Ghost-Exorcising Festival

Time:

three days before the Tibetan New Year

Place:

Tsangdain Monastery in Nagqu

It is a Buddhist event in the Tsangdain Monastery in Nagqu with a long history. To drive away evil spirits, honor the Buddha, and to welcome the New Year, ghost-exorcising dancing and religious rites is held. About 80 lamas in Tsangdain Monastery will sing their chants, praying to Buddha all day long, praying for God’s blessing for everyone.

At the end of the Tibetan year, religious dances to drive off evil spirits are held in monasteries all over Tibet. Such activities as sorcerer's dances are also held in monasteries in the Tsangdain Monastery in Nagqu. It had been halted for about 30 years because of historical reasons and then resumed in 1987. Like all the religion rites in Tibet, the ghost-exorcising dancing is a ritualistic one, done at a slow pace. Dancers will be dancing on their own; there is no communication with the audience.

Each day, the procedure and the way of these ghost-exorcising rites are almost the same. Early in the morning at about one o’clock, all the lamas in the Monastery gather at the hall and sing the chants till 9 o’clock. Then, they go down to the festival site at the foot of the Yala Mountain where the Monastery is located. Grand tent will be set there in red and the living Buddha and the superior lamas are seated at the prominent places, facing the south. Ten performing lamas with drums and cymbals are seated in front of the proscenia as band; two old lamas at prominent place will direct the performance. Sutras are singing all through the performance.

At first, in white masks with great teeth exposed, two young men will dance and wave two colored sticks to drive away the surrounding audience, leaving enough places for the performance. Then, there comes the Living Buddha Dance. Of course the living Buddha would not dance by himself, instead, some one who is handsome and strong will act for him. It is the only actor without mask in the performance. This living Buddha dances emotionless at a very slow and reserved way. After examining the place, he will choose a holy place for the Gods to descend, and mark it with a symbol of triangle.

After the living Buddha retreats to the back, God of buck comes on to the stage in the beating of the drums and clanging of cymbals. (God of buck is believed to be the God to exorcise and subdue the demons).The shape of the mask is like a boat with two big horns at the top. The dancing of the buck is powerful and energetic, shaking from side to side, as if it was fighting bravely with the devils.

Then the play formally begins with the parade of solemn trumpets. Two trombones carried by two men and inlaid with gold are played and the scriptures and sung at loud voice. The two sound harmonious and echo among the Snow Mountains under the blue sky. After that, the God of longevity running onto the stage followed by some children. This God is portrayed as fat and clumsy, with a big mask, projecting forehead, smiling face. The children will play with him and throw highland barley at him while he will be hiding awkwardly from time to time, which will make the audience laugh loudly.

Afterwards, 14 great Gods come out in succession. Some of them are in mask of skull; some have a head of bull but face of horse; some are of dark face and with bucktooth; all are in colorful costume down to the earth, with ugly faces of the escorts of the God. The group dancing of the Gods is grand and the audience can fully appreciate the religion flavor in Tibet.

Finally, four men dressed like skeletons jumped into the circle of the God, dancing the “Master of the sky burial”, which is humorous and brisk. Then, the long and boring God group dance resumes. In order to make the atmosphere live, a man in black will be gagging from time to time.