Dance of Tshog of mother mantra

The "Black hat dance" is a religious dance of Bon Tibetans and it is known as "Dance of Tshog of mother mantra". Masked dances and dance dramas are common traditional features at festivals, usually accompanied by traditional music. Energetic dancers, wearing colourful wooden or composition face masks and stylized costumes, depict hereos,demons,death heads,animals,gods and caricaturesof common people. The dancers enjoy royal patronage, and preserve ancient folkfolk and religious customs and perpetuate the ancient lore and art of mask-making. Black Hat (kali topi) Dance demonstrating the triumph of good over evil is demonstrated. This masked dance is also performed by male dancers mostly the Lamas. The dance revives the old story which narrates that about twelve centuries ago King Land-Darma was slain for suppressing Buddhism in Tibet. The king was slain by a Lama wearing a fantastic black robe lined with white and riding a white horse blackened with soot .The purpose of this ancient dance is to eliminate negative energies and hindrances. The implements held by the dancers symbolize the transcendence of false ego-identification on the outer (the environment), inner (the emotions) and the secret(the subtle body-mind link) levels. Their movements symbolize the joy and freedom of seeing reality in its true nature.Most masked dances that can be seen today in the monasteries of the Tibet or Ladakh, contain complex religious and philosophical themes. How ever, these plays may derive from the ritual dances of Bon. Which were originally performed as means of venerating nature and protective deities and also as New Year celebrations? These last took place at the time of winter solstices; they celebrated the victory if the spring season with its fertility over the crippling season of winter. The religious dimension of these dances is shown by the fact that they are performed in the monastery courtyards and by the fact that the masks, with the exception of the clown masks, may only be worn by monks.The dance is particularly connected with the cutting of the Tshog in the rite as indicated by its name. The Tshog is an offering to the tutelary divinities and literally means "assembly". Its ingredients are parched barley flour, butter, cheese, dried fruit and Tibetan brewed ale. The dance therefore was not conceived in the beginning as a public spectacle and was attended only by the adepts who were performing the rituals. It was thus a totally private ritual. However, from about the fifteenth century it gradually became more public and formed a part of the annual festival along with other traditional religious dances in the monasteries. This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... rupindang (at) gmail.com and [email protected].