Cham
(चाम)Literal Meaning
Dance
Etymology & Sanskrit Root
Tibetan 'cham: a ritual dance.
Spiritual Insight & Context
The masked monastery dance of Vajrayana Buddhism, performed by monks as a ritual offering and blessing.
Where Cham Comes Up
Hemis Festival: The Masked Dances of Ladakh
The Hemis Festival marks Guru Padmasambhava's birth anniversary with masked cham dances. This article sets out the festival, what the dances mean, and the twelve-year thangka.
Topics
Losar, the Tibetan New Year
The three-day Tibetan New Year of purification, renewal, and monastery ceremony, rooted in pre-Buddhist Bon tradition and reshaped over centuries into a central festival of Himalayan Buddhism.
Topics
Tabo and Hemis: Sacred Himalayan Monasteries
Tabo in Spiti, founded in 996 CE and called the Ajanta of the Himalayas, and Hemis in Ladakh preserve over a millennium of living Vajrayana Buddhist practice.
Sacred Places