Dramyin Cham (

Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language ...

: Dramnyen Cham) is a form of

Cham dance The cham dance () entry: 'cham. is a lively masked and costumed dance associated with some sects of Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist festivals. The dance is accompanied by music played by bhikkhu, monks using traditional Tibetan musical instruments ...

, a masked and costumed dance performed in

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

ceremonies in

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

, Himalayan

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

(where they have been outlawed). They are a focal point of the Bhutanese festivals of

Tsechu A tshechu (, literally "tenth day") is any of the annual religious Bhutanese festivals held in each district or dzongkhag of Bhutan on the tenth day of a month of the lunar Tibetan calendar. The month depends on the place. Tshechus are religious ...

. The ''Dramyin Cham'' is notable among Cham dances as the lead dancer keeps time with a

dramyin The ''dramyin'' or ''dranyen'' (; ; ) is a traditional Himalayan folk music lute with six strings, used primarily as an accompaniment to singing in the Drukpa Buddhist culture and society in Bhutan, as well as in Tibet, Ladakh, Sikkim and Himal ...

- a Himalayan

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

, and not a traditional percussion instrument like the

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

s. This is among the few instances of monastic music in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

where the use of a

stringed instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play so ...

has been observed.Dancing on the demon's back: the dramnyen dance and song of Bhutan
by Elaine Dobson, John Blacking Symposium: Music Culture and Society, Callaway Centre, University of Western Australia, July 2003

Depicted themes

In the 13th century, monks from southern

established the

Drukpa Lineage The Drukpa or Drukpa Kagyu () lineage, sometimes called Dugpa in older sources, is a branch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu school is one of the Sarma or "New Translation" schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Drukpa lineage w ...

of the

Kagyu The ''Kagyu'' school, also transliterated as ''Kagyü'', or ''Kagyud'' (), which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools (''chos lugs'') of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan (or Himalayan) Buddhism. ...

school of

Vajrayana ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...

. This is celebrated in the Dramyin Cham as well as in the religious song "Dramyin Choeshay". Specifically, the dance celebrates an incident in Tibetan Buddhist mythology - the victory of the saint

Tsangpa Gyare The great ascetic Drogon Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211) was the main disciple of Lingchen Repa Pema Dorje and the founder of the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism the main or central branch of which was, until the 17th century, transmitted by his ...

(1161-1211) over a demon which was obstructing a pilgrimage path to Tsari, Tibet at the mouth of a valley. The saint apparently subjugated the demon by performing a dramyin cham and it offered its services to him and became the guardian deity of the valley.

Costumes

All participants in the Dramyin Cham are male, similar to the conventions pertaining to other Cham dances. The costumes of the dancers reflect the costume of armed

lama Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...

s who acted as bodyguards to the Drukpa high lamas. The basic costume consists of elaborate, heavy, woolen clothes, a long, black Tibetan robe (

chuba A chuba (), also called a chhupa, is a warm ankle-length unisex robe worn in Tibet and by members of the Tibetan diaspora. It is worn with the left side wrapped over the right and bound around the waist by a long sash. The design and material o ...

) lined with red, and long, colorful felt boots. Below the chuba, they typically wear a striped shirt with

brocade Brocade () is a class of richly decorative shuttle (weaving), shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian langua ...

d collars and cuffs of red, green and white. The leaders of the dance also wear a brown, folded jacket. One of the leaders carries the dramyin, with which he keeps time. All the dancers wear traditional armoury, weaponry, and ornaments.

Accompaniment and choreography

The 17th century legislator

Ngawang Namgyal Ngawang Namgyal (; alternate spellings include ''Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel;'' 1594–1651), known colloquially as ''The Bearded Lama'', was a Tibetan Buddhist Drukpa Kagyu school Rinpoche, and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. He was lat ...

, the

Zhabdrung Rinpoche Zhabdrung (also Shabdrung; ; "before the feet of ones submit") was a title used when referring to or addressing great lamas in Tibet, particularly those who held a hereditary lineage. In Bhutan the title almost always refers to Ngawang Namgyal (1 ...

(1594 - 1651), under whom the

flourished, composed the lyrics and music for most of the present day

s (including the ''Dramyin Cham''), and authored the seminal work Gar-Thig-Yang Sum. The book indicates how most dances (including the ''Dramyin Cham'') should be choreographed and rendered. With the exception of the introduction and the coda, the dance can and usually is performed in simple two-time. The dance includes symbolic references to stamping and subjugating the demon.

Notes

{{Reflist Tibetan culture Culture of Bhutan Himalayan dances Tibetan Buddhist art and culture