My Last Dance (For Now)

Well, I lasted 3 days of the 7 day Lama Dance festival at Tashi Jong. Actually it´s been great to let y camera run riot.

Some new masks came out today, laden with skulls, as well as a conch shell and oboe-like screechy horns.

As my Internet connection is down at the moment, I´m keeping this one brief.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. Please let me know which ones are your favourites via my picasa album. Enjoy!

The Lama Dance

I arrived at Khampagar monastery, Tashi Jong at 9am to find the dance already in progress. A more sturdy covering was used , indeed yesterday´s multi-coloured cloth billowed overhead. There is an audience of about 100 which ebbed and flowed throughout the day of which maybe 20 were “tourists/travellers".

Masks were few and far between, but the wacky garb the monks were wearing made up for it. Vibrant and colourful, not unlike a some wild psychedelic trip-designed smocks and aprons. Those hats were not too short of a metre high!



It must have been pretty hot for the monks twirling about for a couple of hours each session. The dancing is a mix between morris and line dancing. The atmosphere was generally pretty casual with people chatting in the audience.

Lighting was difficult to work with, made more difficult by those wide hat brims, but I am quite pleased with the results.

Check out a shed-load of photos by clicking here. Let me know which ones you like!

Palampur and Tashi Jong

Palampur is quite a bustling town with a large street bazaar. I arrived at about 5.30pm yesterday, having grabbed a bus from Dharamsala just after 3pm. The journey costs Rp30. I checked into the comfortable, if somewhat overpriced Hotel Surbhi (Rp700). Cheaper rooms were available, but offered no natural light; I need to photosynthesise! The room was only available for one night as a travel agent had booked out the hotel for the Tashi Jong celebrations. Opposite the hotel is the Golden Dragon restaurant which sells passable Indian and Chinese dishes for about Rp140 per dish. The chicken fried rice was probably the best and worth it at Rp70.

After a comfy night´s sleep I have moved to Hotel Highland Regency close to the bus station, which looks okay and is only Rp400 for a standard room.

After checking in to my new abode I took a rickshaw up to Tashi Jong for Rp150, although the driver would not head up into the monastery. In typical Tibetan architectural style the monastery and Institute building are at the heart of the village. Indeed there are guest houses on site, but I really can´t be bothered to relocate again.

Today´s rehearsal was in the square in front of the monastery. Performing without masks, the monks shuffled around and then breaking into Tai Chi-type movements to the accompaniment of chants, cymbals and large turquoise drums. My fears for screechy oboe-like instruments appear to be unfounded.

The restaurant just in front of the monastery serves average Tibetan fare like thukpa, chow mein and momos at reasonable prices.

Situated at just over 1000 metres the drop in altitude means it is noticeably warmer than Dharamsala, and by about 3pm I was too hot to sit around. A taxi brought me back to Palampur for Rp200.

My Work In Progress can be found by clicking on this link
http://picasaweb.google.com/aubreygroves67/DancingMonks

Tibetan Mask Dances at Tashi Jong

Tashi Jong lies 12kms from the small town of Palampur, about 60kms east of McLeod Ganj. This unusual monastery was founded in 1969 by the Drukpa Kagyu tradition, which is one of the schools of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. There is a tantric learning centre with about 140 monks and 400 members of the lay community.

The monastery made national news in 2006 as it attempted to mummify the body of the 84 year old Togden (a spiritual leader) Lama Amtrim, a meditation master who spent more than 10 years as a recluse.

Tashi Jong are celebrating the birthday of Padmasambhava (also known as Guru Rinpoche) by performing a series of Tibetan mask dances over the next eight days. Padmasambhva brought tantric Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan in the eighth century, and is revered by the Nyingma sect as the 2nd Buddha. To celebrate his birthday there will be performances of a variety of mask dances over an eight day period. As taxis are quoting Rp950/Rp1200 one way/return, I will endeavour to find a place to stay in the area.

It should be a very colourful and unusual photographic opportunity, although they can be quite long and boring, and often accompanied by some screechy woodwind instruments. I will see how long I last. Keep an eye out for the next in the Works In Progress on my picasa gallery which will be linked here when possible.

Palampur is famed in Himachal Pradesh for its tea plantations although is of no personal value to this coffee addict.

Feeling somewhat stronger after a bout of Delhi Belly, I just hope the weather is dry and I don´t get too bored too quickly.