“Tsam” is the ancient religious mask dance and it is one of the important religious ceremony reflecting Buddhist teaching right images and essence. The means of the word is in Tibet “Dance”. In the first, Tsam’s ceremony used to organize just among of blessed monks without any spectator in the temple, very secret. Tsam’s dancers dance to shake their body, flip with head and do many kinds of arm-action also they can show much kind of brilliant displays for example: jump, bounce, warm and override. Every dancer can’t dance Tsam and Tsam’s dancer has to be really special and for example: Blessed young monks must dance the Tsam and they have to be hearty and it mustn’t any scare on the young dancers’ monks’ body. In other words, it was necessary to cast young and strong monks who were able to wear and carry these heavy masks and costumes, richly decorated with corals and jeweler. Also their chest must to be width, strong and narrow waist and fervent eyes. Young monks are chosen in Tsam’s ceremony because some Tsam challenge powerfulness and skill from dancers and also tsam’s mask and clothes are really heavy and they dance for many hours. So each part of the dance ceremony has substitute player and substitute player must to dance when another dancer tried. Unfortunately, now, there are no photographs taken, also pictures of the costumes. There were two kinds of Tsam dancers. The first, “Mil Bogdo”, this kind of Tsam is called the “Geser” or “Jahar Tsam” or “Erleg Nomun Khan Tsam”. The “Geser Tsam” was famous for its perfectly rich decorations and it is famous in all the monasteries of Mongolia. The “Tsam of Erleg Nomun Khan” or “Jahar Tsam” was the most popular Tsam in Mongolia. This Tsam was staged as a big religious ceremony on the 9th day of the last summer month every year. The opening ceremony, enacting, musical maximum, scenery, and outcome to the Tsam dance reflect the character of the participators in different ways, for example: cruel, calm, or humorous. There are numerous personages from several of popular stories as well as different animals showing positive and negative affect. Also the color and decorations of costumes and other means were used during this ceremony as clues to the personality of the characters depicted. Song and dance, music, decorative arts and other kinds of folk art are included in the Tsam ceremony. …
In general, Asian Buddhists dance, all of them. And all of the dances are great for your practice. Tsam can be incredibly powerful. It takes a huge amount of work, and it goes on for hours, but it’s worth it. I’ve never seen it done in Hawai’i, but it would work great here, because the spiritual environment supports all forms of the dance.
Namu Amida Butsu
Xing PIng
