. It is believed that
attending a Tsechu celebration one can
obtain blessings and merits for better life
and for life after death. It is also a
yearly social gatherings of people in their
finest clothes and beautiful jewelries.
People from all over the districts near and
far, some traveling by road and some on
foot, will all gather to witness and
participate in the festivity.
Besides dances, the crowed are utterly
entertained by ATSARAS the “Clowns” whose
expressive mask and postures are an
indispensable elements in any religious
festival. They confront the monks, toss out
salacious jokes and distract the crowd with
their antics. The
Dances at the Festival
The mask dances are part of Vajrayana
heritage. The original motivation behind the
theatrical performance of mask dances by
monks was to liberate spectators by seeing
them. A series of mask dances are performed
to the accompaniment of musical instruments
and ritual chants, once in a on a fixed date
in monasteries and fortresses which are also
residences of monks. Some of the popular
mask dances are the dance of horoscopic
animals, the dance of the black hatters, the
dance of Drummers of Dramitse. The festival
may include operatic performances based on
the biographies of King Norzang, Milarepa
and the Hunter Acho.
The ritual dances alternate with folk songs
and dances presented by the young women and
men from the villages, dances, folk songs
and folk dances are completely different,
with no similarity in their costumes and
physical movements. |
