India history and geography

Source: Mandala Texts: Shazam Cham: The Stag Dance

Shazam (ཤ་རྫམ་) or Stag dance is one of the well known dances in Bhutan which fall within the category of sachag (ས་བཅགས་) or dance of establishment of founding. The dance symbolizes the exorcism of negative forces and the purification and consecration of the venue for spiritual practice. The dance includes four dancers wearing masks of deer and holding swords. It is often performed as the first piece of dance in the day during a festival although this dance is now being adapted and performed for commercial purposes outside the traditional venues and events.

The culture of stag dance (i.e., shazam) is common in many other parts of the Himalayas. In Tibet, the dance is often performed by a single dancer, who wears a large stag mask and heavy silk robe, and performs the ritual of ‘liberation’ (སྒྲོལ་བ་). While the Shazam dance in Bhutan also carries the same symbolism of tantric practice of ‘liberation’ of demonic forces and consecration of the space, it has only four dancers, who do not openly carry out the act of ‘liberation’ or ‘ritual killing’.

According to the Bhutanese dance scholars, the Shazam dance represents Padmasambhava’s taming of the king of western wind gods (ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་རླུང་ལྷའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་) who were in conflict with the gods of the north and causing a great turmoil and misery in the world. Padmasambhava is said to have tamed the god king and taken over his vehicle, which is a deer.

context information

The history of India traces the identification of countries, villages, towns and other regions of India, as well as mythology, zoology, royal dynasties, rulers, tribes, local festivities and traditions and regional languages. Ancient India enjoyed religious freedom and encourages the path of Dharma, a concept common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Full-text: Sachag, Boerol, Trab, Dorji-gong, Drolwa.

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