Dancing monks in a Himalayan monastery

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 12

Dancing monks in a Himalayan monastery

Story and pictures:

Robin Fryer.

Wearing exquisite brocades, perfectly pleated and overlayed by black aprons portraying faces belonging to the spirit world, the Tibetan Buddhist monks made their debut.

The head Lama, nicknamed “the dancing monk”, teaches his junior monks the art of movement as a. way -of .dharmarealisation (spiritual .teacnings). Disguised by layer upon layer of fine ornate costume and lifelike .masks, they carefully and gradually slip into the performance arena, a patch of grass on the hillside beneath their temple; marked out with a colourful marquee top to protect the dancers and audience from the intense heat of the sun, or from the pounding raindrops of a passing monsoon shower.

The spectators, drawn to this tiny monastery nestled in the barren slopes at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, travel in overcrowded rickety buses (the only public transport available in this region), from all parts of the state of Himachal Pradesh, and even from as far afield as Delhi, to witness the spectacle.

We spent the warm starry nights between dances in the garden of an abandoned Shiva (a Hindu deity) temple attempting to sleep amid the noise of the monks’ horns, blown deep into the night as they continued their ceremonies in the temple environs, the lonely howl of the jackals as they descended from the hills to hunt their prey, the drone of hungry mosquitoes hovering above our vulnerable bodies, and with ominous satellites zipping across the black sky.

The entire dance sequence has an illusive quality, as the movements, although of varying tempo, always flow, the effect

aided by the trailing of accessories such as scarves and flags, attached to the costumes, hats and wrists of the dancers.

With gracefulness and precision they spell out their stories gradually, often repeating movements, for they are merely a portrayal of life itself. The Buddhists’ concept of life contains the lives before and the lives beyond the immediate, so each story takes considerable time to evolve, and . the entire series continued for three days.

The music accompanying the dancers is expelled by a line of maroon-robed monks of varying ages, beginning with a small overwhelmed boy of eight, concentrating all his energy into the mouth of a large white conch shell, a compassionate monk of 93, whose eyes whispered of spiritual wisdom as he bellowed down the pipe of his massive brass horn, the sheer bulk of which demanded that it be rested on the ground to be played and moved on wheels to be transported. v Intermittently the chanting of mantras replaced the contrasting drone, clamour

and clarity of the percussion instruments, dominating the theme, for this was not just a dance for entertainment’s sake, but a religious ritual.

Although the symbolism was generally alien to my religious experience (the sequence could only be followed and understoood by one who had received intense Mahayana Buddhist training), the involvement of the dancers (who were able, because of their training, to dedicate exceptional single-pointed; concentration to such’ a long and complex peformance) coupled with the exquisiteness of their costumes, was sufficient to capture my undivided attention throughout. Masks are a powerful medium of expression to bring such themes as “The Stages to Enlightenment” and “The Six Reincarnations of Guru Rimpoche” into the realm of realism. They transform the character of a monk into that of Buddha, a demon, a goat or a horse, and as they perform their parts, each movement in itself, and in relation to those of other characters, displays mastery of mind and body.