The evening of the first meeting day we had a dinner with traditional food and a show of traditional dances.
Below you will find descriptions of the local dances along with the photos.
The first dance was called “Jeonpa Lekso” or the Welcome Song and Dance. This folk song and dance is performed at t the start of a festive occasion to welcome the honored guests. The lyrics of the song go as follows: It is with hoy that we welcome the distinguished guests in heaven, even water glitters with the spiritual power of gods. We wish that the rays of heaven would fall on this beautiful world on this auspicious day, we present this song for the pleasure of our distinguished guests.
The next dance was to showcase Traditional Archery, which is the national game of Bhutan.
The next dance is called Durdag (Dance of the Lord of the Cremation Ground). All of the mandalas of the tantric deities are usually surrounded by eight cremation grounds which are places of the defenders of the law including the lord of cremation ground. This dance represents how the evil spirits are subdued in order to enable the dharma to flourish far and wide. This also shows how the pious people helped Buddhist tradition of Bhutan. There are three kinds of wrathful dances which are performed by holdings sticks (jooging), swords (driging), and drums (ngaging).
Merak Dance is a traditional dance from Merak, a place in the far east of Bhutan. It is the most remote place in the eastern region. They have a unique costume and culture which Bhutan is proud of. The dance incorporates Emochilay, which is a form of praying to the deity (Jomo) which they believe protect the people of Merak. It is a prayer for their wishes for good fortune.
Ter Chham (the treasure mask dance). This form of mask dance was inspired by a dream that Pema Lingpa saw. He awoke from this sleep and immediately wrote down the dream in his text of phurpa soggi pudri teaching.
The dance (tshangmai gingcham) was taught to his followers (the terchham) and has the power to keep evils away, and to benefit people with peace, happiness, and prosperity.
Ringu La Zidha Layap dance. This is a traditional dance from the Layap, people who stay at high altitude around 3800 meters. Most of their songs are dedicated to the country. Ringula Zidha means look at the peak of the mountains.
Tashi Laybey is the formal ceremonial concluding dance and song. It wishes good fortune and success to all of the people. It is considered important to conclude auspicious celebration by singing and dancing Tashi Labay. In these songs people normally wish that were be no sickness in the physical body and no problem and anxiety in the mind, Toward the end of the songs, there are praters for “meeting of one another in good health.”
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