Cham Dance

Cham is a Vajrayana Buddhist ritual dance performed by ordained monks at the gompas of Tawang, Bomdila, Dirang and Zemithang in western Arunachal Pradesh.

Each masked figure represents a deity, protector or historical lama; the dance enacts the subjugation of negative forces and the consecration of the year.

Cham is traced to Padmasambhava, the 8th-century Indian tantric master who introduced Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan.

It came to the Monpa region with the establishment of Tawang Monastery in 1680–81 by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso, and has been performed continuously since.

The Monpas of Tawang and West Kameng are followers of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, of which Tawang is the second-largest monastery in the world after Lhasa.

Cham is performed only by trained monks; lay people may watch but never join the dance.

• Heavy brocade robes (chuba) in saffron, gold and crimson, layered with embroidered aprons.
• Hand-carved wooden masks of wrathful and peaceful deities — Mahakala, Yamantaka, Citipati skeletons — repainted before each performance.

• Torgya — Tawang Monastery (28th–30th day of the 11th Tibetan month, around January).
• Losar — Tibetan new year (February).
• Choksar and other monastic calendar dates.

• Tawang Monastery — the largest and most spectacular Cham.
• Urgelling and Khinmey Gompas, Tawang district.
• Gontse Gaden Rabgyel Lling Monastery, Bomdila.

A curated gallery of Cham Dance. Images are placeholders until license-cleared photographs are sourced.