John had never been in the main branch of the New York Public Library -- you know the one. It has those two huge stone lions perched out in front of the main entrance. This branch does not have books you would go in to sign out and read. It is basically there strictly for research. So we went in and browsed in the Map room, the library store and the history/geneology room. It is a little boring (and quiet) so after a while he was ready to leave. We walked out of the front door and walked into a performance of a Cham traditional dance from Bhutan. The dancers were at the bottom of the steps and people were gathered around watching.
Luckily we always have our cameras with us when we are out walking. We were given a brochure that described what we were seeing. It says:
"Cham is the ancient ritual dance of Tantric Buddhism that has been preserved and performed in Bhutan for centuries. Performed at special religious festivals, the dances typically impart moral instruction or illustrate teachings. During performances, both the performers and audience members accumulate merit. The masked performers are always male and usually monks."
The clothing has bright beautiful colors and the dancers do a lot of whirling and moving so getting a good photo is difficult.
This photo shows the large black hats that were worn. The hats looked a little like Mexican sombreros but had a metal sculptural structure projecting from the top. Each dancer held a drum. The brochure went on to explain:
"Here, the monks of the monastic fortress of Trongsa perform two common examples of cham. The dances feature wrathful deities that destroy evil demons. As in much of the art on view in The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan at the Rubin Museum of Art, wrathful forms of deities personify tantric techniques of transforming greed, ignorance, pride, and other spiritual poisons--demons we all possess and that stand in the way of our reaching enlightenment."
These two monks provided the beat for the dance we saw. They sounded a loud chime or maybe it was a gong. They had our backs to us to we couldn't really tell. However, it was immediately evident to us that the monks we saw were not like the ones we had seen in Thailand. The color of the robes - mustard and burgundy look different from what we are used to seeing. The clothing of monks pictured here are typical of those we see in and around the city - on busses or walking.
John was able to capture some of the action in this video. (good job John!) We plan to visit the Rubin Museum later this week to see more of the culture of Bhutan.
Do you know where Bhutan is located? We did not so we Googled it. Bhutan is (according to Wikipedia) a landlocked nation in South Asia. It is located amid the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by India and to the north by China. Bhutan is separated from Nepal by the Indian state of Sikkim. Bhutan is also the last remaining monarchy, constitutional or otherwise left in South Asia.
